Let's Try a Different Allegory

Living in a big city, you must know that it's not a good idea to give money to panhandlers because it just encourages them. I have given money to street musicians on occasion because I liked their music but, if I don't like their music, I don't give them money. We have neither panhandlers nor street musicians where I live, but we have wildlife. If you feed the wildlife around your house, you will see more of it. Then again, if you put out food, you might attract some kinds of wildlife that you don't want to see around your house like skunks and various rodents. The problem with skunks and rodents is that they might try to move in with you, which can be unpleasant.

If you kill a pedestrian with your car, you may be charged with a number of offenses ranging from murder to careless driving, or you might not be charged with anything. It all depends on your intent, or your perceived intent. To the dead person, however, it doesn't matter. He is just as dead whether or not you killed him on purpose. Who it matters to is the other members of the society in which you live. If they allowed people to run over pedestrians without consequence, pretty soon nobody would be safe on the street. I don't know whether or not you could apply the same logic to a good deed. If you save a man from drowning, you're a hero. If you try to save a man from drowning but are unsuccessful, you still might be considered a hero. If you see a man drowning and don't respond at all, there's something wrong with you. Maybe you can't swim and have pathological fear of water, but at least you could have called for help.

Religion and morality do seem to go together. Before Moses gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments he first had to get them worshiping the God of Israel, otherwise, when presented with the Ten Commandments, the Israelites might have responded with "Says who?" So did Moses invent the God of Israel to get the Israelites to take the Ten Commandments seriously, or did Moses invent the Ten Commandments to get the Israelites to take the God of Israel seriously? Then again, maybe the God of Israel invented both Moses and the Ten Commandments to get the Israelites to take the Nation of Israel seriously.

Speaking of the God of Israel, it was Abraham who almost sacrificed his son Isaac to the God of Israel, although He wasn't called the God of Israel at the time. Isaac went on to have a son Jacob, who later had his name changed to Israel. Israel's descendants became known as the Israelites, and their god became known as the God of Israel.