Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Which would you choose?

In a book review on Slate.com (to be found at: http://www.slate.com/id/2208430/), Howard Gardner starts off with a thought experiment. He proposes, "You walk into a bookstore and see three stacks of books. The books are titled Born To Be Good, Born To Be Bad, and Born To Be Good or Bad. Which one do you pick up first? Fast forward. You have now scanned the tables of contents of the three books. The first book has chapters called "Smile," "Love," and "Compassion"; the second features chapters titled "Anger," "Jealousy," and "Spite"; the third has chapters on "Love vs. Hate," "Altruism vs. Selfishness," and "Honesty vs. "Deceit." Which book do you buy? Which are you apt to believe?"

Since many of our ideas about the nature of human beings come from our religious beliefs, I was intriqued by the possibilities. So, which book would you look at first? Which book would you buy? Is your choice based in any way on your understanding of the concept of original sin in human beings? Would you buy the book that would seem to agree with your belief that human beings are or are not born sinful OR the book that would seem to dispute the notion? Would you pass on both books that seem to have the answer and purchase the one that appears to be wrestling with finding an answer?

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