How Do We Measure Societal Development? From "GDP Economic Growth" to "Individual Spiritual Growth"
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This is one of the 2020 CEF Whitepapers. For more information on the Christian Economic Forum, please visit their website here.
by Thomas Kern
Today’s Development
Humans have measured global as well as national development in past centuries mainly by using measurements like GDP, revenue, and earnings, and the only way of positive development was reaching “growth”. If the only quantitative KPI used is that of growth, mankind has reached – in our view today – a positive development year by year and generation by generation.
However the Covid-19 crisis as well as climate change show us the risks of the global “growing society”. On the one hand we are more vulnerable, and on the other hand more and more people realize that we are destroying the earth we are living on. In addition, individuals are facing more and more stress diseases from a faster, more complex and information-overloaded environment.
The world seems to be ready for more qualitative measures to overcome the pure / poor growth factors. We observe a swing of emphasis in politics, as well as in economics and business, away from strictly numbers and quantitative factors to more or less qualitative factors like “saving the climate,” sustainability, and diversity to name only the most important few. While I am not evaluating those more qualitative factors individually, I will try to have a look from a Kingdom view on growth KPIs.
To give context, I am presenting three samples from both a global and a personal perspective:
The coronavirus is producing a hysteric reaction in all global countries due to missing knowledge about sources, the (complex) structure of the virus, the development including death risk, as well as the absence of a vaccine. As long as we do not have scientific solutions and as long as they are not in place, we put millions of people in quarantine / isolation to avoid a further spread of the virus. Is this behavior overdone or do we have other options?
My personal perspective is from a situation where my stress led to critical back pains, not being able to stand or lie down, and rushing to the hospital fearing a heart attack. I was lucky to receive a negative diagnosis. However, when I asked the doctor the source of my pain, he told me, “The pain is coming from your backbone and the spinal column; however, I personally can’t explain it in details as I still do not know enough about this area and its functionality.” I went to my osteopath (in Germany a physiotherapist with additional education of root cause analysis within the human body) and she helped me, explaining, “Your autonomic nervous system has produced the pain and when relieved, you will get rid of your pain.” Knowing interactions in the body, she sometimes treats one area of my body to eliminate pain in another.
Third and finally, since 200 years natural science is only discussed based on materialism excluding any reference to God or the supernatural. (1) Darwin’s scientific theory of evolution argues that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. He presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. (2) Any kind of criticism is totally ignored, e.g., the one Darwin himself posed: “…no intermediate forms between closely related species are found, although the theory implies such forms must have existed.” (3)
However, many scientists acknowledge: “Is there something more than science?” Is there a way to convince them and the world that we must change measurements to qualitative ones derived from God’s principles?
Kingdom Measurements
How can we provide growth in the dimension of God’s kingdom and bring growth (back) into our society, releasing many of the “spasms” in society, science, and personal life?
We believe that God created not only the earth, but also all individual species we discover today: “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open Firmament of heaven ... let the earth bring forth the living creatures after its kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after its kind: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:20, 24)
God will spiritually enrich our lives: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, ...and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness of God!” (Ephesians 3:17, 19) and “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b)
In Jesus, God provides healing for the body as well: “But that you may know that the Son of man hath authority upon earth to forgive sins I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that on which he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.” (Luke 5:24-25)
God-inspired Solution
Refocusing to our spiritual dimension: Science => Individual => Society
SCIENCE: From an honest “We don’t know!” back to science including the idea of a Creator!
We must provide examples of miracles asking not only scientists but also teachers, politicians as well as any individual to reconsider the existence of supernatural effects that we can’t explain with our medical, physical, and logical science yet. We must leave perceived (4) security and allow mankind to reconsider other solutions outside today’s spectrum of logical science based on materialism alone.
INDIVIDUAL: From facts to emotion, on to spiritual, and back to God!
This includes another way to deal with our personality (being body, spirit and soul). God has created us in a way we can’t entirely understand neither now nor in foreseeable future. Many physicians are already realizing that we know less than we believe we know and are changing our approach to diseases. They are looking more for the origin of a pain and healing the entire body instead relying only on pharma studies treating the symptom of the pain. We must get to a next level of understanding the human being as body, soul, and spirit and treat each individual accordingly. In the future, wealth gain must become a measure of well-being as a balanced human in body, spirit and soul.
SOCIETY: From GDP growth and wealth to KPIs measuring mental health of societies!
How can a society measure mental health in God’s view? All governments around the globe in wealthy countries are fighting for lower healthcare costs. None of them have started an initiative to re-focus and re-measure health as mental health and enforce a clear objective that individuals must be treated in a way to solve the original pain (whether a physical, mental or spiritual pain) instead of treat symptoms. In old Asian societies, people were only obligated to pay the doctor as long as they were healthy…we would do well to entertain this idea!
Conclusion
Three questions to consider on the way to a solution:
Question 1: Which country and leadership might be willing to change measurements of wealth?
Question 2: What are proper tools to help people with mental healing?
Question 3: Where are scientific leaders helping us to challenge the current ideology of science (materialism)?
Could it be that we do have already many pieces of the puzzle that we can’t understand individually, however if we take them together it provides a new picture of the world – a new way to live together in God’s kingdom?
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(1) “Can scientific explanation ever make reference to God or the supernatural? The present consensus is no; indeed, a naturalistic stance is usually taken to be a distinguishing feature of modern science. Some would go further still, maintaining that the success of scientific explanation actually provides compelling evidence that there are no supernatural entities, and that true science, from the very beginning, was opposed to religious thinking.”
Harrison, P: Science Without God? (Ian Ramsey Centre Studies in Science and Religion)
(2) Charles Darwin: “On the Origin of Species”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species
(3) Charles Darwin: “On the Origin of Species”, Chapter VI. – ibid.
(4) Perceived: as we only believed to have secured scientific knowledge we never actually had as mankind