Do you look up to the ideas of Jesus Christ or the Christian God? What sort of person or entity do you think you’re emulating? Although they’re not the only examples of it, Jesus and God are supposed supernatural entities that we’re supposed to morally follow. However, is it realistic to use the standard of a supernatural entity for a natural one, e.g. a human being? The ethics that these supernatural entities espouse is often altruism, or the ethics that a person’s moral purpose is other people. This ethics coupled with the supposed supernatural form that its greatest actors have create a kind of disembodied altruism, where the ethics is taken without regard to the needs and well-being of its practitioners, i.e. to their bodily reality. In terms of moral culpability, actors of this ethics often paint themselves as disembodied helpers that exist to serve others, with their intentions seen as infallible as the supernatural entity they aspire to. However, it is taking your natural state into account that will lead you to true morality.
Disembodied altruism only accounts for others and not the altruistic actor. Since the greatest moral agents to these people are supernatural, there is a baked in assumption that morality is to be perpetrated by entities with no bodily reality, that the ideal is to be bodiless. People aren’t bodiless, so there are ramifications for following this morality. On the surface, the practitioners of this morality paint themselves as morally pure and without worldly concerns. The person is meant to be seen as comparable to the supernatural entity, that they are beyond bodily needs (and is, thus, according to them, either infallible or approaching it). However, any precursory analysis of the person will find that they engage in all or most of the requirements of a person who has a physical existence. For example, they must physically exist in order to live and spread their ethics. This comes with it all of the fears and concerns that the potential for death creates. As well, these altruists feel resentment for not being able to actually reach the bodiless state and for needing to take care of themselves. They resent the lack of concern they’re supposed to have for themselves. According to their ethics and to stave off self-hatred the disembodied altruist also feels entitled. They feel entitled to the praise, worship, and status given to the supernatural entities, even if in a reduced form. This formula ultimately creates resentful tyrants who, feeling themselves deprived, yet, worthy, feel that there’s no end to what they’re allowed to do to others (those others which are less altruistic and, thus, less worthy).
Proper ethics should take into account the bodily reality of the agents it proposes to guide. An ethics that doesn’t take into account the objective reality of a person’s life will lead that person into failure. The human reality is one in which a person must take care of themselves. Altruism, especially disembodied altruism, attempts to abscond with the needs that we all have and create a supernatural ethics. Basing your life on what it actually is will give you a solid, metaphysical grounding in your life. Trying to project yourself into something else unlike you will create confusion.
Taking a supernatural entity as your standard of ethics will only set you up for failure. A person cannot live outside of their own nature. Disembodied altruism attempts to create moral legitimacy by using a standard outside one’s own life, as a kind of backdoor objectivity. However, living one’s life according to its nature will provide you with a more solid and rewarding ethics, and it will bring you to true objectivity.