21st August 2008

Commandment 8: Make More Than Matter Matter

This commandment’s significance is impossible to cover in a brief post. So here is an introduction to the subject’s range.
tabletsThe first “Matter” refers to the material world around us: atoms, rocks, birds, and and everything else that takes up space for a period of time. The second “Matter” refers to whatever is important.
The level of second “Matter” (value) we apply to the first “Matter” (stuff) is represented with money. Hence, materialism (the belief that only material objects exist) becomes materialism (an obsession with money and the things which can be purchased with it). There. Now the vocabulary is all clear!
The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6) because it indicates both an obsession with the material world and a disregard for the spiritual.
A Christian outlook on life includes everything excluded by materialism: personal character and responsibility, volition, spirituality, eternal life, and God. Believe it or not, consistent thinkers “know” (ironically) that even consciousness itself is not compatible with materialism (the kind that says only matter exists) since a brain and a mind are not the same thing.
The extent to which science can speak accurately is entirely determined by the extent to which it limits itself to the material domain. Science speaks powerfully to the way material things operate, but it cannot speak at all to the value or meaning of anything. So it is particularly important for those with a Christian worldview, a worldview very much governed by value and meaning, not to be limited by the same myopic obsession with matter.

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21st August 2008

Commandment 7: Make Every Rule for Everybody, Including Me

tabletsThis commandment is based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:12, the golden rule. As it turns out, it is extensionally equivalent (sorry for the obfuscation here) to Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. Many people seem to think the golden rule is about making sure we’re nice to other people so they’ll be nice to us. Hardly.
The point is that if we are going to claim anything is right for us, we must also acknowledge that it is right for everyone else. And if we are going to claim something is wrong for someone else, we must acknowledge that it is wrong for us. As it turns out, this rule is more than coincidentally powerful. It is rationally impossible to believe morality is real and not hold this view. Further, when all is taken into account, it appears that this one rule manages to encompass every moral imperative about living with people.
In traffic, it means one person cannot ethically take the shoulder since the benefit of doing so hinges on everyone else following a rule he has not applied to himself.
In economics, it means there must be a level playing field. That is, there must be a free market, with governmental intrusion only where there is fraud.
Respect for authority, for life, for marriage, for personal property, and for truth itself are all products of this one commandment.

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