Pastor Dan on the theological implications of the Prisoner’s Dilemma:
… the message here is clear: God stands on the side of those who have been sold out time and again by the defectors. He will protect those who cooperate in good faith, and at the right moment, step in to settle the score and smash the game but good.
Let him who has ears hear: God doesn’t much like those who would set their own needs ahead of the needs of their friends. Defect too often, and you’re liable to answer to the master for it.
[...] we know what we are to be about. It might be best for the Prisoners to sell one another out, but God the ultimate judge has made it clear that he likes the people who cooperate the best.
Therefore, we are to encourage one another and to build one another up. Or to put it another way, we are to take a chance on one another as God has taken a chance on us.
Because there is nothing to prevent us from defecting from one another. There is nothing to prevent us from selling one another out. There is nothing to prevent us from stabbing one another in the back. We are called to proceed with our lives open and vulnerable to these risks, not in fear and suspicion of one another. The mistake of the faithless servant is not his failure to invest the money his master has entrusted to him, but the assumption that his master would not stand beside him as he risked it all.
I like it, especially when the country is recovering from a gargantuan “Greed Is Good” hangover.
umm, ah, not so sure on this one, ….many of the greedy is good folks, are pretty good at the prisoners lack of cooperation play.. some of the immoral side of see no evil, speak no evil while the hand is in the till, and non-conspiracy cooperations of the wolves counting sheep.
And because it is apropos,and it continues to tickle my mind, ” just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean that they are not out to get you.”
Anyway, now that its Monday, yet again, what makes you think we are any place close to the Greed is Good recovery phase, I hear the government free bar and international power grabs are just getting their midnight revel going. not to mention that practice of drunks, start the morning with hair of the dog that bit em. The loud game of moving the chairs around and watching folks fall down is going strong now.
les
November 17th, 2008
Yeah, “recovering” was a bit optimistic. Sigh.
Satchel
November 17th, 2008
700 billion here, 150 billion there, 25 billion here…as someone once remarked, “If they keep this up, pretty soon we’ll be talking serious bucks!”
The Master in the story of the talents was quite the gift giver since a single talent exceeded the amount of money paid to laborers for 15 years worth of wages! At just $10 @ hour, that would total $312K for guy gifted with just one talent. Hey, I could use that kind of a bailout myself! It could help me “start over” financially speaking. The one talent guy was going to need to start over, too. The Master (Jesus) wasn’t really giving money or tradable commodities, however, to his slaves (disciples). He had given them (us?) the priceless gift of the gospel to invest (share) with others. The one talent guy never really accepted the gift, i.e. he referred to it as “your talent” to the Master and noted then that the Master could “take your talent” back intact. The outer darkness is, thus, a choice already made by the one talent slave. He’s not done, though. With this particular Master it’s recommended that the one talent slave choose to trust the Master (faith), accept the precious, abundant gift that is always still on the table (a chance to start over again), and then invest it (share) with others. Not a matter of obedience since the Master never left instructions. Each slave (disciple) is free to invest (share) as they deem best. The choice to not share or to not even accept the gift is a choice that leads to darkness and gnashing of the teeth. The offer of the gift is never withdrawn so even the one talent slave can choose to start over. Okay - blah, blah, blah!
Dave
November 17th, 2008
Thank God for being able to start over. I think I’m starting over starting over (iterate n times)!
Satchel
November 18th, 2008
Now there is a winning attitude, starting over, starting over with indefinite recursion, till the stack and memory is full….but are you ready to be a teenager again?
I was miserable, but I would.
les
November 18th, 2008