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      "body": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sp8xeH84X4&feature=share\n\nI ran across this video the other day. Sadly, at the time of this writing, it has over 100,000 views, but we should be thankful that's well below the 3.7 million who subscribe to the channel. Still, even at 100,000 views, it's quite likely that there are tens of thousands of people who watched this video and believed there was actually something of value said.\n\nBut those people are woefully mistaken. In this brief seven minutes, there was almost nothing said that makes the slightest bit of sense when held up to scrutiny. On the whole, this video provides no substance, no logic, and is nothing more than a bunch of whining that the world doesn't match the image that they want it to. And they're too small-minded to see any solution beyond the flawed idea of using the force of government to get what they want (which in the end will self-destruct anyway).\n\nThis group falls into Adam Carolla's \"stupid or liar\" category. They know nothing of economics or are just lying to fit a narrative they prefer. I tend to presume most people are reasonably intelligent, so my money is on the latter. The video is litterd with errors/dishonesty, but I've chosen to respond to 31 of them.\n\n1. Claiming the economy is \"under the influence of neoliberalism\" is a stretch. Beyond that, neoliberalism is not capitalism.\n\n2. Asking whether productivity and wages are decoupled is stupid. Wages are a small part of compensation. Benefits (also compensation) have increased significantly, even if wages haven't risen very much. Even so, there are still issues with the calculations which use the GDP deflator (pure nonsense) for \"productivity\" inflation and the Consumer Price Index (itself a massive mess) to adjust wage inflation. That's nonsense.\n\n3. Besides all that, your smartphone could absolutely be thought of as a productivity gain that is benefiting far more of society than just the most wealthy.\n\n4. We do spend too much on wars, but most of that is borrowed from the future, and our children and grandchildren will suffer because of it. That said, war is a massive, wasteful redirection of resources.\n\n5. We should privatize social security. It's a mess, an enormous Ponzi scheme, and most under the age of 35 are not likely to see a dime of it.\n\n6. People should work longer. When social security first passed, life expectancy was 61.7 years. A lot of people never lived to see social security. Now the overwhelming majority of society does. That destroys the already shaky (and morally evil) economics of the system. \n\n7. What are her 3 jobs? We aren't talking about 3 40-hour per week jobs, so what are we talking about?\n\n8. We diversify our investments, why not our income? Working three jobs may be much more stable than working one, where everything disappears when we get fired. Thank God for side hustles.\n\n9. I'm not sure it's uniquely American, but it is fantastic. It's admirable. Leisure is not something to celebrate. It's far healthier to view it as a useful tool to recharge us and propel us to new accomplishments.\n\n10. If being President wasn't a job for Bush because of \"naps\" then it wasn't for Obama because of golf. (I think that President shouldn't be a job, but I don't deny that is one) \n\n11. Why does she presume that the only job older people can do are waiting on people. That seems very ageist. \n\n12. How do we know she's working her \"fingers to the bone?\" We don't know what jobs she's working.\n\n13. Why hasn't anyone on this panel considered the possibility that she enjoys working? Maybe she likes getting out of her home? Maybe she likes the variety that working a few different jobs offers? Maybe she doesn't need the income from all three jobs but likes having some extra? There are a million explanations that don't have a negative slant, but these presumptuous, elitist intellectual-lightweights seem incapable of even giving them the slightest consideration over the one that fits their narrative. (I'm not saying any of these are necessarily true in this woman's situation, but they know exactly as much about it as I do, which means they have no right to talk about her \"having to work her fingers to the bone\")\n\n14. Many people are aware of the difference between the rich and not rich despite not knowing any personally. They happen to think it's okay because much of that wealth was earned by providing value to others. Just because they come to a different conclusion than this fellow doesn't mean they are ignorant. Once again the disgusting elitism rears its head.\n\n15. Someone working on the board of a company is working more than four days a year. It's their job to be aware of what is going on in the company and being informed that way takes a lot more than one day a year. If they don't do that, they won't be on the board. Also people aren't just compensated for the work they do. They are also compensated for the level of responsibility they have. People on the boards of large companies make decisions that have an influence on billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of jobs. They have far more responsibility than someone at the bottom of the company whose decisions won't have nearly the influence. They can debate whether that dynamic makes sense (although they'll lose because it does), but putting it in terms of quantity of work once again puts this individual in the \"stupid or liar\" category. \n\n16. The wealth is not being \"extracted.\" It was exchanged. We won't know whether wealth is being created until we know whether other people are willing to exchange things of value for it. That means, to know whether work is creating wealth, we need to invest time and resources on the front end, with the possibility that we may receive nothing on the back end. (That result happens all the time - it's what drives companies out of business) Most people aren't willing to invest that much time with the risk of getting little or nothing in return. So instead, they trade some of their potential earnings down the line if the business went well, for a guaranteed income today. They then don't have the risk of getting nothing if their work ends up not producing wealth. They also don't live with the concern and risk weighing down on them that those with more responsibility do. And that psychic revenue must be accounted for when considering compensation. So no wealth is being \"extracted.\" It was voluntarily exchanged. This guy is simply spewing Marxist nonsense. The marginalist revolution allows us to know that this theory of value is just not true. (And yes that theory of value was first popularized by Adam Smith, who was also wrong about it)\n\n17. Corporations don't amass money just to \"crush people.