The Law of Unintended Consequences

I'm sure you've heard of it. It's pretty simple. The concept is that actions, particularly those taken on a large scale as by governments, may have unexpected consequences. And we see it all the time. President Obama quickly and happily withdrew American troops from Iraq (action) which emboldened Al Qaeda forces and is now ripping Iraq apart (unintended consequence). Somebody figured out that certain naturally occurring silicates are fire resistant and could be used in things to improve resistance to fire and tensile strength (action) resulting in lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other deadly side effects of the use of asbestos (unintended consequence). Lawmakers decide that "three strikes" was enough and law-breakers that went to prison the third time would die in prison (action), which has encouraged people who have two strikes to murder if necessary to avoid getting caught again (unintended consequence). The "Stranger Danger" Campaign to teach kids not to speak to strangers (action) may actually endanger them if they don't speak to strangers who can help them (unintended consequence). Increasing taxes at some point (action) actually results in decreased tax revenues (unintended consequence). Science comes up with an effective insecticide to prevent bugs from killing crops (action) and the insecticides kill bees as well, endangering crops ... and life on Earth (unintended consequence).

I remember the story of a lake in Tennessee that was the home to a rare Brown Trout. Fishermen loved it. The only problem was the mosquitos that surrounded the lake. Well, now, we're not stupid. You can't poison the bugs without poisoning the fish. So they came up with a "natural" plan -- smoke. Lay down a layer of smoke around the rim of the lake and the mosquitos go away. And it worked (action)! Of course, the fish all died because the mosquito was their food source (unintended consequence).

My favorite example (maybe "favorite" isn't the right word) is the TV commercials for those wonder drugs that will ease your problems with depression (action) followed by the warnings that the drug may increase the risk of suicide (unintended consequence).

"Yeah, so?"

I am always amused when people tell me, "Morality is based on the concept of harm. Doing harm is bad. It's not bad if it does no harm." Given the constant, non-stop river of unintended consequences. It seems that there is hardly a single thing we can do that doesn't have negative unintended consequences. And then we have the audacity when God says "This is a sin" to say that "I don't see that it does any harm, so it can't be" as if we have a clear understanding of what does harm.

Don't be fooled. We live in a world of unintended consequences. We don't know how it works. We don't know the ramifications. We don't see the interconnections. So we have little reliable basis on which to correctly declare "no harm" regarding that which God says is sin. Perhaps we ought to let the Maker decide how His works operate.