Texas Baptist Forum: The problem with “human capital”

More than ‘capital’

Two things stuck out to me in the Jan. 26 Baptist Standard.

First was the cover story , “Doing well, doing good,” which included the statement: “However, they measure not only financial capital, but also human, environmental and social capital.”

The second was Marv Knox’s editorial, “Disenthrall ourselves … and save,” in which he said: “Because of prejudice, we make objects of people who are different from us. And because of prejudice, we blaspheme the image of God stamped into each human soul.”

I’m sure the use of the phrase “human capital” in the cover story was an innocent oversight. But that phrase conveys class prejudice or “classism.” To relegate human beings to the level of material objects—the substance of all capital—is to employ the language of slavery.

According to the principles of economics, there are but three things that can be used to create wealth—land, labor and capital. Labor clearly is not capital of any sort.

We suffer from a contrived shortage of respect for human life, human rights and human dignity in America today. The use of phrases like “human capital” and “human resources” contributes to that deficit.

I would urge everyone who respects human life, human rights and human dignity, whether for religious or other reasons, to avoid use of the terms “human capital” and “human resources.”

Human beings, after all, are created in the image of God.

Charles Reed

Waco

Faith, not science

Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday is Feb. 12. After more than 150 years of scientific study, Darwinian “Origin of Species” remains a theory today, never adopted as natural law.

How could life possibly appear by happenstance on our planet, all by itself, together with multiple environmental factors that are necessary, in exact measure, to maintain that life? Statistically, those probabilities “by chance and chance alone” are collectively infinitesimal.

Darwinism conflicts with natural laws of entropy, which “flows to a maximum.” As affirmed by Einstein, entropy is the inevitable degradation of all matter and energy in the universe, with ultimate disorder and chaos. It cannot reverse spontaneously. Overcoming it would require an extraneous source of immense power from something or someone.

The science of logic deals with cause and effect—never any effect without its cause. When we view the Golden Gate Bridge, it is logical to know there were designers and builders who put it there. Logically, Mona Lisa was painted by a great artist. Logically, a sunset, flower, birds in flight, a newborn baby all are possible only by miraculous power.

Call it faith, if you will. I call it God—heavens and earth show forth his handiwork.

As a scientist, I accept teaching in our schools of both spontanteous evolution plus intelligent design of evolution. But both must be presented as faith, not as science.

Val F. Borum

Fort Worth

What do you think? Because we affirm the Baptist principle of the priesthood of all believers, we value hearing from our readers. Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: [email protected]. Due to space considerations, limit letters to 250 words, and only one letter per writer per quarter.