\" They are trying to stay ahead of the competition. (But if this really is someone's concern, they should realize that companies actually wouldn't amass as much wealth or easily remain ahead of the competition in the absence of government, and larger government only helps them deepen their foothold.)\n\n18. Yes, some people do want their companies to be bought. That's because they don't want the responsibility associated with running a large company (see #16). (If you are wondering why that may be, consider the stories of the heads of companies like Uber and American Apparel.)  There is nothing wrong with people creating something that people value, growing and providing more value, and allowing someone else to help it continue to provide value.\n\n19. Clearly they know nothing about how you value a company. I'm less concerned with what a company is able to make today than what it will make over 10, 20, 50 years. However, the fact that the panel can't see that should demonstrate the fundamental flaw with their short-term way of thinking.\n\n20. Amazon \"operating at a loss\" (which is not strictly accurate) is a fantastic thing. It means they are investing everything they make, plus more from outside investment and loans, into the company. That means jobs for people in the fields they are expanding their business into. We should see that as a wonderful thing, but as we've seen (points #6, 8, 9, 13), the panel actually doesn't want people to work. So jobs aren't really a good thing in their minds.\n\n21. I'm not a huge fan of Bezos' government ties, but the people who work for him are in the American version of \"poverty\" (an artificial line in the sand) which makes them better off than 95% of the entire world.\n\n22. I love that this teen isn't letting a tough situation stop him from living his life as he always does. It's simply beautiful. He tells me that I have no excuses for not getting something done every day. That kid will get somewhere in life.\n\n23. Also, one tweet tells us absolutely nothing else about the man walking 15 miles to work. With just that information we could fill volumes of books on what might be going on there.\n\n24. Life is hardship. The smarter question to ask is what enables us to, occasionally, avoid that hardship? \n\n25. The college cost issue is almost too much to write about. Mostly lets acknowledge the presumption (based on context) that college is the only, or at least a vital, path out of hardship. It's not.\n\n26. Why is it someone else's responsibility to see for these peoples' transport? Where exactly does that funding for transport come from?\n\n27. Why should employers be forced to pay for time off for catastrophic accidents which they had no part in causing and didn't occur on or with company property? \n\n28. In all of the questions posed by something called FAIR, there is an underlying assumption that it is the responsibility of others to be forced to provide something to these people. Using force to make some people work for others is a pretty ugly and immoral thing, despite whatever FAIR may think.\n\n29. Let's note that FAIR and our moronic panel while criticizing the reporting of the stories of people working hard to achieve something, fail to give any examples of the people \"falling through the cracks\" as they claim. That's not to suggest some people don't struggle in America, they certainly do (although often when examined individually there are many points at which they could have taken a different path). I mention it to point out that they are at least as much of a failure as they claim other media to be, as they make broad generalities with nothing to support their case that can stand up to the slightest bit of reasoning.\n\n30. Yes, actually. You can absolutely always try to make something of yourself. The panel and FAIR fail to understand what people find so compelling in these stories. It's not the results. It's not the conditions. It's the beauty of the human spirit. It's the beauty of individuals who stood up and took responsibility for themselves rather than trying to force others to take responsibility for them. They show some of the best that human character has to offer.\n\n31. Again, why is it everyone else's job to provide public transportation to every end of society at all times? What if where this man is coming from, no one else travels in the direction that he does? What if providing him public transportation required a driver to continually drive a route that only he rides on? Government should spend money to maintain a bus, a driver, etc. for just one man's trip to work? And let's remember that the money to fund all this comes from the wealth that is taken by force from others who have created it. And isn't that what they themselves have defined as exploitation?",
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      "body": "I don't have a child with Down syndrome. I don't have a family member or friends with Down syndrome. But even though I don't have a close relationship with anyone with Down syndrome, I think a strong case can be made that my life, and yours, has been made better by those who have it. \n\nThe topic of Down syndrome has come up quite a bit in the media lately. And to be frank, I'm shocked at how polarized the issue is. But then again, that polarization just a reflection of how lost Western society has become.\n\nThe recent public discussion seems, to me, to have been sparked by news regarding [how frequently babies with Down syndrome are being aborted](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37500189). In the United States, roughly two-thirds of children detected to have Down syndrome in the womb are aborted. In Europe, it's even higher, with close to 90% in the UK. In Iceland, it's nearly 100% (80-85% of pregnancies are tested for Down syndrome). This led to headlines claiming that Iceland was close to \"eradicating\" Down syndrome (they were often changed after social media outcry).\n\nThe whole process, including the ghastly headlines, is eerily similar to Hitler's \"Final Solution,\" where a perceived \"problem\" is simply killed off. And in some ways, this version is even more frightening than the Third Reich. Hitler's vision was enacted by the power of government from a ruling elite. It was a relatively small amount of people making the decisions, and those further down the chain of command fooled themselves into believing they were just following orders. But what's occurring with Down syndrome is even darker.