>Is there such a thing as "Spiritual depravity"?

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>Cardinal Walter Kasper has reportedly told a German magazine that the UK is marked by “a new and aggressive atheism”. Just before the Pope’s recent trip to the UK he was quoted as saying to the country’s Focus magazine that “when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country”.

What he was talking about, and it seems what the Pope agrees with if you read between the lines, is that much of Western society is moving away from religion, and in so doing becoming spiritually unhealthy.

Do you agree? Do we possess spirits? Can we keep them healthy or let them get ‘out of shape’?

>What is a sustainable global population? How many people can we sustain?

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>”The biggest single challenge facing the Earth…is not global warming. That is a secondary challenge. The primary challenge facing our species is the reproduction of our species itself.”

Boris Johnson, The Telegraph

These are the forecasts for population growth up until 2050. The world’s population growth rate peaked in the early 1970s. The global population doubled from 3 billion in the 1960s to 6 billion in mid-1999, and continues to rise — but at a slower rate. The question is where on that chart above should we draw a line, saying ‘population must not exceed!’?

>Is there going to be a global second dip?

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>Pre-recession China was an export dependent country, which was growing so fast that it was at risk of overheating. It was considered to be dependent on the US buying all the Chinese goods too. Since then the US has suffered its worst recession since the Great Depression, and aggregate demand has slumped. So why and how is China booming again?

There are 3 possibilities:

  1. The US private level of debt is still rising, along with consumption
      1. Not true. The US entered recession with household levels of debt at 130% and have now lowered them to below 100%. Unless the rich is making up for the rest of society’s shortfall in consumption then it seems obvious that falling income and falling debt means China is not increasing sales in the US.
  2. China is selling to other countries instead.
      1. Chinese companies are certainly trying o open up new markets in other countries, but can they do it within a few months? The richest peoples in the world are now in recession, so it’s unlikely that anyone was able to fork out for the big deals.
  3. China managed to switch from an export led country to an import based one in the space of a year.
      1. There are examples of firms that have been trying to do this e.g. Chinese automakers. But this kind of change in an economy takes generations, not months. So China has not become an import based country.
  4. China used its stimulus to buy and stockpile Chinese goods in the hope that the recession would be temporary, and will not be able to maintain these efforts for long.

If this isn’t scary enough (please do suggest other possibilities) there is also a real estate bubble in China, which China is struggling to suppress.

And that’s without getting into the policy debate in the West. Though I will ask you this: are there any more products/assets to bubble? First there was the dot.com boom; then the real estate and mortgage boom. Is there anything left to bubble? Will the next things to bubble and burst be commodities, and metals like gold?

What do you think?

>What is the value of humility?

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>Is humility always good, or not? We’ve heard of the ‘greats’ of history, humbly refusing awards and/or praise. Take the following example of Einstein speaking to the Chicago Decalogue Society in 1954:

“Ladies and gentlemen: You are assembled today to devote your attention to the problem of human rights. You have decided to offer me an award on this occasion. When I learned about it, I was somewhat depressed by your decision. For in how unfortunate a state must a community find itself if it cannot produce a more suitable candidate upon whom to confer such a distinction?”

Now you may argue that this wasn’t humility, for he really didn’t do that much related to human rights. But nevertheless he was humbly refusing an award he could easily have embraced.

What would you have done? Is it the case that there is a time and a place for humility? Are these people just trying to call more attention to themselves? Does humility serve the humble, or just the rest of us?

>Is it right to cut benefits?

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>Mr Osborne (British Chancellor) said the welfare system had grown out of control and allowed some people to make the “lifestyle choice” of claiming benefits for their entire life instead of working. British welfare currently costs £192 bn a year, yet the cuts are planned to take millions off of Incapacity Benefits, many of whom really need the money. Is it right? Could it be right?

>Is magic possible?

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>Civilisation has believed in the power of magic for thousands of years, so what’s changed?

There are still people out there who call themselves witches and perform magical rituals, and in the voodoo religion magic is still widely believed in. In West Africa Voodoo Priests say that if you go into your garden every day and talk to just one plant, telling it that it’s going to be the most beautiful flower in the garden, then it will be.
 
So is magic possible? Does it accord with science? Or is practicised magic all in the mind?

>Should all of us be active do-gooders?

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>Marianne Williamson once wrote “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”

Now I’m aware that Williamson’s argument was not exactly in line with the question but it raises some interesting points. Do we fear our strengths as much as, or perhaps even more than our weaknesses? Does “our playing small” not serve the world? Should we all be more active? Or is it acceptable for someone to turn down an evening of volunteering when they know they’d be doing nothing otherwise? Is it acceptable for someone to work their entire lives on the minimum wage when they have the potential to do so much more?

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