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Can you be Good Without God?
Most of us consider ourselves good people. We want to live moral lives, want to do what’s right, want to earn the respect of others. Our intentions are almost always good. But we all know about a certain road paved with good intentions.
So how do we figure it out? We try to follow the law, but the law is written by imperfect human beings, and every day we read in the headlines about some miscarriage of justice perpetrated by the very system that is supposed to ensure that justice is done. We try to listen to our conscience, but our neighbor’s moral compass points south and ours points north.
Historically, man has turned to religion, but there too the headlines are filled with disillusionment, and history records countless atrocities perpetrated in the name of heaven. And even when we manage to achieve moral clarity, in the next moment temptation presents itself and our heartfelt resolutions fly out the window.
How to Stop a Fight
This has happened to you.
You’re standing in a crowded room. Someone pushes into you from behind. You feel a surge of irritation, even anger. Who is this careless oaf who can’t respect your personal space? You turn around to express your indignation, only to discover that the offending party is actually a good friend of yours who has bumped into you accidentally or, perhaps, even on purpose and is not smiling at you as you find yourself on the receiving end of a good-natured prank.
Your anger evaporates in an instant.
But why? The bump was no less of a bump on account of the person who bumped you. But the bump was never the issue at all. What was at issue was your ego, resenting the perpetrator who failed to show you respect.
It’s almost always ego that is the real perpetrator in any fight. Change one little detail and our irritation or anger vanishes. But when we feel our ego has been affronted, heaven help the offending party.
Conquer Laziness Now
Readers of a certain age may remember an old Goodyear tire commercial with the tag line, “You can pay me now, or pay me later.” The applications transcend auto repair, as Shaomin Li, professor of international business at Virginia’s Old Dominion University discovered on a business trip to Taiwan.
As he was being chauffeured from one venue to the next, Professor Li noticed that his host always backed into parking lot spaces, opting for often tricky and laborious maneuvering over the simpler method of pulling straight forward. Detecting a wider pattern of behavior, Professor Li conducted his own experiment. He discovered that 88% of Chinese drivers back in when they park, in contrast to 6% of American drivers.
“All of a sudden,” recounts Professor Li, “I said, gee — isn’t this delayed gratification?”
The Drifters: A Generation Lost in Space
You know who they are. You’ve seen them. They’re everywhere. On the roads. In the malls. In office buildings and grocery stores and parking lots.
There’s no way to avoid them. And there are more of them every day.
You know who I mean: the drifters.
They’re the ones driving just under the speed limit – 28 MPH in a 30 zone, not quite slow enough to pass and maddeningly unaware. They’re the ones walking through the aisles, down the halls, up the stairs, and across the floor, like Energizer Bunnies with batteries that have finally run down, refusing to stop but plodding along, sporadic, lethargic.
And it’s not just their lack of speed, not merely their dawdling. That we could live with, anticipate, and circumvent. It’s something much more than that – or much less.
They drift.
Start Making Better Choices
Why are fish so smart? Because they go around in schools.
Turns out, it’s no joke. Just ask Christian Agrillo, a comparative psychologist at Italy’s University of Padova. In his research, Dr. Agrillo tests something called numerical competence. By placing three black dots in front of a desirable object (like food, or a door that leads to other fish) and two dots in front of an undesirable object (like no food, or a door that leads nowhere), Dr. Agrillo has been able to determine that fish have the ability to differentiate between different numbers.
Along the way, however, the researchers discovered something else. Put fish together and they make better decisions than they make when they’re alone.
The Illusion of Wisdom
Seat belts. Shoulder straps. Air bags. Radial tires. Automatic headlights. Warning chimes. Back up cameras.
It’s only a matter of time before car manufacturers introduce the next big safety innovation… and the next, and the next… inexorably making us safer and safer as we take to the roadways.
Or so it would seem.
But are we really safer, or are we indulging an illusion of safety that may actually place us in greater danger?
Yonason Goldson 