The Paradox of Choice

A little while ago, I was listening to a message by Rob Bell, from the Mars Hill Bible Church podcast and he mentioned a book that sounded very interesting - The Paradox of Choice. I checked the book out from the library and found it quite fascinating. The overall premise is that Americans are generally less happy, more depressed and more stressed out - in part because we have so much choice.
Barry Schwartz is a Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. He argues that Americans are overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices we have to make and, he submits, tends to lend itself to more overall regret, disappointment and depression.
Take shopping for a car as an example. What are the aspects you are looking for - safety, gas mileage, longevity, warranty, overall appearance, just to name a few. Well there are so many different options within each of those aspects that it takes all you have to make a decision. Then, as soon as you make up your mind and purchase the best one, you hear, read or find out that you could have made a better choice with a different car - hence the term, buyer's remorse.
But not all choice is bad, Dr. Schwartz argues, just the excess with which we are confronted everyday. He argues that we would be better off if:

• we embraced certain voluntary constraints on our freedom of choice, instead of rebelling against them
• we sought what was "good enough" instead of seeking the best
• we lowered our expectations about the results of decisions
• the decisions we made were nonreversible
• we paid less attention to what others around us were doing

One of the concepts I really appreciated from Dr. Schwartz were his thoughts on comparison . When people compare themselves to others, it it 99% of the time someone who has more than they do. Dr. Schwartz offers a comic to illustrate this in which a man is talking to his wife on his cell phone and says, "I was sad because I had no on-board fax until I saw a man who had no mobile phone." I tend to do upward comparison myself. For a while now, I have really wanted an iPod. I have a cell phone (which I got for free) with which I can listen to music and podcasts, but it wasn't enough. I wanted an iPod - and everywhere I went I saw people who had them. But I had something perfectly serviceable. Even if I didn't, is it a necessity, is it a right? No. So I told my wife that I will get an iPod when we have saved enough for our soon to be born child's college education.
This book will help you look at the choices we make and the decisions we come to. I highly recommend it (it should be at your local library).

1 Corinthians 8

I am going through a personal study of 1 Corinthians. Each morning I read a portion of the book as well as commentary from The Message of First Corinthians by David Prior. I then listen to the podcasted sermons of Mark Driscoll from when he taught through the book in 2006. I recently became aware that Covenant Life Church (Josh Harris) had been going through the book as well, so I just started listening to his exposition.
Both Mr. Harris and Mr. Driscoll began their messages off by saying something to the effect of "now for something that is a burning question in your mind - food offered to idols..." (here is a link to the passage). They both continue by using examples of questions that some Christians have about tattoos, going to movies, drinking alcohol, and the like. Dr. Prior in his commentary briefly mentioned something about the food offered to the idols being "prepared in the wrong way". What also got my mind thinking was Serve God Save the Planet, a book I have recently read and reviewed that speaks to conservation and environmentalism.
Dr. Sleeth (Serve God...) spoke about chicken farms he visited and other food manufacturing places where the animals were all but tortured before they were slaughtered as food for you and me.
I have to say, I have rarely, if ever, given this thought. But, in light of 1 Corinthians 8, maybe it is something that Jesus would have us think about (in light of the grace with which Paul speaks in the passage). We have been given dominion over the earth by God, and that is a stewardship, not a dictatorship. I literally did not want to eat chicken after reading about the farms raising them for our consumption. I have driven up the I-5 in California and seen (and smelled!) the enormous cow pens where cows are shoulder to shoulder and can barely move. What kind of stewardship is that? Can 1 Corinthians 8 speak to this? I believe so.
Maybe it's time that Christians become the weirdos who are environmentalists and concerned about the ethical treatment of animals - those who will be eaten and those who just exist to give God glory.
My dad always used to say when we were growing up that we should taken very good care of our pets, because this is the only heaven they will get. As far as pets being in heaven, that is a topic for another time, but either way, animals are in our stewardship and it is our job and duty as Christians to make sure that they are treated ethically.