The stupidity of ignoring a gift.

Flat Rock quoted via reference Robert Green Ingersoll, the quote being:

"I do not consider it a very important question whether Christ was the son of god or not. After all, what difference does it make? If he never existed, we are under the same obligation to do what we believe is right; and believing that he was the son of god or disbelieving it, is of no earthly importance. If we are ever judged at all it will be by our actions, and not by our beliefs. If Christ was good enough to die for me, he certainly will not be bad enough to damn me for honestly failing to believe in his divinity." - Robert Green Ingersoll, (via Cynical-C where Ingersoll is a daily feature)

I wonder if I had a billion dollars, and died, placing that money, and whatever would be gained from insurance, into a trust. The trust had one function. Anyone who realized that they were poor, and could not be able to come up with (pick an arbitrarily large figure of money) would be able to receive it for the asking. The key is, they'd have to ask for it. Everybody who wants it, can get it. There are ideasets attached to the money. Stuff that may or may not be palatable to you because of your choice of actions. So, you can say that you don't believe I exist. Except the offer has been made. You can say that I lived a bad life, or incomprehensible. But the offer still stands. You could say that it's bloody awful that the money had to be available after I died.

After all this, I think I'd be stupid not to take the offer. I mean, anyone who offers a gift, and you would say, "nah, I don't need it/want it" has nobody but himself to blame for not taking the gift. It's not that Christ is bad to damn people to hell. It's just the same thing as people staying poor because they didn't ask for help (and it was offered to them). If you don't accept the gift, you get ... nothing.

Specific to this quote, though... If Christ never existed, you really aren't under any obligation to do what you believe is right. And you don't necessarily have a foundation to know what is right. If morality becomes relative to individuality, then why be moral?