\n\nUnborn babies with Down syndrome are not being put to death by some large governmental apparatus. This isn't Pharaoh in Egypt ordering the children of the Jews to be slain. It isn't Herod doing the same when Jesus was born. This is individual mothers and families, often in consultation with doctors, making this decision. And these quietly isolated choices are, in aggregate, leading to shocking figures like those mentioned above. Those numbers tell you more about a society than the actions of Pharaoh, Herod, or Hitler. They tell you that what is being done, is being done with a broad, overwhelming, and horrifying consensus; a consensus that had gone largely unspoken, until recently.\n\nThe conversation about Down syndrome and abortion was taken to a new place thanks to an [editorial]9https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-wouldve-aborted-a-fetus-with-down-syndrome-women-need-that-right/2018/03/09/3aaac364-23d6-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.ddf4aa28ba79) from the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus. It's a difficult piece to read. It made me frustrated. It made me angry. But in the end, it just made me want to cry. It's impossible for me not to feel sad that the author is so broken that she feels the way she does. It's sad that, given the statistics, she appears to be by no means alone in feeling this way. And it's even sadder to think about the influence that widespread, broken way of thinking has on society.\n\nThe article is addressing the legality of laws regarding abortion and Downs syndrome testing. But I'm going to set aside that matter of legality because far more concerning is the attitude portrayed.\n\nThe Marcus tells how when she was pregnant, the test for Down syndrome was given. And she says that had it come back positive, she would have had an abortion. She claims that aborting such a child is inherent in the reasons the tests are given. She seems unable to fathom the idea that such a test could be used to give a family time to read up, talk with other Down syndrome parents, and prepare for the blessing that's coming there way. But she can't see that side. Instead of seeing the blessing, she only sees a burden. \n\nShe says we are free to call her selfish (she is). She talks about Down syndrome being life-altering for the whole family (what new addition to the family isn't?), as though that trumps the life of the baby (it doesn't). But in the end, she reasoned that *\"That was not the child I wanted.\"* One is left to wonder what the child might have wanted. \n\nAs disturbing as Marcus' reasoning is, one can't help but recognize that even she, herself, is not comfortable with it. That's why she had to turn to something other than her reasoning to justify it. She states the Supreme Court's rulings as though that is the equivalent of moral standing. It's not. Governments have a long history of allowing immoral practices (slavery, anyone?). It's a ridiculous argument, and not even one she adheres to when she argues for more [gun restriction](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-the-phony-pro-gun-argument/2013/01/31/bdf91e5c-6bf1-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_story.html?utm_term=.2f30828f6950)(hello second amendment).\n\nShe also appeals to simple consensus. She states the idea that more than two-thirds of mothers make the same choice she would have as though that alleviates her culpability or makes it morally sound. But when has mere majority ever been a good indicator of morality. Again it easy to point to slavery which, has been seen as morally acceptable by a majority throughout different times in history. Or perhaps this is a flaw with Western society's celebration of democracy. It treats brute majority as a deciding factor, and we seem to have slipped that concept over to morality as well, without even recognizing the consequences of such a dynamic.\n\nBut in the end, she pushes the legal claim (does she not understand that legality changes?), while simultaneously claiming that it has no place in government. She closes the argument saying *\"that these excruciating choices be left to individual women, not to government officials who believe they know best.\"* This is a strange argument coming from someone who, based on an overview of her last few years worth of op-eds, seems to believe government knows best in every other circumstance but this one. (Sadly, in a world where post-modernism has taught us that contradictions don't matter because everything is contradictory, no one seems to care about these kinds of philosophical incongruities.) \n\nRuth Marcus' article, unsurprisingly, sparked quite a bit of social of media response. Around this time, United States Senator Ben Sasse made an interesting [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/SenatorSasse/posts/1544300722334534), which sparked the idea that I want to examine here. His post shared this year's Gerber baby, a sweet little boy with Down syndrome, as well as some heartwarming stories of teenagers with Down syndrome and high school athletics. The premise of his post was that what all these stories showed us was the innate, God-given, dignity that all these people have. And the reason these stories touch us so much is that that dignity is being acknowledged.\n\nThis concept of dignity, and I think Mr. Sasse is correct about the role it plays here, is what struck me. And I began to wonder if this concept plays a more important role in society than we recognize. Because in Western society, we seem to have lost much of our ability to see the dignity in others, particularly those whose opinions differ from ours. If someone isn't on our team, then we act as if they've lost all dignity, or as if they are lesser beings than those aligned with us.\n\nAdmittedly, dignity is a difficult concept to grasp and define. It's hard to put our finger on exactly what is. But there is one characteristic of dignity that stands out to me. Dignity is the characteristic in which we are all made equal. When the United States founding fathers wrote \"all men are created equal\" they were talking about dignity. Obviously, we are different in capability, but that inequality doesn't mean we aren't equal in dignity. \n\nIn older stories (and I think it's telling that you won't see it in more recent ones), you might hear a character ask another \"have you no dignity?\" The reason that was an effective question was that the answer was obviously 'yes,' but whoever was being asked the question wasn't living like it was true. They didn't have enough respect for themselves, even though others knew they were worthy of it. So they debased themselves because they didn't recognize their own dignity. The reason I give this example is that it demonstrates an important role that dignity plays in life: it's self-regulatory.