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endoself comments on Positive Thinking - Less Wrong
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One's utility function describes the process by which one makes decisions; it can be altruistic. You may have been thinking of your personal hedonic function. I doubt that many of the other people were attending for selfish reasons.
I have no idea why most people attended. However, though I doubt they would have wanted to view their reasons as selfish, I suspect it had more to do with their own stability, happiness, etc than with making the world a better place.
You might be right. Many people do talk about how their lives were changed by religion rather than how God wants them to follow religion. I don't have enough experience with this to know which is more common, but, upon reflection, it seems probable that many people practice religion for reason that I would describe as selfish (though not entirely egoistic because people also care about their families and friends, as well as have at least some level of concern even for far away people).