Title: The Other Sheep
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
We are going to start off today with some thinking about the biological origins of humankind, the need for a moral compass, and religious competition. It's a tall order, so will you join me?
Friends of ours visited the Serengeti in Africa and they returned full of stories witnessing large animals obeying the laws of nature, that is, dog eat dog or jackal eat impala or lion eat antelope. Of course, you can observe the same dynamics in your own backyard, but it's much more exciting to see large animals enact this drama for survival in a far away land. A lawyer once told me as we prepared for a meeting, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." Which is a poetic way of saying that at the root of existence, humans aren't much different than lions.
The competition for food to sustain individual existence runs as deep as life itself. A countervailing force can sometimes oppose individual survival to support survival of the species. That is, an individual here and there may not make it for the species to continue. Migrating flocks of birds will leave their sick and injured behind so that the flock can make it to their winter or summer grounds.
Complicating this opposing, two-force theory is the behavior of primates and other species higher on the evolutionary tree. I'm talking about chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos, not bishops. When a means of communication is established among a group of animals, they can cooperate to achieve a common goal Cooperation of one group of animals to attack another group as a food source is herd behavior. When used by primates and early humans, we begin to call it "tribal" behavior which replaces individual identity with that of the tribe. Tribal behavior may or may not support the survival of a species because the goal of tribal behavior is to protect only those members of the tribe.
To summarize, 1. Individu ...
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
We are going to start off today with some thinking about the biological origins of humankind, the need for a moral compass, and religious competition. It's a tall order, so will you join me?
Friends of ours visited the Serengeti in Africa and they returned full of stories witnessing large animals obeying the laws of nature, that is, dog eat dog or jackal eat impala or lion eat antelope. Of course, you can observe the same dynamics in your own backyard, but it's much more exciting to see large animals enact this drama for survival in a far away land. A lawyer once told me as we prepared for a meeting, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." Which is a poetic way of saying that at the root of existence, humans aren't much different than lions.
The competition for food to sustain individual existence runs as deep as life itself. A countervailing force can sometimes oppose individual survival to support survival of the species. That is, an individual here and there may not make it for the species to continue. Migrating flocks of birds will leave their sick and injured behind so that the flock can make it to their winter or summer grounds.
Complicating this opposing, two-force theory is the behavior of primates and other species higher on the evolutionary tree. I'm talking about chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos, not bishops. When a means of communication is established among a group of animals, they can cooperate to achieve a common goal Cooperation of one group of animals to attack another group as a food source is herd behavior. When used by primates and early humans, we begin to call it "tribal" behavior which replaces individual identity with that of the tribe. Tribal behavior may or may not support the survival of a species because the goal of tribal behavior is to protect only those members of the tribe.
To summarize, 1. Individu ...
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