"Tolkien knew that the alternative, the grasp for ultimate power, meant that the contest between good and evil would be transformed into a contest between evils. The raw quest for power will corrupt all it touches." - David French
"In the short run, shamelessness works. Eventually, though, one must stand before God—naked and unable to fight one’s own conscience with bravado." - CToday
"To understand what I mean, let’s refer back to one of my favorite passages in scripture—Micah 6:8.... simple to understand yet tough to execute: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”" (So why is our political culture so toxic?) - David French
As humans, we have a strong bias toward the practical. It makes sense. Even before the Fall, Adam was given responsibilities that required problem-solving, outcome-oriented, cause-and-effect thinking.
Naming the animals was a puzzle to solve (Gen 2:19-20). How do you name them all without using names twice? How do you name them in a way that is orderly? You don’t have to be Linnaeus to notice that the characteristics of animals follow patterns. Adam would have had some interest in categorizing animals as he named them, and that would have required problem-solving thought.
Then there was the job of tending and keeping the garden of Eden (Gen 2:15). We’re still pre-curse, but the language implies overcoming challenges to improve what was there.
We could speculate about what that involved, but here’s the point: From day one, humans were made to think along the lines of, “If I choose Option A, I’ll get this result; but if I choose Option B, I’ll get a better result; so I should go with Option B.”
There’s nothing wrong with that. God made us that way, and said it was “very good” (Gen 1:31).
"...profit for business is like breathing for humans—both are necessary for existence, but very few of us claim that respiration is the ultimate purpose in life." - IFWE
"The movement spent 40 years at war with secular America. Now it’s at war with itself." - The Atlantic
"Christian cultural influence only lasts when it’s backed up by the moral credibility of the church." - C.Today
"Power is not a bad thing. It is not a neutral thing, either. It is, first, in the Christian view, a good thing, a God-created thing.... Without power, there will be no glorious eternal reign of the one to whom all power on heaven and on earth will be given. Power brings good to others." - Mark Ward
