NaClhv

(This post is a work in progress. Come back later when it's done.)

How do we learn to do good? What happens when we do wrong? Our minds run on neural nets, and there is but one way to train them: we reward the good, and punish the bad. And God has seen fit to provide us with the means for this training: if we do right and follow the path of life, in his presence we find pleasures forever. So the "reward" is understood well enough.

But on the flip side, I find a great deal more confusion about the punishments. After all, we don't talk about it as much, as in the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. Our society, in particular, can't seem to rationally discuss the necessary steps in such reinforcements: we misuse our wealth and privilege to construct delusions that shield us from the good and necessary measures of chastisement. And so, when we're confront words like "punishment", "guilt", "shame", "illegal", "law enforcement", or "consequences", many of us are unfortunately left with only a jumble of unpleasant feelings, without being able to put them in any constructive context.

But the Bible has many stories that are useful for correcting wrongdoing. They guide us as individuals, and as a society. And the understanding that comes from organizing these stories will help to clear up the confusions surrounding the processes surrounding punishments.

These stories are, in fact, our starting point. They inform us from our childhoods, so that even before we take any action, we know what's right and wrong before we encounter any rewards or punishment. Those of us who are blessed with a perpetual, childlike faith perhaps never need to fall beneath this point.

But if we forget these stories - if we do not fear God and fail to meditate on his laws - then we may take a false step. In fact, this is how the story of Exodus starts: there came a new Pharoah who did not know Joseph or the God that he served, despite the good they had done for Egypt.

Of course, mere forgetfulness is a very mild sin, and it warrants nothing more than the lightest of corrections. Just a very mild sense of guilt - an "oops" - will do, followed by getting back on track. Our God-provided conscience does this naturally in its normal operations. Note the gentleness of this approach: it's the lightest "punishment" imaginable, being purely internal, with our own thoughts providing the accusation or excuses as it sees fit.

Of course, bigger deviations from the right require stronger corrections. This is the iron law of reinforcements. More good brings more rewards, more bad brings more more punishments. And while the feeling of guilt can indeed become overwhelming just on its own, there is usually a second mechanism that kicks in alongside it as the sin gets worse: shame.

Shame is a stronger reinforcer, in that it involves other people. It is therefore the first social reinforcement mechanism. It can range from a gentle personal reprimand to a public call-out. Note Jesus's instructions on what to do when a brother sins against you. It's mostly a shame-based reinforcement mechanism: first you talk to him in private, then you escalate to larger groups. Again you start small, but as the brother proves himself to be more intransigent the consequences get bigger - until the last step of excommunication begins to touch on the next step in the levels of reinforcement, the law.

The law is a pre-determined set of rules set out by a large corporate body that details the consequences of certain bad behaviors. The "corporate body" is often the state, but it can also be something like a religious body, especially in the Bible. This stage of reinforcement is marked by a number of important differences from the prior stages. For one, the law naturally operates at the societal level, and as such it's much more rigid and impartial. Guilt is intra-personal and shame is inter-personal, but the law is impersonal. This is also the first stage where its concerns start extending far beyond just correcting the sinner: part of the function of the law is to instill fear in anyone who would do wrong. Another part is to avenge the wrongdoing itself, to carry out God's wrath upon the wrongdoer.

For a healthy society, we need all of three of the above reinforcement mechanisms: guilt, shame, and fear (of the law). There's been some work categorizing societies into these three groups, as "guilt culture", "shame culture", or "fear culture" - but of course, there's no cultures that's purely only one of these things. I would also rather name these cultures by their chief reinforcement mechanisms - namely, conscience, reputation (or honor), and law - rather than by the negative feelings of guilt, shame, and fear generated by them. But still, we should not recoil from these words merely because they seem unpleasant. Learning what roles they each have in the overall reinforcement scheme can

punishments are necessary for learning to be good, and we should not fear the

except at the higher ends, where the brother is excommunicated for

Note that our God-provided conscience automatically does this

Of course, the more severe deviations from the right path require stronger corrections.

broad gate to destruction

Ignorance/Neglect/Folly/"did not fear God"

ex. 1

Guilt

ex. 2. The pharaoh's daughter knew.

Shame

Ex. 4. God calls out Moses on his reluctance

Ex. 5 Moses entreats Pharoah, enumerating the consequences.

Ex. 5. The people complain to pharaoh.

Law

Ex. 2. Moses kills an Egyptian

Ex. 5. Pharaoh make a decree to make bricks without providing straw

A good degree of back and forth

Reality

The ten plagues

The movies get this wrong - it's a slow process.

God cannot be mocked.

Hell

maybe things will get so bad that only God can save.

Reversal in the Gospel