Check out this AP article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100405/ap_on_sc/us_sci_wisdom_of_the_aged
What implications does this have for church conflict, church resolutions, and guidance for new young pastors?
the whole article is available for reading if anyone's interested:
Grossmann et. al. (April 2010). "Reasoning about social conflicts improves into old age". PNAS Early Edition. doi:10.1073/pnas.1001715107.
it's an interesting study, but since the questions were about immigration and ethnic tensions, the results may have been different if the study was done in the south instead of in michigan.
anyway, i don't think this study really shows much more than the stereotype – there are some wise old people. of course there are some cantankerous old people and some old people suffer from dementia. if you know some of these wise old people, it's advantageous to tap their wisdom.
Since I'm brand new to the forum I must watch my p's and q's, as they say.
Being a fundamental Christian forum, I didn't really expect to see a 'secular study' evaluating church conduct (regarding aged) when I thought Paul made some very clear guidelines to Timothy. I'll be 70 next month and my signature shows I'm fond of the 'Grandfather Psalm'.
(no malice intended, men...)