\n\nWhen we think of ourselves as having dignity, we treat ourselves as something worth caring for. We take better care of ourselves, and we don't let ourselves be drawn down by base desires. That's because things with dignity are things worth treating well. \n\nBut the role of dignity is not just limited to ourselves. When we see others as having dignity, we treat them better as well (as a side note, it's harder for others to see you as having dignity if you don't treat yourself that way first - perhaps I'll make a future post on that idea). If others have dignity, then we see them as equal to ourselves, and that alone prevents a lot of conflicts. \n\nBut if we don't see others as having the same dignity we do, then more often than not we see ourselves as superior. And, unfortunately, when we see ourselves as superior, that gives us a false sense of justice by which we can harm others. It leads to smaller day-to-day poor treatment of strangers, friends, and even family. And on a large scale, seeing one's self or one's country as superior is always behind the conflicts that lead to war. Why else would war propaganda be so heavily focused on making one side inferior and the other superior? That may be true in terms of ideas, but we often cross the line and try to believe it true in dignity as well.\n\nAnd this brings me back to the beginning of this post and the idea that Down syndrome babies are being aborted at an astonishing rate. What's not being asked is, are losing something as a society in this rush? By killing these babies, are we missing out on human beings who would improve lives on an individual level and a societal one? Are we losing something even more than just the benefit of the productive members of society that many with Down Syndrome grow up to be? I think the answer is yes.\n\nI think it's incredibly important for us to have reminders that however unequal we may be, we are equal in dignity. Because if we forget that fact, we find ourselves on dangerous ground. And because we are only human, with all the selfishness and foolishness that humanness entails, we need to be reminded of important things. Jesus, when talking about the importance of children, was telling us that they too have dignity (I imagine if He lived on Earth in a time where conditions such as Down syndrome were widespread, he would speak about the importance of those people as well). In no small part because when we treat children with the dignity they deserve, we are more likely to treat others that way as well. A quick way of telling whether a society is worthwhile or not is looking at how it treats its children. We could also consider how society treats it's mentally challenged to be a similar indicator.\n\nPeople with Down syndrome provide a vital reminder for a society of the dignity we all have. It's easier for us to overlook it with children because we see them as unfinished. But people Down syndrome are one of the most beautiful examples we have of how dignity is part of the human package, no matter what they look like or capabilities that they have. We need that reminder. We need that idea of dignity to be regularly reinforced in our lives. And the more it is, the more we all benefit from it. Our society grows more respectful, peaceful, and caring. Acknowledging the dignity of all humans makes the world a better place. People with Down syndrome help us do that. It's hard to calculate just how incredibly valuable that is. And as more and more decide to abort their Down syndrome babies, we are undoubtedly losing something as a society.\n\nAs a final note, I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing the difficulty of raising a child with Down syndrome. Even though I think parents who have a baby with Down syndrome have a moral responsibility to have the child, raise them, and see for their care, I understand that it's probably more difficult then I can imagine. So more than anything else, I want to thank the parents who have gone through that challenge. Because of their hard work, I've been blessed on individual level (I've never had an interaction with someone with Down syndrome where they didn't brighten my day, usually with an infectious smile) and on an societal level, as we all benefit from their powerful reminder of how we all have dignity and should treat each other that way.",
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      "body": "I think he's wrong in one sense, but as a commentary on the state of modern Christian teaching and the Church as an entity, he's dead on.",
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      "body": "I think he's wrong on all three.\n\n1. People will always want a better life for themselves and their family.\n\n2.  Same comment as #1\n\n3. People worked to end slavery and to end racial discrimination. They clearly took on a moral burden to end the status quo.",
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      "body": "nice post \n>You can use Tisko Bot to promote your post.\nSend 0.200 STEEM/SBD and the URL in the memo to @tisko to use the bot for a resteem and to get 5 good upvots.\n>[Click here to see how to use Tisko Bot.](https://steemit.com/ts/@tisko/tisko-bot-faq)",
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      "body": "Jordan Peterson has taught me as much about Christianity as any preacher, author, or theologian ever has. Though a Christian for much of my life, and growing up in the church, it wasn't until coming across Peterson that I began to understand just how much fundamental truth the Bible contained beyond the supernatural aspects (which I take to be true). \n\nDue in large part to Peterson's influence, my study of the Bible and just what it offers has been enhanced to the point where I realize that before I saw only the smallest fraction of an enormous canvas. Because of just how rich and detailed that canvas is, I doubt any human can fully grasp all that it contains. But I'm thrilled to now understand the scope of the whole picture, no matter how hazy most of it seems. Before I was focusing in on one tiny aspect and trying to see it in better and better detail, but I was losing the context surrounding that aspect, limiting the value and accuracy of my attention to detail. Now I find myself trying to bring the whole picture into better focus. And when I turn my attention to a particular aspect, it's informed by the larger context rather than hidden from it.\n\nBut it's because of this better approach to the Bible and Christianity, that I must quibble with one particular portion of Mr. Peterson's new book, *12 Rules for Life*. It's a fantastic book, and it, too, has expanded my understanding of the wisdom contained in the Bible. I enjoyed so much of the book as a whole, but there was just one small part I took enough issue with that I felt it warranted this piece of writing. \n\nThe portion of the book I want to discuss here is when Peterson highlights what he calls \"three mutually reinforcing consequences\" that he says come from \"Dogmatic belief in the central axioms of Christianity (that Christ's crucifixion redeemed the world; that salvation was reserved for the hereafter; that salvation could not be achieved through works).