Gotcha. Why did you click the link? The title is typical of the current media and reflects a deeper issue. A suggestive title (and image) makes you feel you're missing out if you don't get the rest of the story (just look at the headlines on huffingtonpost.com). This attitude reinforces the idea that popular equates to important and true. So what does this have to do with same-sex-marriage, mystical religion, or child education? Read on. Let's consider the wisdom-of-the-crowd phenomena -- we apply it all the time; seeking peer opinion, in the game show "Who wants to be a Millionaire" contestants can use the option "Ask the audience", its a basis of democracy, we look for Facebook "Likes", there's voting on blog comments etc., etc. The idea is that the errors of the individuals cancel out, and the final average is then a very good estimate of the real answer. It works well ... some times. It can also show collective ignorance, especially in a highly connected society where we already know what other people are thinking. But it also can fail spectacularly. For example in science we see a classic wisdom-of-the-crowd failure in the echo chamber of climate change denial blogs; as more and more people say what others want to hear, so the collective ignorance is reinforced and goes to the opposite of truth. People don't like to be wrong or thought stupid, and they're often too clueless to know how ignorant they are, so minority voices get derided. Add to this the natural desire to be part of a "movement", the wish to hear only what one wants to hear, our illusion of superiority, the idea that the collective voice is the closest to the truth, and the power of peer pressure. One can quickly see how many of the current societal changes are working out, and how easy it is for vigilantism or other collective deviancies to form. Now apply this to issues of morality. Say, for example, religious beliefs, prostitution, same sex marriage, death penalty, child spanking, etc. Here is one example: a polling study shows Jews are becoming more tolerant of deviancies to the traditional beliefs, including that not believing in God is compatible with being Jewish. A poll? In other words, they're sampling popular opinion and the take away message is that truth is changing. Should we have a poll about gravity? Murder? Child trafficking? Here we have a problem, and two choices face us. On the one hand, moral truth is fluid and flexible and we make it to be what we like. If we do so, then we only can dislike and not condemn any "wisdom of the crowd" choice. We might think it abuses or disadvantages a minority, but if we are in the minority, too bad. Alternatively we say there is a truth that is not a matter of opinion. This is very discomforting because suddenly I am not the determiner of right and wrong. Christians say truth is not an opinion, not a rule, but a standard deriving from who God is. Therefore Christians have some pressing problems that they (we) are not being vocal about. Some examples, for instance. How should Christians handle: Syncretism: All religions lead to the same God. But surely God determines how to know him? We can't dictate the terms and conditions of a God relationship. We might rail and rant against what we perceive as an injustice in the God-claims of a religion, but it's not for us to make the definition. Well ok, you can, but then you get plain silliness such as Pastafarianism, or the Sunday Assembly - a godless church for atheists (which is in the process of fracturing because of its a wisdom-of-the-crowd failure). So does God say one-way? Is any religion ok? And most critically, what is our reference for saying one or the other? Our preferences have zero value! What pleases us is unimportant. What is true is true whether we like it or not. Same sex marriage: The historical church, at least by the democracy of the dead, has overwhelmingly said this is not in accordance with God's nature (this alone does not make it true). By contrast the minority-but-alive contemporary "wisdom-of-the-crowd" wants to define otherwise. No-one denies that two people of the same sex can love each other with the four loves as do heterosexual couples. That is not the issue. The question is, what does God say? For example, no-one denies that I can go to the movies, smoke a pipe, be a nudist, cheat on the taxman, breed crocodiles, drink alcohol, gossip, cheat, or lie. The issue is not whether I can behave in some manner or not, the question is what does God think about it? If my intention is to be in relationship with God, then what is against God's nature undermines my relationship. Mistakes and failures are one thing ... God knows I am flawed and imperfect. However, habitual practice is like thumbing one's nose at God as if saying "I know you don't like it, but I'm going to do it anyway." The Christian church is notably inarticulate about these and many other issues. Instead the church seems to be wracked with internal polarized debates with factions seeking to re-invent a faith to accommodate their preferences. Globally there will never be accord; groups will continually fragment while keeping a common label "Christian", and thereby making the term ultimately to mean everything and mean nothing. Yet if there is a God, then one thing God is, is definitive! The muddied waters that are growing under the banner of "Christian" is anything but definitive. At the end of the day it is up to the local community church to not take on the "wisdom-of-the-crowd", but to be articulate about what is and what is not, as defined by God and not ourselves.
1 Comment
Brian Hill
8/1/2014 11:55:48 pm
I agree with nearly everything in this article (or perhaps it is everything -too lazy to read it again!) God has revealed himself and what he requires of us in the Bible but there have been occasions when Christians have had to look again at their interpretation of the text. Some Christians have bad reaction to scientific discoveries and think they are not what God has said. Flat earth society mentality!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
|