The Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Long Tail Effect
New ideas that aren't that new...
Hey Kids,
I recently finished one of Taleb’s books. (I think it was Skin in the Game = pretty good overall) He mentioned Long Tails about three or four thousand times. I had already read Chris Anderson’s book years ago on the topic and thought it was very insightful.
I was having a little fun online recently on Youtube when someone asked a question about the Trinity and what is the difference between the modern sectarian iteration of the trinity and the Godhead. In truth, it was a remark criticizing those that equate the two in order to build an interfaith bridge between believers of different faiths. This idea of building bridges by pointing out how much the different faiths have in common has some major drawbacks. Here is my response:
Re: Trinity. I am sure there are people of my faith who still claim the trinity is very similar to the Godhead. The church of Jesus Christ focused for a long time on how there is such vast overlap in belief systems between the COJCOLDS & other Christian faiths. It reminds me of those who say that we humans share 95% or our DNA with chimps, or 85% with dogs, etc. It's not that it isn't true - its that the most important distinctions between the species are found in that last 5-15%. This applies to mammals, churches, and trajectories.
This is long tail theory.
When I hear Christ’s words regarding eternal life, “strait is the gate, narrow is the way & few there be that find it" I hear Him describing the long tail effect.
EXAMPLES
Think of doctrines that pretty much every Christian church accepts. Those are the head.
Compare those doctrines like the Godhead or for this discussion: eternal marriage. Eternal marriage is PLAINLY recorded in the scriptures (don’t believe it? Save yourself a lot of time and find every instance where God the Father, Christ, Peter, John, Paul, etc counsel on marriage. Now find an example where one of them counsels or even implies they intended this union to end) and it’s also essential for exaltation...but is this doctrine well understood, taught, or accepted in the religious mainstream?? (head)
No…NO. When Christ said that to some it is given and to some, it is not given to know the mysteries of God - was He referring to the head or to the tail? The doctrines at the long tail are perhaps 5-15% out of variance with the mainstream…but they make all the difference.
What do I mean by this? I am not talking about doctrine or belief…I am referring to the manifestation of the inadequacy & inevitable failure of those regressing to the mean (ie inside of the tail) It’s 1:00 am - that will have to wait for our next chat.
Love,
Dad
aka Halestorm