Wisdom and knowledge come from the same family but are as different as apples and watermelons. What we call common wisdom is what made you expect me to say oranges instead of watermelons. Common wisdom flows off the tongue like water over the falls but doesn’t always require that the brain be fully engaged. Some people call this, the common wisdom of the day. This particular kind of wisdom is rarely examined for truth or any other useful quality. It is commonly accepted because it is so commonly heard. It is much like an unpaid commercial that we set into motion not knowing where it came from and with little regard to whether it is true or not. It is like an old pal who always steps in to keep a conversation going when we run low on original ideas. It is almost never questioned and in most conversation, it is only a matter of who is going to say it first. Some of these sayings so glibly passed around among us are innocuous, while others are outright misleading and sometimes dangerous. Here are five of them that should be challenged, examined, analyzed and if reason prevails, will finally be put out to pasture.

Crime Doesn’t Pay: Oh really. Who is sponsoring the myriad of television programs like, CSI, Law and Order, Cold Case Files, FBI, City Confidential, Cops and many others? Of course the criminals weren’t thinking of this when the committed their crimes and we are not thinking of it when we see their stories but someone thought it out very carefully. They knew this was a goldmine. They knew they could sell their products and goods on the backs of the victims of these crimes and through the medium of the public’s natural curiosity. Crime does pay; in fact it is an industry that pays in the millions. Perhaps it is time that we insist that some portion of the earnings from these sponsors was used against crime. Funds could be set aside for rehabilitation, prevention, law enforcement, education and prison ministries. Some states have enacted legislation that prevents the perpetrators of crimes to profit from their misdeeds through the publication of books and articles. Why not hold accountable others who are profiting from their misdeeds? Does this seem unlikely? It is not. If people can boycott a certain product or program why can’t they also begin a movement to engage the producers and sponsors to contribute to the cause of crime prevention or help for victims? Has anyone asked them? This is not an idea whose time has come but rather it is an idea that is long overdue.

Reverse Psychology: Please read every word in this paragraph. If this far fetched notion were founded at all you wouldn’t be on this sentence. What parent has not been heard voicing the reverse psychology notion? We have started to take seriously the idea that the only reason your teenager is doing something you don’t like is that you have told him or her not to do it. The Catholic Church has misled many people with the idea that we are all straddled with something called original sin. The bible quite clearly says that is not so. What it does say, is that man is born with a sin nature or a natural proclivity to sin. We sin, not because we are told not to sin, but because it is in our nature. If we’re going to take this lame saying seriously, then why aren’t we demanding that our kids be lazy, do everything wrong and take drugs? Then we could sit back and watch them do just the opposite? Why would God have wasted his time with Ten Commandments? Couldn’t He have done better with the ten sinful options? Maybe we should be grateful that God doesn’t have any notions.

How Much Are You Worth: Your mind may have already begun to drift toward your last bank statement or the assessed value of your home by now. If this were a magazine like Forbes or Fortune 500 you wouldn’t think twice about whether that is what the question was referring to. As a boy I remember a teacher telling us that the chemicals and other elements in our body were worth a little over a dollar. Inflation and other factors have since brought the figure up to a little over four dollars. Jesus said, a mans life is never measured by the things he possesses, Lk 12:15. A recent television show featured people who had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They had acquired everything they had ever hoped for and more. The one thing they had in common besides money was the feeling that they were totally unfulfilled. Many of them went searching for meaning by becoming volunteers, or joining charitable organizations, churches, prison ministries and other service oriented endeavors. Their net worth did not cut it for them in the most traditional sense of the word. People spend the last few years of their lives getting their business in order. That usually means they are arranging for the transfer of their personal wealth or property. Why is it that you needn’t tell dying men that their net worth is not worth a whole lot? What man wouldn’t give up a fortune to be able to cancel his last breath and go on living? Christ has told us that we are of inestimable value to both Him and His Father. We have an eternal value placed on us from above, and there is not enough money in this world to pay for even the least of us. How much are you worth?

Science And The Bible don’t Agree: When most of the world was afraid to sail too far out on the ocean for fear of falling off the edge of the world, the Bible clearly indicated that the world was round. It was the church that condemned Galileo for saying the sun and the planets revolved around the earth, it was not the Bible. Science has made a poor showing of trying to explain the Bible. Fortunately, it has also made a poor showing for disproving the Bible as well. The Bible on the other hand doesn’t even enter the fray. It never argues with the findings of legitimate science. It has indicated that God intended for man to know and name just about everything on the earth, it is called taking dominion. God doesn’t foster stupidity and having blind faith is not God’s plan to keep us blissfully un-informed. The best answer that can be given to anyone about this absurd notion is contained in the following. Science is the book of how, the Bible is the book of why.

Maybe God Used Evolution To Create Man: To argue against the evidence would take more space than allowed here for the task. But don’t be fooled the Scopes Monkey Trial will go down in history as the only bout ever won by the evolutionists. All anyone has to do is put up the words “creation science” on any good internet search engine. The material fed back from that phrase alone would keep them busy for weeks. The evidence against the evolutionary model is mounting exponentially as opposed to the few finds the evolutionist are claiming. The power of the evolutionary model is no longer in its facts but now it is largely in its momentum. It is hard to stop a speeding train. There is much now to refute this secular pipe dream but it is not just the evidence that is failing the evolutionist it is their philosophy. Science which is otherwise known as empiricism has popped the bounds of its own definitions. By definition science is the procuring of data by and through repeatable, observable phenomena. When scientists make statements about something that happened millions of years past the have left the realm of empiricism. Since no one was there to see the phenomena in question much less to repeat it, such statements are now only speculative, conjectural and akin to simple guesswork. Such speculation is in the realm of “prior philosophic postulate”. In plain English that is the exact equivalent of faith.
The belief that God used evolution to make man, speaks of a faithless generation. It also speaks of a generation of Christians who haven’t noticed that they are worshipping a God who after all may only be a liar. And God’s Son bought into that lie so how can we expect a liar to provide the whole world with the kind of truth that universally saves men. In street terms we are speaking of gutless Christians but for the sake of diplomacy let’s say they aren’t too willing to take a firm stand. The apostle Paul wasn’t as gentle as I have been. He said we should let God be true and every man a liar, Romans 3:4. I think I’ll stand with Paul on this one.