Jonathan's blog

From an article by M.P. Dunleavey in The New York Times and reprinted in the International Herald Tribune:

One of the great puzzles of human nature is why we keep striving for more material things - money, jobs, homes, cars, flat-screen televisions - when they do not seem to make us any happier in the long run. Philosophers have pondered this conundrum for centuries, and modern economists have been examining it from a number of angles, over several decades, in a multitude of cultures. Not only does greater wealth not guarantee happiness - even when you get what you want - research indicates that you will not find it as satisfying as you had hoped, and you will want something else. Richard Easterlin, professor of economics at the University of Southern California, is one of the seminal researchers in this area. In effect, his work shows that if you think that buying a three-bedroom condominium and a certain kind of car will make you happy, you had better think twice. In a few years, a) you're not likely to report being any happier, and b) you're likely to say that, now, finding a good private school for your children and buying a vacation home will really make you happy. In Easterlin's view, this cycle of desire and dissatisfaction tends to keep people on an endless treadmill. This may sound self-defeating, but that is Easterlin's point. Why not get off the treadmill and pursue a life with fewer material ambitions? You would probably be happier. Or would you? If our material achievements tend to leave us only momentarily fulfilled, why then do so many people keep reaching for that next goal? Claudia Senik, professor of economics at the Sorbonne, believes that the struggle for a certain achievement may offer a peculiar reward all its own. "For the basic person there is pleasure in progress," Senik said. "We are proud to aim at something - to earn a degree, buy a house. So when I work to reach a higher position or earn a higher income, I'm already happy today." It may seem that we are all hapless consumers, at the mercy of our own greed and needs - or cursed by the gods. But Senik offers a more positive interpretation. You can let go of the rather iffy rewards of getting and spending, and look for everyday pleasure while you are struggling to advance, improve, progress, achieve and attain. As Easterlin pointed out, "If you recognize that the striving can be of value in itself, then instead of taking a job that pays you the most, you may be better off taking work you'll enjoy."

From an article by Michael E. Ross on MSNBC.com:

At a time when the U.S. economy is on the upswing and more people are finding work, young African American men are falling further behind. That's the grim portrait painted by three new and forthcoming books by scholars at Columbia, Georgetown and Princeton universities. The picture isn't new, but the depths of its despair and pathology are. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates there are about 5 million black men in America between the ages of 20 and 39. The new books, and an earlier one from Harvard, find them losing ground in mainstream American society, despite advances made by black women, presumably part of the same socioeconomic experience. This vexing problem, caused by a variety of social ills, is equally vexing when scholars consider what causes it. Among the studies' findings:

• Rates of imprisonment for young black men escalated throughout the 1990s and continued climbing well into the current decade. About 16 percent of black men in their twenties who were not college students were either in jail or in prison.
• African Americans are seven times more likely to go to prison or jail than whites.
• Almost 60 percent of black male high school dropouts in their early thirties have spent time in prison.
• The percentage of young jobless black men continues to increase, part of a trend that generally hasn't abated in decades. In 2000, about 65 percent of black male high-school dropouts had no jobs, either because they couldn't find work or because they were in jail. By 2004, the studies found that number had grown to 72 percent. The numbers for young black men were higher than for whites and Hispanics similarly affected.

Today I did something that I haven't done in about 16 years. It's something that I think most people do at least a few times each year, but I hadn't in more than 15. Just for fun, anyone who reads this should leave a comment, including his/her guess for what I did today. I'll reveal the secret to this great mystery in a few days.

The Gospel of Judas has been in the news lately. From an article on MSNBC.com:

An ancient manuscript rediscovered after 1,700 years takes a "contrarian" view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, the disciple who handed him over for crucifixion. The papyrus manuscript was written around 300 A.D. in Coptic script, and is a copy of an earlier Greek text, said Terry Garcia of the National Geographic Society, which made the manuscript public. Discovered in 1970, the papyrus was kept in a safety deposit box for several years and began to deteriorate before conservators restored it. More than 1,000 pieces had to be reassembled. The manuscript was authenticated through radiocarbon dating as well as ink analysis, multispectral imaging and an analysis of the content for linguistic style and handwriting style, National Geographic reported. Garcia said the National Geographic Society has spent "north of a million [dollars] and south of $2 million" on the restoration so far, and "the bills are still coming in." Unlike the four gospels in the Bible, this text indicates that Judas betrayed Jesus at Jesus' request. The manuscript thus represents "one of the most unusual and contrarian" views of New Testament events, said Bart Ehrman, a scriptural scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The newly translated document's text begins: "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot." In a key passage Jesus tells Judas, "You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." This indicates that Judas would help liberate the spiritual self by helping Jesus get rid of his physical flesh, scholars said. "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom," Jesus says to Judas, singling him out for special status. "Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star." The text ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the high priests and does not include any mention of the crucifixion or resurrection.

Edward Fudge made a few comments here and here about this subject.

From an article by Alan Cooperman in The Washington Post from several weeks back:

Last December, some evangelical Christian groups declared that the religious celebration of Christmas -- and even the phrase "Merry Christmas" -- was under attack by the forces of secularism. This week, radio commentator Rick Scarborough convened a two-day conference in Washington on the "War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006." The opening session was devoted to "reports from the frontlines" on "persecution" of Christians in the United States and Canada, including an artist whose paintings were barred from a municipal art show in Deltona, Fla., because they contained religious themes. To many of the 400 evangelicals packed into a small ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, it was a hard but necessary look at moral relativism, hedonism and Christophobia, or fear of Christ, to pick just a few terms offered by various speakers referring to the enemy. To some outsiders, it illuminated the paranoia of the Christian right. "Certainly religious persecution existed in our history, but to claim that these examples amount to religious persecution disrespects the experiences of people who have been jailed and died because of their faith," said K. Hollyn Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. "This is a skirmish over religious pluralism, and the inclination to see it as a war against Christianity strikes me as a spoiled-brat response by Christians who have always enjoyed the privileges of a majority position," said the Rev. Robert M. Franklin, a minister in the Church of God in Christ and professor of social ethics at Emory University. White evangelicals make up about one-quarter of the U.S. population, and 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. But three-quarters of evangelicals believe they are a minority under siege and nearly half believe they are looked down upon by most of their fellow citizens, according to a 2004 poll.

More linkage and comments from kendallball.net.