I’ve always loved playing with Legos, and now that my boys are old enough, I finally have a decent excuse for regularly doing so. One of my real pleasures is making something at night to surprise Spencer with when he wakes up in the morning.
Well, given his affection for all things Star Wars, I recently constructed a Lego Death Star about a foot in diameter, an extremely difficult project which took about 4-5 hours to complete. Sadly, that’s not the tragedy.
The real letdown was that Spencer admitted to me that he didn’t really like it all that much. In contrast, a simple spaceship I can build in about two minutes usually thrills him for days.
Since he’s old enough to know that telling me this would disappoint me, I praised him for his honesty, a gift which is far more important to me than my own self-indulgent need to receive approval for having wasted so much time on something as trivial as a Lego Death Star. It’s also a good reminder that effort and value are not always the same thing.
Thought of the Day 05.07.09
Just yesterday, I happened to hear a Christian broadcaster say that a person’s origins beliefs matter because people who believe they evolved by chance from primordial soup will live morally worse lives than people who believe they were created by a loving God. Though I agree with his line of reasoning, in reality his claim just isn’t true.
The problem is he overlooked a simple fact: people are often irrational. This means they might well believe in evolution but practice a morality which would better fit and flow from a creation perspective. Such irrationality is why many people who believe in evolution still live morally virtuous lives.
And we must acknowledge such facts even as we explain the importance of origins views if for no other reason than that our hearers will readily think them if we don’t say them. Such nuance in how we express ourselves is both a matter of being accurate and also a matter of enhancing the chances that our accuracies actually get a fair hearing.
The problem is he overlooked a simple fact: people are often irrational. This means they might well believe in evolution but practice a morality which would better fit and flow from a creation perspective. Such irrationality is why many people who believe in evolution still live morally virtuous lives.
And we must acknowledge such facts even as we explain the importance of origins views if for no other reason than that our hearers will readily think them if we don’t say them. Such nuance in how we express ourselves is both a matter of being accurate and also a matter of enhancing the chances that our accuracies actually get a fair hearing.
Thought of the Day 05.06.09
“Practice makes perfect.” Or, if not perfect, at least practice makes better, right? If this is true, what does it mean for parenting?
Simply put, it would seem that if I have five or six children, I will develop better parenting skills than if I stop at just three. How could I not? Parenting that many children will give me both much more practice and also practice in far more complicated situations. But what if I stop now?
Well, my parenting skills would remain underdeveloped. This means my children will suffer the effects of being raised by a lesser-skilled father. My subsequent children, the ones who would have benefitted the most from being raised by that better me, would never come to exist at all, thus depriving society of those better citizens. And my three sons will miss out on the example of better parenting, meaning they will be less equipped to be great fathers when their own time comes.
Since I don’t want any of that, I intend to have more than just three children.
Simply put, it would seem that if I have five or six children, I will develop better parenting skills than if I stop at just three. How could I not? Parenting that many children will give me both much more practice and also practice in far more complicated situations. But what if I stop now?
Well, my parenting skills would remain underdeveloped. This means my children will suffer the effects of being raised by a lesser-skilled father. My subsequent children, the ones who would have benefitted the most from being raised by that better me, would never come to exist at all, thus depriving society of those better citizens. And my three sons will miss out on the example of better parenting, meaning they will be less equipped to be great fathers when their own time comes.
Since I don’t want any of that, I intend to have more than just three children.
Thought of the Day 05.05.09
In considering the following statements, try to imagine how an average American might respond to them.
“We’ve never had a credit card.”
“We don’t buy Christmas gifts or send Christmas cards.”
“We don’t owe any money on our house.”
“It’s been over ten years since I bought new clothes other than undergarments and socks.”
“We never take out loans to buy cars.”
“What’s E-bay?”
Unless I’ve seriously miscalculated, the reaction to any of these statements would likely be the same: astonishment. How could anyone in 2009 could so be completely out of step with the economic culture of this country? In fact, if you asserted more than one of these, you might even encounter something like contempt in addition to shock and disbelief.
What’s interesting is that sociologists actually have a word for rituals and value systems which are so dominant that people who do not participate in them are considered strangers or outsiders. They call them religions.
“We’ve never had a credit card.”
“We don’t buy Christmas gifts or send Christmas cards.”
“We don’t owe any money on our house.”
“It’s been over ten years since I bought new clothes other than undergarments and socks.”
“We never take out loans to buy cars.”
“What’s E-bay?”
Unless I’ve seriously miscalculated, the reaction to any of these statements would likely be the same: astonishment. How could anyone in 2009 could so be completely out of step with the economic culture of this country? In fact, if you asserted more than one of these, you might even encounter something like contempt in addition to shock and disbelief.
What’s interesting is that sociologists actually have a word for rituals and value systems which are so dominant that people who do not participate in them are considered strangers or outsiders. They call them religions.
Thought of the Day 05.04.09
Have you ever watched a movie where you thought you understood everything up until the very end, when suddenly an interpretative key or “twist” was added which forced you to reevaluate the whole movie?
What’s fascinating about such movies is that they transcend the mere “gotcha” and create a cognitive moment of insight which revolutionizes your understanding yet leaves you feeling fulfilled by the shift rather than betrayed or embarrassed by it. In the best cases, you immediately want to watch the movie again to see it from this new perspective.
This is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ does to the entire Bible. Any understanding of the Old Testament which does not originate in the revelation in Christ is thus less rich, less fulfilling, and, in a very serious sense, less true. That’s why for someone who has seen it this way, trying to discuss the Bible with those who haven’t is a bit like trying to discuss The Sixth Sense with someone who doesn’t believe Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time.
What’s fascinating about such movies is that they transcend the mere “gotcha” and create a cognitive moment of insight which revolutionizes your understanding yet leaves you feeling fulfilled by the shift rather than betrayed or embarrassed by it. In the best cases, you immediately want to watch the movie again to see it from this new perspective.
This is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ does to the entire Bible. Any understanding of the Old Testament which does not originate in the revelation in Christ is thus less rich, less fulfilling, and, in a very serious sense, less true. That’s why for someone who has seen it this way, trying to discuss the Bible with those who haven’t is a bit like trying to discuss The Sixth Sense with someone who doesn’t believe Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time.
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