Everything is Relative

The Bat'n Ball Corona-Puzzle

Problem: “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”

Take a minute to think about it…

Well?...

Many people respond by saying that the ball must cost 10 cents. Is this the answer that you came up with? Although this response intuitively springs to mind, it is incorrect. If the ball cost 10 cents and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, then the bat would cost $1.10 - for a grand total of $1.20, bat and ball,

The correct answer to this problem is that the ball costs 5 cents and the bat costs — at a dollar more — $1.05 for a grand total of $1.10.

So why do so many people answer incorrectly? First of all, people often substitute difficult problems with simpler ones in order to quickly solve them. In this case, people seem to unconsciously substitute the “more than” statement in the problem (the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball) with an absolute statement (the bat costs $1.00). This makes the math easier to work with; if a ball and bat together cost $1.10 and the bat costs $1.00, then the ball must cost 10 cents.

Secondly, the bat-and-ball problem reveals how people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. I got this problem wrong myself when I first saw it, and still find the intuitive-but-wrong answer very plausible looking.

Which brings me to the next point – the staggering number of Christians, mostly conservative ones, venting all kind of strange theories regarding the actual pandemic. Off course, the officials are adding up to this equation their incompetence (sometimes), political bias (most of the times) and the obvious “no one knows for sure” (every single time), in a time like this when people are asking for straight answers type 1+1=2. But the problem is not 1+1 but rather “1 bat + 1 ball = $1.10, find how much cost that crazy ball made in China”. Aha…

To complicate the matter, add Bill Gates stance on vaccines, 5G radiation, World Health Organization bureaucrats, Putin, Pope, Big Pharma, and ultimately 666.

• Of course we don’t have all the information,
• Of course we are going to see the reality through the lens of our own presuppositions, idiosyncrasies, expectations and anxieties,
• Of course we have to decide who is interpreting Revelation 13 for us, Rabbi Fulcrum 7 or Rabbi Spectrum Magazine? Who’s interpreting John 3:16 for us, Rabbi ForeRunner Chronicles or Rabbi George Knight?

Because it matters.

Because we must count for ourselves: 1 bat + 1 ball together $1.10 = $1.05 + $.05.

Because “keeping the commandments of God and having the faith/character of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12) is ALL that matters for Christians. The cacophony of pro or anti this and that, the media yadda-yadda-yadda and the conspiracists blah-blah-blah is nothing but diversion.

But pastor, how about the beast worship being enforced acc to Revelation 13 How can you be so laid-back? Don’t you see how our rulers are setting the stage for the prophesied beast-worship? Is not happening now? 

My answer, the short version - that issue according to the same verse, Rev.14:12 is about and around Christians having or not having the faith/character of Jesus + keeping the commandments of God, specifically the 4^th one. Nothing to do with 5G, Bill Gates, George Soros, Vitamin C, under-skin chip implants, wearing protective mask or suspending the church public services for a couple of months. 

To all my 5G-ers and antiV-ers friends - let's give the right answer to this life-&-death question brought by Christ in Luke 18:8 “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find… (choose one):

A.    compliance with stay-at-home policies on the earth?

B.    rebellion against WHO policies on the earth?

C.    not using social media and 5G technology on the earth?

D.    faith on the earth?”

Matthew 5:29-30 CIV (Corona Impartial Version)

Matthew 5:29-30 CIV (Corona Impartial Version) - read aloud with Romanian accent:

29 If your cherished conspiracy theory causes you to stumble, gouge it out from your Facebook posts and throw it away from your mind. It is better for you to lose the fake news path than lose friends and also for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna.

30 And if your unyielding confidence in mainstream media causes you to stumble, cut it off from your tweets and throw it away from your heart. It is better for you to lose a source of stress than lose friends and also for your whole body to go into Gehenna.

The Holy-Safety Religion

We are witnessing the rise of a new religion: the Religion of Safety. It has gradually, insidiously, established itself in recent decades when more and more natural things began to be considered dangerous.

Before having the weather channel online 24/7, a summer storm was a summer storm; now has hazard codes: yellow, orange, red. Same for wind, cold, heat, etc. We see risks everywhere in the natural events of life. Now, with the pandemic, the new religion has spread even more in our minds, at a faster speed than that of the coronavirus infecting New York City. 

It has its priests – those who cut out only the dangers of reality every day and show us how great they are (but, above all, they will be!) them. It has its inquisitors, those who can no longer burn you at the stake, but who can lynch you on social media if you have violated the rituals of (self)protection, an even your own militia, enforcing your before through shame and fines. I man shameful fines…

A natural need to feel safe has turned into a religion! it has more and more followers:

- some, because they can justify their own fears,

- others because through it they can shed their hatred and frustrations, and
- others, because they can obtain fraudulent but fabulous gains from it.

The excessive cult of safety, however, can be disastrous, both for the individual and for society. 

The more we choose safety over freedom, the slower we grow. We end up protecting ourselves, at increasing cost, an increasingly worthless lifestyle. Therefore, the transformation of safety from a need into a cult must be countered by critical thinking. And an invitation to an open public debate without being bullied by the political correctness entities, now disguised into a public health saviors.  

And we should do this now, before ending up into getting collectively an obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is going to ruins our lives, careers and meaningful relationships. 

The cult of safety undermines the Great Commission from Matthew 28 - Go ye and make disciple. "Oh Pastor, is this safe? Physically, intellectually, emotionally, totally 100% safe?" What kind of question is this one? Was this question inserted in Jesus' plan of save the world? Did He ever mentioned safety in relationship with salvation and Christian mission? 

The cult of safety slows down learning and innovation. To learn, we have to experiment, to have the courage to do things. Obviously, we will often be wrong. But as cognitive science tells us, we learn much more and faster from a mistake than from success. Mistakes are unpleasant but useful, because they are the basis of learning and innovation.

When you make an airplane with way too many safety measures, the plane becomes safe, but it can't get off the ground. People and societies are the same. Some want to be like tanks chasing out rabbits from a carrot patch. Others prefer to be like airplanes: to be able to fly, even if the risks are high. We have a choice ahead of us: what do we want to be, tanks or airplanes? 

I prefer flying.