Valuables

A common prejudice is that facts trump values. "The fact is . . ." The reason is that value is commonly placed in the world of opinion, and fact in the "real" world. But it doesn't take too much imagination to realize that values are "facts" in the "real" world too. But are they just opinions?

It seems we all can agree that we choose the higher value item if we can identify it. When shopping for a flat screen TV, we try to get the largest screen, the most vivid, crisp colors for the money we spend. We can usually tell why the $5,000 item is priced more than the $500 item.

I think it is fair to say that a higher value item is more truly real. To dis-value something is to treat it as other than it is, as less real. Plenty of us choose fools gold rather than real gold because we can't tell the difference. How do we get into such a pickle? Because value often is not on the surface. Diamonds have to be mined. The homely girl may make the best wife. Goodness is usually seen in time, not immediately. To experience value we need to listen better, to see better, to live better. Often our tangled lives, sinfulness in other words, hobble us.

Some philosophers have pointed out that values are more primary, more elementary, than knowledge. Nicholas Rescher, for example, has proposed that value may play a crucial role in the world, not as an "efficient cause" like the principle of cause and effect, but as a filter, letting more optimal values emerge and preventing less valuable outcomes. One might wonder which is the better way to explain the fact of man's appearance in this world, the blind outcome of genetic mutation, or the realization of great value?

To Christians, fact and highest value are found together in Christ's incarnation, an event or "fact" in the world, laden with value for all. Christians believe that Christ is the best and final revelation of God to man, and that living as he lived, we experience, as real, the highest value. What is that value? Ultimately, I think, it is the joy of living, of being created, of having a Father, and brother, and mother, and children, and friends. To experience these we must strive to love, and to be loved.

As valuable as these insights are, better yet is the fact of living them!

Listen to Enya "Fairytale"

Listen to Enya "Listen to the Rain"