Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Golden Rule

This morning I had an epiphany that connected random memories. This happens rarely, but when it does I am left reflecting on my presumed genius or idiocy, and I am never sure which is more descriptive of myself.

I was casually asked about the Golden Rule this last Sunday while sitting in Elder's Quorum at my local Church. I tilted my head and knew the answer, but in my ever-so-introverted way I waited to see how people would respond. The "correct" answer was given many times. If you don't know the correct answer, understand first that the validity is related to the circumstance, namely being in Church. Jesus asked us to do unto others as we would have them do to us. The origin of the idea, hopefully rooted in the good book, eludes me. I digress; my inability to properly reference the Bible is too common of an occurrence and makes me feel spiritually inadequate.

One Elder though, comically answered the question about the Golden Rule and said, "Whoever has the gold, makes the rules." We all laughed and smiled. Humor is rare in Church and I welcome it when it makes an appearance. It is my opinion, that most prominent Church members are far too concerned with the outward showing of humility and display of reserved sober conservatism rather than spiritual enlightenment. The Gospel of Jesus is as much about finding God as it is about serving him thru loving our neighbors. If we fail to connect with other living people, to truly connect, than not only will we likely fail to serve others, but we won't ever really understand what it means to live at all.

I didn't come up with my thought until I was perusing Facebook today and noticed for the millionth time someone's toxic post with a link supporting their argumentative viewpoint. When I say toxic, I mean a statement intended to create controversy and social impairment. The link was the catalyst. Often they are so-called scientific articles that support their belief on correlated statistical data. Take note I used the term "belief" rather than theory. A theory is something that has been tested and can be retested. Statistical data correlations are not proof of anything. Correlations indicate there may be a relationship but how they are related is not proven (if at all).

What does this all have to do with the Golden Rule? Well, in the past I have tried to point out to people who so lovingly adore toxic posts on Facebook with ridiculous scientific links who base their entire argument on statistical correlations, there are always two sides to the story. In an our world, the two sides to each story have to do with money. There is money to be made on any controversy or on any issue. Find a so-called scientific study about why vaccinations are bad and after digging into details you'll find the study was funded by groups that had preformed that opinion prior to the study, and more importantly financially benefit from people getting sick. Find a study supporting vaccinations, and they were likely funded by drug companies who made the vaccinations. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out the drug companies are funding both studies just to cause controversy and get people buying vaccinations and/or other flu-symptom remedy drugs.

It's the same with any controversy. Find an article on why butter is better than margarine, you can guess who funded it. But you dig more and you'll find articles "proving" the opposite. It doesn't matter if it's breast milk vs formula, computer games vs console games, soccoer vs football, beer vs wine, drinking underage vs. wine at dinner, condoms vs. abstinence, gay vs. straight...it doesn't matter. And when you stand back in awe of the human condition, you realize that the joker in my Elder's Quorum nailed it right with his quip. Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

All the statistical proof (I laugh) is just a symptom of the Human Condition. It's what keeps us here on Earth. It is a byproduct of Sin. Is it coincidence that the Golden Rule has two meanings, earthly ambition and spiritual enlightenment.

When we base our decisions in this world on the byproduct of Sin, are we giving into sin? I don't know. Are we giving into our base desires and becoming the natural man when we support financial hypocrisy? Is Science our Tower of Babylon?