Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

And to those who think that we no longer need the message of an old-fashioned God who lowered himself to be born as a human in the humblest of places (a winter stable that was undoubtedly floored with pounded animal crap) let me offer a short word experiment.

Things are different now
How many times have you heard or said "Things are different now."

Perhaps you believe in the perfectability of the human animal. The core beliefs are simple.  Our society improves.  Energy is invested expanding and refining its norms and constructs.  Those who expound the gospel of human progress contend that the human species is being refined over the generations so it is worth the ever-increasing fixed costs.

By way of counter-argument, suppose that your forebearers started shaving their heads in the year 200 AD.  Suppose very generation that contributed to your DNA shaved their head twice-a-day because they believed a shiny pate exemplified perfection.

How many generations must shave their heads before the children will be born bald?  How many generations must to shave their heads before all of their ancestors would be born free of the stain of headly hair?

Every child, even after 100 generations, would grow hair...even if every forebearer assiduously shaved every square millimeter of their scalp twice-a-day.

So why would you expect societal norms (an externality that is imposed on the individual) to change the human condition (an inherent, internal characteristic)?  Do you really expect people to be born unstained by the human propensity to focus on our individual short-term, self interest?

I contend that the promise of an illusion called "progress" is not worth the real, escalating fixed-costs and the loss of our individual agency.

I contend that the messages in the Bible is still germane to life in 2016-2017.

You are free to draw your own conclusions.