Living by the Book

You're filling out an online survey via Facebook, and the very first question asked is:

Strange question, you think, but you dutifully tick all the boxes. After all, who wouldn't like to achieve all those things. Though you acknowledge it's unlikely you will.

The next question makes you frown a bit: Please place your previous selection in the order of their priority to you, 1 being highest priority, and so on.

Hmm, you hesitate, but decide it's not so hard.

Satisfied that your priorities exhibit a well rounded maturity of thought, you hit continue and a window appears reading,

Please be patient, Facebook is now comparing your responses to your latest Behavioural Profile. This may take a few minutes.

Behavioural Profile? What's that all about? But before you can consider the message further, the window disappears to be replaced by another. And your jaw drops. It reads,

Due to inconsistencies between priorities selected and current lifestyle choices associated with this user name, we are unable to continue the survey. Facebook recommends amending priorities to better correlate with actual behaviour, or visa versa.

How well is your priority list stacking up against the reality of your life choices?

Facebook isn't the only all-knowing entity you know.

Comments

Navigating Nuances

Religious or otherwise , all men possess an inherent moral compass. A conscience that either accuses or defends within them. However, possessing a compass is not the only prerequisite to morality. To be truly moral, one must have confidence that their compass points true, and then, by virtue of trust, let it lead them. I've read that magnetic compasses are easily offset by local magnetic fields, and that these nuances of deviation have lost many a man to sea. Thankfully, this interference can be neutralised by placing correcting magnets around the compass. Analogously , the Bible tells us that we live in a morally hazardous world, where man's fallen nature interferes with his moral compass tempting deviance from what is good in Gods sight; and many a man has been lost due to it. However, to neutralise this influence, God has made provision through Christ, and his word. Together they become, for us, the correcting magnets for our moral compass. Many cite the evil th...

Morality

Where do we get our sense of right and wrong? How do we come to have a conscience that pricks us when we violate what we believe is moral? Is right and wrong determined by some higher authority? And if it is, how did they determine what was right and wrong ...did they just make it up arbitrarily? Christians believe in a highest authority -God- and that morality is determined through him. But not determined by some process of random selection, but rather by the very standard of His character, His nature. God's character determining God's will. God’s holy and loving essence governing what He commands from His creation. Thus the values of morality are not based primarily upon what God has said, but upon who He is. As humans created in this God's image, morality is part of our heritage. We have been purposely ingrained with a sensibility toward right and wrong; a conscience that finds its innate objectivity in Gods architecture of us. It is part of us. ...

Has God Spoken?

If the Creator has communicated with the created, how would we best discover it? Typically, those who've inferred a creator's existence admit lacking any inherent or definitive knowledge of his will. Beyond gut-feelings and guesses, most don't consider themselves oracles of the divine. Instead we readily acknowledge the need to look outside ourselves for such revelation. Our innate awareness of God spurs us to seek Him, but beyond that impetus it contributes little to the mystery of God's will and purposes. For many , their confusion at this dilemma has led to scepticism. After all, if one accepts there is a God and sets out to seek him, why such conundrum? If God has a message to share, why not make it more obvious? Why allow us to become so confused with options: ideologies, philosophies, religions etc.? However, once again, as with 'bad things not denoting the absence of a good creator', so too challenges to perceiving him do not denote His...

Epigrammatic Episodes

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