\" (last paragraph on page 189) Peterson says three consequences are:\n\n1. \"Devaluation of the significance of earthly life, as only the hereafter mattered.\"\n2. \"Passive acceptance of the status quo, because salvation could not be earned in any case through effort in this life.\"\n3. \"The right of the believer to reject any moral burden, because the Son of God had already done the important work.\"\n\nThere's a specific reason I titled this post a \"response\" rather than a \"retort\" or \"refutation.\" I don't deny that these consequences might be the logical conclusion of the central axioms that Peterson describes. Nor do I even refute that much of what may be thought of as \"Christianity\" as a series of churches, institutions, and prominent individuals (rather than a system of belief), places the overwhelming amount of its time, energy, and output on these axioms. But I do take issue with the idea that these axioms are complete in explaining what Christianity as a worldview is.\n\nI'll set aside, for this article, some of the more interesting and in my opinion closer to the truth, ideas about what God's plans are for man (check out the book *The Unseen Realm* by Dr. Micheal Heiser, in particular). Instead, I want to look just at what Jesus' guidance was, in addition to a few other things in the Bible. I do think there is an answer for each of the assertions which Peterson rightly presents as problems in an earthly day-to-day sense. To make it easy, I'll number my responses to match the corresponding consequence.\n\n(1) \"Devaluation of the significance of earthly life, as only the hereafter mattered.\"\n\nThe assertion of a 'hereafter,' or an eternal realm, that all human souls are destined to end up a part of is quite a conundrum for our mortal realm. The existence of just our mortal realm would make prioritization simple. \"What are the things that matter? Those that affect this realm.\" But the idea of an eternity that is the eventual destination of all those who live in a mortal realm throws a real wrench into that simple understanding. \n\nInitially, one might be tempted to say that nothing in the mortal realm matters because we'll all end up in the eternal anyways. But this is an incomplete way of thinking. What's important is not just that everyone ends up in the eternal realm, it's also important to consider what things affect the state of the eternal realm and our place in it. And those things that affect the eternal may include things that are done and occur in the mortal. And those things are all that matters in the mortal realm. In other words, if there be an eternal realm, then the only things that matter here in the mortal realm, are those that affect the eternal.\n\nNow, I don't want to suggest that Christians and Christian teachers haven't taken this perspective. The message of salvation is one built on this perspective. It's quite meaningless outside of it. However, I do think it's quite possible that they have stopped asking the question too soon. Or at the very least, much of the church teachings have stopped using that question as context for their messages. There has been a severe lack of preciseness in the discussions about what a Christian life is and why to live it. (Being precise about what you say is another important takeaway from Peterson's book.)\n\nWhen considering what Jesus and the Bible teach, Christians or even anyone just looking to understand the ideas must keep in the forefront of their minds the idea that an eternal realm can be affected by what we do here. And if we do this, it turns out that there is a lot of significance to the earthly realm. This place does matter.\n\nOur first real clue to this comes in the Old Testament, in the form of some wisdom from Solomon. Ecclesiastes seems to be one of the more misunderstood, or at least misrepresented, books in the Bible. Many times I've heard pastors say some variation of the idea that Solomon is using Ecclesiastes to tell us of his discovery that everything is meaningless except God. It's pretty easy to see how this kind of thought process might lead to Peterson's first consequence. But this isn't an accurate portrayal of what Solomon was telling us in Ecclesiastes.\n\n\n*For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:\na time to be born, and a time to die;\na time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;\na time to kill, and a time to heal;\na time to break down, and a time to build up;\na time to weep, and a time to laugh;\na time to mourn, and a time to dance;\na time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;\na time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;\na time to seek, and a time to lose;\na time to keep, and a time to cast away;\na time to tear, and a time to sew;\na time to keep silence, and a time to speak;\na time to love, and a time to hate;\na time for war, and a time for peace.*\n(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)\n\nWhat Solomon found was not that everything is meaningless except God. What he found was that everything is meaningful in its proper context and meaningless outside of that. The key, though, is the context and it is God who provides the proper context. If there is nothing under the sun that He has not made, then there is nothing that He has not designed a time and a place for. As we can see, to shorten this to the idea that \"everything is meaningless except God\" is not untruthful, but still lacks in truth. \n\nBut it's easy to understand why Christian teachers have shortened Solomon's advice. With churches today so driven towards \"saving souls\" and not knowing what to do with them after (except make sure that they keep coming with that tithe), it's very tempting to avoid putting hard work in front of a congregation. Better to make Christianity sound easier. But it's just the opposite. The Bible is riddled with explanations of how difficult a Christian life should be, and what Solomon presents is no different. Because what Solomon eventually conveys in Ecclesiastes is that to understand the proper context, God's context, we need to seek wisdom.\n\n*Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”\nFor it is not from wisdom that you ask this.\nWisdom is good with an inheritance,\nan advantage to those who see the sun.\nFor the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,\nand the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.