Micah Redding

I need wisdom.

More than anything in my life, I need to be able to see my way forward, to evaluate the choices ahead of me. I've always been a consumer of knowledge, someone who couldn't leave well enough alone, who had to tease apart the inner workings of things. That process leaves me with a huge gap - the gap between what is and what could be. And that gap requires wisdom.

Increasingly, I have come to believe that the world is best understood as a Vast Economy, an ecosystem encompassing all the small economies we know about and measure, utilizing our every choice, from the individual to the society at large, for its own ends and purposes. In this Economy, nothing is ever wasted, nothing is lost, and everything follows a brilliant and sinister logic.

At the beginning of the 20th century, prominent religious leaders got together and formed a list of five fundamentals - the items of belief that they thought were non-negotiable elements of Christian faith.

These elements include the inspiration of the bible, the virgin birth, Christ's death as atonement, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and the historical reality of the miracles.

This video has been making the rounds, stirring up a lot of attention and commentary, and causing at least a few people to drop the f-word into some Christian discussion lists. Go and watch it now, and then come back.

I've been engaging with a few people about it, and there seems to be several different kinds of responses.

On one end, there are some traditionalists who find it really offensive. Or at best, misguided, and likely to lead people astray. They will probably ignore it, or post a biting comment.

Some things take practice. But when the practice is over, we must act.

Religion, as it exists throughout the world and through history, is practice. It prepares the mind with deep thoughts, meditation, and understanding. It trains you to make good decisions, to see when things aren't how they appear. It uses symbols and traditions and ritual actions to ingrain itself in your mind. It uses authority structures and leaders to help you become the kind of person you want to be.

But then you have to stop practicing. And you have to start living in the real world.