in nursing homes. Nevertheless, parents have always acted from self-interest in having children.
Another example of self-interest is the late Mother Theresa. Without doubt, this woman deserves sainthood. She devoted her life to helping those who were sick, poor, and disenfranchised. But again, the question arises regarding motives. Mother Theresa's actions were motivated, in part, by both self-interest and fear because she spent her life as nun, which involved daily religious study and prayer. As a Christian, Mother Theresa adhered to the religious doctrine regarding the existence of an afterlife: heaven and hell. Devout Christians are taught by the Bible to work not for the rewards of this life but for the rewards of the afterlife. Those who have done good deeds on earth will secure a place in heaven, those who have neglected their duty will spend eternity in hell. Mother Theresa acted partly out of self-interest because she feared going to hell.
One parable that Jesus related in the Bible involves an unrighteous steward who, realizing that he was soon to lose his job, quickly ran about and did good deeds for the common people so that they would take him into their homes when he himself experienced need. God praised the unrighteous steward for his shrewdness and self-interest. Mother Theresa had to have acted from a similar shrewdness. She could not have called herself a Christian without giving some thought to the afterlife.
Even people who are nonreligious but who help others act out of self-interest and fear. To help another person implies empathy. To empathize means role-playing, putting yourself in the place of another. A person who empathizes is similar to the mother who acts from maternal instinct although the urge is not quite as strong. The empathic person is relieving his or her own psychic pain by helping the pers
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