\nConsider the work of God:\nwho can make straight what he has made crooked?*\n(Ecclesiastes 7:10-13)\n\nWisdom is not an easy thing to find. It's even harder to apply. It's not a set of rules to follow. It's more like guidelines to apply to different situations. And searching for it, trying to understand it, is a life-long process. It's anything but easy. That, though, is what Solomon tells us we need to do if we wish to do things that are meaningful, that are done in the context God had in mind.\n\n*\"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.\"*\n (Matthew 6:19-20)\n \n Jesus, the most important source of the wisdom Solomon advised us to seek, also makes clear that there is more that matters in this realm than just salvation. He tells us to store up our treasures in heaven; something that is beyond salvation. And while righteousness may not be the key to our salvation, it is the path to these treasures (which probably doesn't mean literal gold or jewels and is likely comprised of something beyond our comprehension). Much of what Jesus taught was not specifically attuned to salvation or the eternal but was advice on how to live a better, more impactful life right here in our mortal world.\n \n Even if we were to just look at the example of Jesus' life, we could see just how much he cared for people beyond the idea of salvation. He healed them, fed them, and spent time with them. If Christians are called to be like Christ, we have no choice but to value earthly life in addition to the hereafter.\n \n *Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.*\n(Romans 6:12-14)\n\nPaul also spoke of the importance of living a righteous life, one free from sin. If we are meant to live this way in the mortal realm and are told that by God, then we must assume it has some significance to the eternal. Paul describes us being \"instruments for righteousness,\" instruments that operate in this mortal realm. And if God has reason to use us as instruments here, then it must certainly be for something meaningful. \n\nThe above passages are just a few that show the importance of earthly life, even in the context of the hereafter. We see the Bible express this before Jesus, from Jesus himself, and after Jesus. So remember, it's not only the eternal realm that matters, it's that the only things that matter here in the mortal realm are those that affect the eternal. Study what those things are. Seek the wisdom to know them.\n\n(2) \"Passive acceptance of the status quo, because salvation could not be earned in any case through effort in this life.\"\n\nWhile I don't believe that this is the attitude that one should derive from careful attention to the Bible's teachings, it is one that a frightening number of those claiming to be Christians fall into. Perhaps the most obvious evidence of that is how indistinguishable the church, and more importantly, its members, have become from secular society. \n\nOther than waking up a little earlier on Sunday mornings, one would have a hard time telling these people are Christians. Their moral standards aren't very different. Their perspective on life appears to be the same. And in many ways, they, even more so than non-Christians, seem to allow the pull of society and life to drag them along, rather than being the force for change and point of inspiration that the Bible calls them to be. But the real question is whether this malaise which seems to hang over most Christians is a product of poor teaching, or what the Bible says. I think we'll find the former to be true.\n\nThe Church has, in my experience, never emphasized enough, the importance of the way Christians are supposed to live their Earthly lives, and the problem has gotten worse in recent years. The majority of Christian teaching has centered around either the metaphysical or external matters. And while these are important, their emphasis has ignored an area that a significant amount Jesus' teaching centered around: personal growth.\n\n*“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.\"*\n(Matthew 5:43-48)\n\nPerhaps no command that Jesus gives argues more strongly against Christians accepting the status quo, than this one: *\"be perfect.\"* This idea should be the driving motivation behind every Christian's life. Jesus gives us a goal that is unattainable. We know that God is the only one capable of perfection. But at the same time, we can strive to get ever closer to that mark. That is what this commandment is about.\n\nIt commands the exact opposite of accepting the status quo. It states that the only acceptable status quo is perfection. And since we can't reach that, there is always work for us to be doing and changes to be made. But the great blessing of this impossible commandment is that it gives Earthly life meaning beyond salvation. \n\nSo the passivity regarding the status quo that we see from Christians is not a product of what the Bible teaches, it's a product of a lack of quality Bible teaching.\n\n(3) \"The right of the believer to reject any moral burden, because the Son of God had already done the important work.\"\n\nThis consequence also can be addressed by Matthew 5:43-48 and the command to be perfect. It includes not just the idea of never being satisfied with the status quo, but it also includes the direction we are to move away from it. We are to move towards the perfection of God. And far from rejecting any moral burden, this means we are to be in pursuit of perfect morality.\n\nJesus may have already done the most important work, but given his commandment to move towards perfection, along with the surrounding teachings which address how to live a more moral earthly life, it becomes clear that there is still important work to be done. And living a more moral life is what this work is primarily comprised of. We see this idea reiterated after Jesus is gone.\n\n*What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.*\n(Romans 6:1-4)\n\n*What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?*\n(Romans 6:15-16)\n\nHere we see that Paul addresses specifically the relationship between salvation and Christian behavior after its acceptance. What he is trying to get his audience to understand is that after the saving power of grace, it is even more important that Christians attempt to live a life that is morally sound. He makes clear that so powerful is this saving grace, that we are made into almost entirely new people by it. He compares it to the process of death and resurrection that Jesus went through. And that in this new manifestation, sin has no place, so we must be diligent to eliminate it.