MONDAY MAP

THE CASE FOR INCEST AND OTHER STORIES

Hello guys, welcome to another edition of Monday map. Today is just me sharing with you some events from the past week and month.

THE CASE FOR INCEST: So, something happened on my favorite social media website Twitter. A user admitted that he had no problem with his biological offspring being in an incestuous relationship as long as they won’t reproduce.

As expected, this created a massive buzz on the website and even a bigger buzz for me. In light of the flying objection and discussion about incest, my blog post The Case for Incest became a reference point. And in just two days, I got more visitors on my blog site than I had in the month of October. This was a rare event, albeit a welcome one. If you are yet to read the article, click this link to take you there.

CAN ATHEISM JUSTIFY HUMAN RIGHTS? : At the end of The case for incest, I notified the readers of my new line of questioning. I said, “Come at me with everything you have while I sit in a corner and wonder if atheism can justify human rights.” In case I have not made it clear enough, I am a proud believer in Jesus Christ. It sits at the foundation of my worldview and philosophy. In discovering the atheistic criticisms of religion and Christianity, I found myself asking if atheism in all its empirical glory can justify the concept of human rights. While I have my conclusion sitting limbo in my mind, I have not done the thorough work of constructing my argument. But then, I have read an essay that does a good job at answering this question so, I will like to share. Read David Perell’s Why you are a Christian essay here. He explains how what we now know as human rights have their foundation in the Judeo-christian values. This should suffice.

FIELDS THAT SURVIVE BASED ON HUMAN IRRATIONALITY: I have been yapping now for weeks how contrary to economists, human nature is deeply irrational. The economist view of human nature is that of a calculating rationalist who minimizes costs to maximize benefits. If you look at people well enough, it is just false. But then, there are broad fields of study and work that have only survived and thrived because human beings are not the rational species we think they are. These fields include marketing and advertising, professional and amateur gambling which includes sports betting and casino businesses, insurance, and politics.

This is a leisurely view of the world I have taken. Hardly do people go out every day trying to decipher what human nature is like. But we do not know that the position we assume positions on human nature and the positions we have taken on human nature affects how we interact with the people around us. You may not enjoy trying to think about what human beings are like except the knee-jerk conclusions we make when someone is really kind to us or someone pisses us off. Once again, I am saying just give the study of human nature a try and see how it changes everything.

Till we chat again. Have a good week,

Emmanuel.