""Life is like a dance. We're dancing on the edge of eternity. And our worldview, whether we acknowledge it or not, is like the music playing in our heads."
Charles Lee is a Professor of Management and Accounting at Stanford Business School and a pioneering behavioral economist. He was not born into a Christian family and did not himself become a Christian until the age of 24. But when he did, the music really started to change.
Zero to twenty-four
Charles was born in Taiwan, but when he was 9, his parents immigrated to Ontario. His mother became a Christian. But his father remained an "articulate atheist" and by the time he headed off to college, Charles describes himself as "religiously confused." Unlike his father, he couldn't positively say there was no God. But if there was a God, Charles did not know him.
By the time Charles graduated, two things had happened to disrupt his life. First, his father had been diagnosed with cancer. Second, Charles had had a series of failed romances. These two things combined together to make Charles realize he was far less in control of his own life than he had ever realized. Then, in the aftermath of his cancer diagnosis, Charles's father became a Christian.
Both now convinced followers of Jesus, Charles's parents invited him to a Christian conference. But Charles wasn't interested. And anyway, he'd made plans with friends for that week. But then the plans fell through. As Charles already had the week off work, and as the place his parents were going to was known for its excellent fly fishing, Charles agreed to go.
Much to Charles's disappointment, the fly fishing that week was terrible. So, he ended up going to Bible studies instead. In one meeting, they were studying Chapter 3 of the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, which includes these lines:
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)
As Charles heard these words he thought, "If all have sinned, that means I have sinned. I am a proper member of that set." And he thought about the ways in which he had not been able to control his feelings of rage, or jealousy, or lust in the midst of his relationship fall-outs. Much to his own surprise, in the course of this conference, Charles decided to accept Jesus's death in his place and to embrace the life that Christ was offering.
The Music Changed
After becoming a Christian, Charles noticed two changes in himself. The first was that he was filled with inexpressible joy. He recalls wanting to hug people as he walked down the street. The second was a much greater awareness of his past and present sin. He recalls remembering past thoughts and actions and realizing how wrong they had been. His whole internal world had changed.
Charles reflects on the change like this:
"I became a Christian when I was 24, and that had a huge impact on the way I think about life and the way I think about purpose. It's a little bit like music, like someone bopping down the street. We're dancing at the edge of eternity, and our worldview, whether we acknowledge it or not, is like the music playing in our heads. It's worthwhile to spend some time thinking about the kind of music that you're playing and why.
For me, becoming a Christian was a radical event. I wasn't looking to become a Christian. It just sort of happened to me. But after that, the music really changed."
In addition to his continued interest in economics, Charles went on to gain a Certificate in Biblical Studies from Ontario Theological Seminary. And rather than detracting from his other interests, Charles credits his growing knowledge of the Bible for the insights that led to his success as a behavioral economist.
Genesis 3 and behavioral economics
The third Chapter of the Bible (Genesis 3) describes how humans turned away from the God who made them. Reflecting on what this means for us today, Charles observes,
"Instead of being God-centered beings, we became self-centered beings, and this self-centered being has a lot of problems."
In particular, Genesis 3 describes humans responding to their sin by hiding and trying to cover it up. This resonated for Charles in his own life, but it also gave him insight into how human beings act in markets.
In a Forbes feature on his life and work, Charles observed that classical economists tend to "model human beings like machines" and "assume human beings are totally rational and have infinite processing power." But Charles knew that "investors are subject to cognitive biases and constraints such as fear, greed, overconfidence, and overreaction."
Charles's insights and the models he developed led to a lot of professional success. But his faith also led him to rethink what success is about.
What is success?
"We all want to be successful," Charles observed in a Veritas Forum dialogue at Harvard, "But what about being a successful liar? A successful thief? A successful terrorist? Success is simply the attainment of a goal. What's more important than success is the worthiness of that goal."
"The success of a knife is to cut, because it was designed to cut. The success of a racehorse is to run, because it was designed to run. So what does success look like for a human being? That depends on what you think a human being is, and in order to ask these questions you need a worldview: some sort of cogent, coherent metaphysical commitment to something... So again, we're back to the music in your ears."
"We're all hearing music," Charles argues. "You might as well think about what music you're hearing because you're dancing to it. And I think Christianity is very specific about the tune."