\n\nWe can see also, how the conclusions we should come to regarding the first two consequences Peterson proposes (and Christians seem to fall victim to), would also change our thinking about the third. If Earthly life does matter, and we should desire to change the status quo, it makes sense that God would want us to be moving towards a more moral direction.\n\nSo as I said before, I don't blame Peterson for suggesting these consequences of Christian belief. He's not strictly wrong because most Christians seem to fall victim to this way of thinking. I would just say that it's more a product of a poorly taught version of Christianity, and not what the Bible teaches. But more than anything else, Christians should take Peterson addressing these issues as a lesson. We've done a poor job of understanding our own sacred book. We've done and even worse job at drawing logical conclusions based on it. It's time for Christians to make some changes and make sure that the world understands that although we don't condone a lot what is done here on Earth, we are invested in improving it and making it a better place by improving ourselves. That, after all, is what our savior taught us to do.",
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      "body": "Sometimes it seems that Christians are so focused on getting people to salvation, it seems that they think they are capable of doing it themselves. But when we do this, we lose the example of Jesus.\n\nJesus wasn't pushy about salvation. But what He did do was prepare the way. He knew that people had to accept salvation for themselves and could never be forced or preached into it. Instead He spoke in parables that allowed people to recognize their need themselves. He pointed them in the right direction, knowing that they would take the steps when they were ready. He wasn't standing behind them pushing them down the path. Modern Christianity can look a lot like the latter.\n\nIt's my goal to rethink my role for God. I want to learn, in my quest to become ever closer to and more like Jesus, how to show people what the need. I want to prepare a way for them to reach Jesus, the Jesus has prepared a way for me to reach God.",
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      "body": "We all want people to see the world the way we do. We think it would be a better place if they did. We may try to improve our ideas, but we still think we already have it together more than most. But the discussion and argumentation that arises from this belief is most important. And the better we participate in it, the better the ideas we produce as a group. I've started to think more about how to participate in that process.\n\nI've always been someone who wanted to convince everyone to change their minds to my position immediately. But I've learned in recent years to shift away from that. I still want to change people's minds, but I can't control the timeline. So I've had to rethink the way I discuss things.\n\nI've realized that further refining my own understanding of something is the first step. The more it becomes refined (and realize that sometimes refinement can objectively look like a 180-degree turn, even though it's a slight shift in understanding), the better I can explain it. But explaining my position only goes so far. I present my side as an alternative to what others already think, but they have no reason to accept it as long as they still believe their story.\n\nI used to attack and belittle ideas that weren't mine. But that's never been very effective. People wrap up their ideas too closely with their person. They take a strong challenge as an insult. So I've been trying something new.\n\nI've found it to be useful to try and figure out why people are so rooted to a particular belief. I presume that they're intelligent, reasonable people, just taking the wrong inference away from a particular phenomena. But if I can expose what that phenomena is, I can connect with them better. I can show them all the implications of their particular response. Expose what they are really arguing for. But I recognize that it will never convince them of anything in that moment. They need it to fester. They need to stew on it. Changing one's mind often takes time for most people.\n\nNone of this is to say the process is calm and peaceful. Quite the opposite. Drilling down to the core of why someone believes something, finding out what they are reacting to, is an intense, heated process. But these discussions have more direction and purpose than they used to. It's less an emotional exercise and more a philosophical and intellectual one, even if they only come along kicking and screaming. \n\nI take this strategy in most everything I discuss, particularly in matters of religion and social philosophy. I no longer have to be the one who today converts the atheist or the communist away from their misunderstanding. I'm happy to be a piece in the puzzle. I'm no longer expecting to get the big victory of transition someone entirely to my viewpoint right away. I've learned to be happy with small steps. Even ones that aren't a shift in mindset at all, but just people admitting to themselves what they really stand for. Those are the little victories that give me hope.",
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      "body": "This chapter is about the absurd notion that a nation should desire to have their exports exceed their imports as much as possible. And I really can do anything to clarify it any better than to reiterate what Bastiat pointed out at the end of the chapter, which was simply taking protectionist logic to its finishing point.\n\nBy this logic, a nation is made better by passing its goods through the customhouse and then tossing them into the sea. And inversely, a country would be made poorer is another nation gave them goods and products without asking for any in return. Try to make sense of that?",
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      "body": "The Patriots have put together an unprecedented run of success in the NFL. They are about to play in their eighth Super Bowl in 16 years. Many say that their incredible run is made even more impressive because the NFL is believed to be in a time of parity between teams. But what if the opposite were true? What if the NFL's parity was the Patriot's greatest advantage?\n\nThe reality is that parity doesn't necessarily decrease the chances of a dynasty, and may even increase them. There's a limit to the talent, innovative thinking, and technical advantage available to go around football. And it is true that the more evenly these elements are spread around, the lower the odds of great teams arising. But what if one does?