Understanding Spirituality and Culture through Christ
The first step in avoiding the trap of comparison games, to live into the freedom that Jesus offers is to make Jesus our reference point by keeping our eyes on Jesus. St. Teresa of Avila said prayer is us looking at God gazing lovingly at us. If we are able to behold the love of God in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will not be tempted to look for validation from other centered reference points.
Read MoreThe idea of using micro electrodes in the brain to program away faulty thinking reminds me of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World which uses drugs instead of electromagnetism to manage brains creating a crime-less society with unmitigated happiness. The problem of course is that a society which does not have a sense of freewill ends up into becoming a rather boring society. One of the characters, John Savage, finds such a world so meaningless that he tries to find meaning in suffering, lashing himself with a whip, and eventually taking his own life away. Why would a society filled with easy ways for chemically induced happiness be rather boring and meaningless?
Yes, people can change history of they have a singular passion for an idea and are willing to die for it. But for this change to create any kind of last peace in a Christlike way, the means and the ends have to align. Using coercive power may give short term results. But one cannot use coercive powers of destruction to create lasting peace, case in point Nechayev’s Revolution. One can only use self-sacrificial love of the way of Jesus to create lasting peace.
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