“Libertarians and Atheists will have the most trouble understanding this concept. People who follow Jesus’ teachings and see evidence of God’s plan on earth will be altruistic for Him.”
First of all — don’t act like libertarians are irreligious just because there is one group of atheist libertarians out there. Secondly, as has been repeatedly pointed out, now, you have just begged the question. “They do it for Him?” Well, did they do it because they want to? Then, they did it for them. Or, are you suggesting that they somehow did something they didn’t want to do? How exactly did that happen? Did something take control of their body for a moment?
Of course, this is kind of a cheesy “gotcha”. All it shows is that we can’t talk about this in quite so sloppy a manner. Nevertheless, the idea that there is a “higher purpose” goes with the sloppy manner of speech. Your “higher purpose” is nothing more than your own personal desire to go to heaven when you die. There’s nothing higher than your own crass self-interest in that. Trying to be like Jesus because you think He’s cool as many Christians do is a little better. But, the highest possible motivation is just a direct irrational desire to do it. This is essentially Kantian (though Kant wouldn’t say it is irrational). The “highest purpose” is actually just the pure desire to do good. Who knows why you have that desire. Maybe you have just been doing it for so long, it has become a habit. Maybe you just have a strong sense of honor, and so feeling obligated you begrudgingly do your duty to help the less fortunate as you may have been helped before. Who knows why, but clearly the direct motivation to do good is a greater sign of virtue than the alternatives such as “I help the poor so my god will let me into heaven when I die”.
