I don't really know what is more out of kilter -- nonbelievers looking at this kind of thing without enormous gratitude to God, or soft leftist believers refusing to look at this kind of thing because it throws a spanner into their politics of envy. We should remember that Jesus Himself said that gaining the world and losing your soul was a bad deal. But gaining the world while claiming you have lost it is one way that a lot of folks lose their soul. What is so hard about saying thank you? HT: Right Mind.
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This is a good time to plug Rodney Stark's book "The Victory of Reason." I believe you've plugged it before, but it demonstrates how and why the West gained both wealth and health at a much greater rate than the rest of the world.
Matthew N. Petersen
Wednesday, December 01, 2010 11:43 am
But I think this sort of graphic distorts the picture. I would submit we are like Judah in Isaiah 2: [blockquote]O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.[/blockquote]We are a prosperous civilization, but a rotten one with no heart, for we have forsaken the Lord our God. Through abortion we crush the widow and the orphan, and (at least debatably) crush the poor through tariffs and debts. And, most importantly, we have forsaken the Jesus Christ, our king and our God, and gone a whoring after Mammon. Ours is a time calling for repentance in sack-cloth, not feasting on our benefits.
Moreover, you rightly point out (elsewhere) that in Scripture, it is the idols of the converts, not of the Pagans that are burned. Thus we should not burn Korans, but perhaps should burn our Netflix accounts.
But an even greater idol of our time than movies, and one in which we all trust for salvation, is money. Would it not make sense, on that ground, to burn our money as an idol? Here is the true idol of our culture.
jay niemeyer
Wednesday, December 01, 2010 12:17 pm
That was extraordinary! I have to share this one on FB.
jay niemeyer
Wednesday, December 01, 2010 12:25 pm
This is somewhat similar to an excellent book that came out a few years back called "The Progress Paradox". It showed how, despite the general trend of things getting better and better, polls showed that people felt that they were getting far worse.
Sarah French
Wednesday, December 01, 2010 1:31 pm
Well said - by both you and Hans Rosling.
I've used his videos on TED for a Global Health class I teach. The free software he (and his children) developed is so useful for analyzing global trends and testing ideas we take for granted. For instance, his research shows that countries often experience increased wealth and health before seeing reductions in fertility. The implications of this are not inconsequential in the population-planning happy field of global health. It provides a great discussion starting point with my students.
Rod Story
Wednesday, December 01, 2010 4:40 pm
Most folks incorrectly assume that the amount of wealth in the world is fixed: ie when someone gains, its at the expense of someone else. A perfect illustration of how God has blessed the world through Western Civilization.
Victor Savard
Tuesday, December 07, 2010 12:17 pm
Pretty neat story
It reminds me a little of when our separate school pricipal would sit us all in the hall on Friday for about an hour and told us in the early sixties that when we got older, we students would have a lot of free time to do more of what we wanted to do and he was right. The only thing he forgot to tell us was that most of us wouldn't have the money to spend.
I hope for the sake of our children and grandchildren that Hans Rosling is right and I'll keep praying that he is but I'm sure that there are a lot more out there who still have doubts.
