The Problem with Virtue for Rewards — Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Zarathustra says some sleepy people need loud thunder to wake up. Then he turns to the so-called virtuous ones and laughs. They want to be paid for being good. They want heaven for earth and eternity for today. They are angry because he will not promise a paymaster in the sky. Reward and punishment, he says, have wormed into the very bottom of their souls.

He lists many fake kinds of virtue. Some people use goodness as a weapon. Some perform virtue for applause. Some call laziness holiness. Some drag heavy carts of dignity and call the drag virtue. Others tick like wound-up clocks and want the ticking called virtue. Real virtue, he says, is like a mother's love for her child. A mother does not send a bill. Your virtue should be part of who you are, not a costume you wear for praise.

Zarathustra knows he has ripped up their old moral recipes, like a wave washing away sand castles. That hurts. But he promises new shells will wash up on the beach. Stop keeping score with God, with karma, or with your own guilty conscience. Let goodness flow because it is yours, not because you expect a prize at the end.