Overview of Unselfish Acts of Kindness and Good

Many people around the world have experience with unselfish acts of good. Unselfish acts of good are when you take care of the needs of other people before the needs of yourself, or when you help someone so that they can benefit from it, rather than trying to benefit from it yourself. Unselfish acts of good are seen in many different ways, whether it be through taking care of the needs of other people before your own needs or helping someone to benefit them and not benefit yourself. Along with this, the main question that is brought up when the unselfish act of good comes into play is, “Can there be Good without Evil?” which will be addressed later in this essay.

Unselfish acts of good are visible when you take care of the needs of other people before the needs of yourself. According to “More than random acts,” in Christian Science Monitor, “[a] couple of acts of kindness for the day are good, and make a difference. But people who make a sincere effort to look to the needs and interests of others enjoy doing much more than the occasional good deed. They fill many days with unselfish acts” (“More than random acts”). This is stating that when you execute random acts of kindness for people occasionally, it is still good, but it only becomes an unselfish act of good when you pay more attention to the needs of others over the needs of yourself. An example of an unselfish act of good that puts the needs of others before your own is when you know that your grandma has a hard time making meals for herself, so you make time after school to go over to her house a few time a week to cook her dinner. This is putting the needs of your grandma and her hunger before your own needs, because you are going straight from school to help her out, rather than doing whatever you need to do after school. A time in my life when I have put the needs of others before the needs of my own was when my friend back in high school was depressed over a break-up. I knew that I had a bunch of homework to do, but instead of doing my homework right after school, I went and hung out with my friend and gave her comfort. I waited until after I made her feel better to do my homework. I did this for the majority of the week for about 2 months. It made me feel good to help her and to know that someone else’s mental illness and feelings were more important to me, at that time, than completing my homework right after school. As we can see, unselfish acts of good can be seen when you put the needs of others before the needs of yourself.

Unselfish acts of good are apparent when you help someone to benefit them, rather than benefitting yourself. According to “More than random acts” in Christian Science Monitor, “[t]he sacrifice connected with putting one’s interests aside and doing good for others is fundamental to the way we are meant to act. It’s right, because it is in accord with our real self as the likeness of God, the expression of divine Love, to be unselfish…” (“More than random acts”). This is saying that God made us to love and be unselfish and put the needs of others before our own. In this, you are able to see that there are different ways in which unselfish acts can be committed. An example of when you may help someone to benefit them, rather than benefitting yourself is when, say, you see a professor going into the classroom with his or her hands filled with graded exams, the class textbook, their class lecture, and in-class worksheets, and you see the door to the classroom is coming to a close. When you run up and grab the door, seeing that they have no open hands, you are committing an unselfish act of good. You can also see this in your local grocery store parking lot. For example, when you see an old woman or man in the parking lot trying to load their groceries in their car, you go up and help them move the groceries from their cart to their car, while they hold on to the cart to keep it from rolling. This is an unselfish act of good which demonstrates that when you help someone to benefit them, instead of yourself. When you ran up to help them, you were helping them and benefitting them by putting their groceries in their car. You don’t necessarily benefit from this act, but you benefit in the way of knowing that you did something good to help them and make their day. An example in my life where I have helped someone to benefit someone else, without trying to benefit myself was when, also back in high school, one of my friends was really bad at math. Once a week, I would go over the lessons she covered in her math class with her, to help her better understand the material. This was an unselfish act of good, because I was helping her with her math, without trying to benefit myself from helping her. To conclude, unselfish acts of good are apparent when you help someone to benefit them, rather than benefitting yourself.

A question that is brought up a lot when talking about the act of good is, “Can there be Good without Evil?” This question raises a lot of discussion, as many people have their own, different opinions. According to, “Good and evil,” by Cait Caffrey, in the Salem Press Encyclopedia, “[many] religions and philosophical scholars consider good and evil a dualistic feature of both humans and nature” (Caffrey). What she is saying is that you can’t have good without evil, or evil without good, because the two are features that go hand in hand in nature, as well as, humans. In my opinion, I think that we have and experience both good and evil, but in most cases, I don’t think the evil is always extreme. In “Good and evil,” Cait Caffrey makes a point that, “[most] thinkers agree that there are degrees of evil. Moral evil is intentional and ignorant of the common good and includes actions such as murder and lying. Natural evil is unplanned and includes occurrences such as hurricanes and headaches” (Caffrey). This means that there are different degrees in which you can come across evil, either moral evil or natural evil. I believe that in some cases, people may be good and only come across natural evil, so they, as a person, are not evil, but they can still experience evil. I also believe that people may be evil and still experience and show good, but I don’t think it is as common to see this. In conclusion, I do think that there can be good without evil, but I think at some point in our lives we will experience evil, even if we are truly a good person, especially since we can experience natural evil.

Bringing it all together, unselfish acts of good are when you take care of someone else’s needs before the needs of yourself, or helping someone for the benefit of that person, not for the benefit of yourself. Unselfish acts of good are seen through these in many different ways, such as or through helping the elderly at the grocery store. The common question that arises when talking about the acts of good, is “Can there be Good without Evil?” It has been concluded that there can be good without evil, but in most cases, there is good with a little bit of evil, since there is natural evil which is out of our control.