Religious

Archive for Religious

God as Director

Instead of worrying about how you’re going to screw up next, interpret your life as if you’re watching an intricate movie, where you don’t know what’s coming. Someone says, “What do you think’s going to happen? Is it going to be bad?” And you answer, “I don’t know. But I’m familiar with the previous work […]

Bob Murphy Show Twin Spin

In ep. 80 I reproduced my interview with Patrick from the “Cave to the Cross” apologetics podcast (video below). Among other things, we tackled the question, “Would the laws of economics be true in the Garden of Eden?” Then in ep. 81 I have Jeffrey Rogers Hummel on to talk more about the economics of […]

You Didn’t Build That (God Did)

There’s nothing wrong with the logic of libertarian property rights (homesteading etc.). The problem only comes in if you assume empirically at the outset that the Earth was unowned when the first human stumbled upon it. Because if the opening Genesis account were true, for example, then God is obviously the owner of everything. Again, […]

God as Hero or Villain?

I have tried expressing my views on how the “unfair” system described in the Bible is actually incredibly just, but I got the sense that it didn’t “take” last time. Let me try to explain it again. Suppose that when you die, you see the full impact of all of your choices throughout your life, […]

The Mindset of a Pharisee

Check out this interviewer trying to nail Jordan Peterson. When JP explains how his work has helped countless young men escape drug addiction and suicide, the guy doesn’t bat an eye (or challenge JP to see if he’s exaggerating). He just moves on to the next rhetorical trap. (And no, just because I’m saying this […]

God the Teacher

I was looking at the reaction on Facebook to Bernie Sanders’ hospitalization. Someone wrote, “I hope he dies and burns in hell” (or something like that). It really struck me: I do not at all think God operates in such a crude fashion. I am happy for people to post Bible verses that apparently endorse […]

“Black Mirror” and the Need for Jesus

I have been very impressed with the Black Mirror series. I am way behind (I only started watching them this year, I believe) but wanted to write a quick post concerning one of the episodes… (Note that there are major spoilers, in case you are only starting the series yourself.) The episode starts showing a […]

“Why?”

In economics a lot of what I do–especially when writing for the general public–is to flesh out a thought experiment where the government does something that I consider to be a bad policy. Though it violates some abstract moral principle, it may seem to yield beneficial results. But then, as time passes in the thought […]