Binary questions and complex answers
Too often in life we may try to simplify things by rendering complex issues into simple binary possible outcomes.
Life is in many ways very complex and so this is a natural coping mechanism, however used too often we may begin to see the world through a binary black and white lens.
This can be a trap.
When I was younger I perceived a lot of life as good or bad and right or wrong.
That has changed.
Experience has taught that life is often much more complex than just two options or possible outcomes. There are degrees, unintended consequences, unforeseen circumstances and the like.
There were those who sought to trap the Master Teacher as he was teaching by attempting to suggest there were only two possible options to their baited question.
I wish I could step back more often when faced with life's questions and see the wood and the trees or the coin and the inscription as the case may be.
For the full text found in Mark:
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/mark/12.13-17?lang=eng&disable-footnotes=true#12
Beautiful post with depths to talk about for years... I guess we are aware of that part. ;) Thanks for sharing on the subject, namaste All for one and one for all!!! :)
Too true...
What a great post @gavvet! His responses to their questions were things they clearly hadn't even thought of before. They thought they had him trapped...
His response is one of my all time favorites...
The problem here is that you were never taught ethics.
And it is deliberate that you were never taught ethics in school.
Ethics should be the entirety of church sunday school, however you cannot teach something you have never heard of.
In ethics, there is definite right and wrong, good and evil.
However, the way most people are schooled is to learn this is the right (hopefully it is also correct) answer and that you are a good student if you repeat the right answer, and bad if you repeat the wrong answer. This makes you ego involved in all subjects. An attack on the answer is an attack on whether you are a good person or not.
Furthermore, govern-cement school is all about indoctrination of propaganda. They only tell you what you are supposed to believe, not how that conclusion was reached or how to think for yourself.
I learned ethics from my parents by example at home, where values are best taught and practiced
If only