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Ant hill parable

My brother once made the point that two people could belong to a religion and one of them is a cult member while the other belongs to a faith. I think this is an important idea and this parable is one of the responses that came of thinking about it.


Which ant hill would you want to be an ant in? 

1. Workers collect food and build, soldiers defend the colony because if they don't the Queen ant will have them killed.

2. Workers collect food and build, soldiers defend the colony because if they do the Queen ant will reward them.

3. Workers collect food and build because they understand what the Queen ant is trying to do and know that their efforts will benefit them all, soldiers will defend the colony with their lives because they know what it stands for.


Of course the ant hills are all the same ant hill. I suppose the point is that we should seek the deeper motivations beyond desire for reward or fear of punishment in whatever community we are a part of.

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