Actually, no. The Christian belief is that God's love is a *gift,* not a
purchased product -- i.e. there is no price that we are required to pay.
There is, however, what one might characterize as an externality. The
recognition of Divine love usually creates in people a sense of obligation.
Hence, people come to feel that it would be wrong to covet their neighbors'
wives. For those who enjoy the coveting, the recognition of Divine love may
impose a negative externality. Such people would likely choose to believe
that there is no Divine love (the atheist position), or that the rejection
of Divine acceptance is the price one pays for the "right" to covet the
neighbor's wife (the "I'm going to hell crowd").
Antony Davies
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Eaton [mailto:jeaton@Bridgewater.EDU]
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 2:06 PM
To: tch-econ@elon.edu
Subject: RE: Re: The costs of spiritual faith
At 05:38 PM 8/27/2005 -0500, Lee Erickson wrote:
The key to making economic sense of God's love is to view it as a pure
public good. Gods love is not rival in consumption, so the number of
conversions available is not finite. Whosoever will may come. The free
gift of salvation is available to everyone, because God paid for it. Theres
no free lunch, but there is a public good.
OK, so God's love is a public good. But is it truly free? At least
according to the Judeo-Christian view, don't I have to pay for this public
good by sacrificing coveting my neighbor's wife, dishonoring my mother and
father, lying to any and everyone, not killing the morons who cross me up,
and all the rest? Isn't there a cost in "turning the other cheek?" These may
be costs I pay willingly, but they are costs nonetheless.
Jim Eaton
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Aug 29 2005 - 13:17:24 CDT