Tag Archives: ethics

Rationalizing the Irrational…

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My nephew, Kenny, shot me this article.

An MIT prof has noted that while we’re good at rationalizing unethical behavior, we’re not very rational about right and wrong behavior. This part of the article stands out to me:

For example, he gave people a test consisting of very easy math questions–but without giving them nearly enough time to finish. On average, people got four right out of 20. Then he had people take the test, score it themselves, shred the answer sheet and tell him how they did. Suddenly the average jumped to seven.

He repeated the experiment, paying people according to how many right answers they got. Same result. “Everybody cheated, but just a little.” Even when there was no chance of getting caught–the evidence was shredded and participants paid themselves from a jar of money with over $100–nobody claimed 20 right answers. They just padded their results by a bit.

But then he tried another variation: Before doing the test, he asked one group of subjects to name 10 books they had read in high school. He asked another group to name as many of the Ten Commandments as they could remember. The group that listed the books followed the same pattern as the earlier test–they all cheated a little. But the group that named the commandments was different: Nobody cheated at all!

“Just the act of contemplating morality eliminated cheating,” Ariely explains.

“…the act of contemplating morality…”

Interesting.

The entire article is here.

What does Jesus Say about Judging Others?

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Our society has become extreme in its desire not to tell people they are wrong. We don’t have sins – we have issues. We don’t commit evil deeds – we make mistakes. But this tendency not to judge goes beyond moral and ethical issues. A couple of years ago I heard on the radio that in California, school children who answer 5 when asked what 2+2 is are not to be told, “That’s wrong.” The teacher is to reply with, “Well – that’s an answer. Can you think of another one?”

Why don’t we want to tell children when they are wrong? Because we don’t want to fracture their psyche? Because we don’t want to teach them to judge? Because we are afraid to judge? Probably all of these, but think about that last one. We are afraid to judge any wrongs — especially moral ones.

And in this professed reluctance to judge, we are quite hypocritical. If you watch the moralists on daytime TV talk shows, you see this. They will say, “Don’t judge others” over and over again. But those same hosts judge others repeatedly. They judge politicians, families, religious people – they especially judge Christians – all the while reciting the mantra: “Don’t judge others.”

But it’s not just daytime TV that preaches this tolerance. I’ve heard good Christian people say it’s wrong to judge others. Someone is gambling away the paycheck. Well – don’t judge. Someone is cheating on his wife. Well – don’t judge. Someone has stolen something from his employer. Well – don’t judge.

Why would Christians fall into this error? One reason is the they don’t understand the passage addressed in the sermon attached to this post.

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