What Standard?

As you look around the world in which we live, you may wonder the basis for moral choices.  Why rampant abortion?  Why pervasive foul language of the worst sort?  How are all music types now acceptable?  What is the basis for same sex marriage?  How could ninety percent of teenagers justify their premarital sex?

Churches function in an all-new manner too based upon different guidelines.  What changed?  Dress standards have gone by the wayside.  Everything is more casual, immodest, and worldly.  Church activities and even worship orient more around worldly allure and entertainment.  Service times decrease.   Members are far less faithful than ever.

Sam Bankman-Fried Case Study

This week in the Washington Post Michael Lewis, who has a future book coming on the same subject, wrote an article entitled, “Sam Bankman-Fried, a personal verdict:  A few thoughts on how Americans thought about the crypto trial of the century.”  He introduced one portion of the trial testimony transcript with this paragraph:

Caroline explained to the jury how the crypto lenders had asked her for a quick and dirty picture of Alameda Research’s finances. And how, on June 18, on Sam’s instructions, she cooked up eight different balance sheets of varying degrees of dishonesty and presented them to Sam, who selected the least honest of the bunch to show his lenders.

Caroline referred to Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, the trading firm affiliated with Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX.  She pleaded guilty to fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges for her role in the crimes committed.  She said in her testimony:

Q. In the course of working with the defendant, did he talk to you about the ethics of lying and stealing? A. Yeah. He said that he was a utilitarian, and he believed that the ways that people tried to justify rules like don’t lie and don’t steal within utilitarianism didn’t work, and he thought that the only moral rule that mattered was doing whatever would maximize utility — so essentially trying to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people or beings.

Utilitarianism

‘Creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people’ in not the ethic of utilitarianism, so he’s misrepresented it.  His view of the world though, I believe, is very common.  It might be mainstream.  People are going to live for their best life now.  And what they mean by that is the historical understanding of utility, which relates more to maximizing happiness and pleasure while minimizing pain and unhappiness.

Utility is not in and of itself goodness.  The good thing is not inherently good, but good based on what brings the most immediate pleasure.  It corresponds to a rejection of God and moral absolutes.  What gives the maximum number of people pleasure and happiness is in accordance with conventional wisdom.

What pleasure did a maximum number derive from Bankman-Fried?  He used his swindled money to donate to Democrat causes across the United States.  His money helped put Democrats in office.  Bankman-Fried himself was the beneficiary short-term of utility and emblematic of what anyone could receive without biblical morality.

A Comparison

Among many similar reasons, people miss church because of a sports league that brings pleasure and happiness.  They work on Sundays because the money pays for pleasure and happiness.  Children lie to their parents because the truth would freak them out.  That would prohibit pleasure and happiness all around.  The act of evangelism brings animosity and ridicule.  How could those two things bring someone pleasure and happiness?

Five hundred years into Christ’s kingdom or one million years into the eternal state, the recipient will live in utter and indescribable bliss.  I would call that pleasure and happiness too.  For the short seventy to one hundred year life in this age, sacrifice brings joy, deep-seated fulfillment, or an inner calm of the soul.  Paul said the short term suffering is not compared to the eternal weight of glory.  This is living by faith.  Faith overcomes the delusion of utilitarianism.