\n\nIf a team in a time of parity were able to find a truly significant advantage, perhaps something like the greatest coach and quarterback combination in the history of the sport, then their odds of success are quite good as long as they hang onto that advantage. The parity makes it harder for other teams to challenge the team with the advantage. \n\nIn the absence of the NFL's rules which favor parity, it's likely that other teams would find other advantages which might give them a better chance against the Patriots. The league as a whole might appear more lopsided, but there wouldn't be anything in the rules to stop any team from finding an advantage. That's why a league like Major League Baseball, notably less designed for parity, hasn't seen anything close to a dynasty like the Patriots in decades and hasn't had a repeat World Series winner since 2000. Even the Yankees' more recent success was limited to a seven-year run and not nearly two decades like the Patriots. Baseball has also seen small market successes like the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals despite those teams being limited by much lower payrolls. \n\nThe Patriots' incredibly coaching and quarterback play has been a significant part of their success. But the NFL's rules favoring parity have also played a role in preventing quality opposition from taking them on. By trying to even the playing field, the NFL has inadvertently tilted it dramatically in the Patriot's favor. But that's by no means the only place we see this phenomena.\n\nFor years now, the mantra of many in the United States' government has proclaimed that their role is to \"even the playing field\" for the competition of business in the country. And worse, they seem to have, at times, honestly tried to do that. The tools available to them have been costly regulations and taxes. They've tried to set the \"rules to the game\" in a way that they believe will allow everyone to compete. \n\nBut instead of creating the utopia of competition that these meddlers and busybodies thought they were producing, they've created a circumstance that hinders competition and leads to the \"dynasties\" of business: massive corporations.\n\nLarge corporations are businesses that have discovered some advantage within the government's rules for parity. They've found their Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. And instead of allowing other companies to find their own advantage, rise up, and challenge those companies, the government has placed a bunch of barriers and obstacles in their way. \n\nThe result matches the Patriots. As the NFL team continues to rack up Super Bowl appearances and victories, these companies continue to grow larger and larger. And without the competition, the options available to consumers has been artificially limited. Just as it's time for the NFL to eliminate their rules in favor of parity and free teams to find their advantages, it's also time for governments to tear down the barriers to entry and allow real competition to return. \n\nOnly then will we see the end of large corporations and greater availability of choices for consumers. Free from government shackles, small- and medium-sized business will be able to tailor their offerings to what a smaller set of customers' desire. We'll move away from \"one-size-fits-all\" solutions that come from organizations built to harness economies of scale. And we'll see a boom in better-customized solutions that more closely fit our needs.",
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      "body": "Just a few days ago, Burger King released a video of a sorry attempt to explain why they believe we need government to involve themselves in how access to the internet is distributed. They advocate for \"Net Neutrality,\" or \"Internet Socialism.\"\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltzy5vRmN8Q\n\n\nThis video has nearly four million views as of this writing. It's been shared all over social media platforms. And when looking at the comments, many seem to believe that it's done an excellent job explaining why we need government to institute \"Net Neutrality.\" The popularity and belief in the accuracy of this video should be considered the moment when all hope for America was lost. That this video hasn't been tossed aside, as the nonsensical, poorly-thought-out drek that it is, is a devastating condemnation of our society's utter lack of critical thinking and the public schooling system that taught us how to avoid using our minds.\n\nAnyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together who watches this video should have one simple question on their mind: why don't we have government instituting \"burger neutrality?\" Clearly, Burger King would gladly charge more for priority access to burgers if they could, but they don't. Or are we really supposed to believe that ISPs are evil corporations and Burger King, with their wildly unhealthy (but often delicious) assortment of slop that they serve up to the public, is a caring, charitable organization that doesn't offer priority access for a higher fee because they believe that just wouldn't be fair? Nonsense.\n\nThe reason Burger King doesn't run their business like the video demonstrates, the reason we don't see campaigns for \"Burger Neutrality\" and don't need Net Neutrality: competition. \n\nIf Burger King were to institute a policy like that in the video, they would be out of business in a week (unless, of course, they were to get the government to institute a \"burger bailout\"). After just one look at a priority access menu, every Burger King patron would find their way to the nearest McDonalds or Wendy's where they can get their burgers both timely and cheap. Customers would make the same choice regarding internet access.\n\nCompetition is the key to cheap and fast internet access. The threat of competition will drive business practices and offerings towards what consumers desire. If the real motive behind the \"Net Neutrality\" movement were better, faster, freer internet, then they would advocate for the elimination of government-created (often on a local level) barriers to entry that keep the market for ISPs limited to just a handful of options. \n\nThere may still be some fast lanes that remain, and, in a world where surgeons will soon be regularly performing surgeries on the other side of the planet via robotic arms and internet access, that's a good thing. But the caricature painted by the internet socialism advocates, in which rich people enjoy streaming Netflix and live events while the rest of struggle to check email, is absurd. To argue otherwise is to demonstrate a severe deficiency in intellectual capacity or to be dishonest. I can't say what category the individuals at Burger King who are behind the video fall into. But what is sure is that their video does not prove that we need government involvement in internet distribution; it proves why we don't.",
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