Is the world becoming stupider? To judge by the actions of manufacturers, as reported in the magazine New Scientist, the answer must be 'yes'.

One producer of peanuts now puts on the packet: "Instructions: contains nuts. Open packet, eat contents". Some cars in America are now being sold with a sticker on the wing mirror reading: "Remember - objects seen in mirror are behind you". A certain make of chainsaw comes with the instruction: "Warning: do not try to stop the chain with your hands". You can buy irons whose users' manual includes the warning: "Do not iron clothes on body". A linctus to help you sleep says on the label: "Warning: this product may cause drowsiness". And a bottle of cough medicine for young children advises: "After taking dose do not drink alcohol, drive car or operate machinery".

Well, you have been warned. As St. Paul says: "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful" [I Cor 6:121; so now we know the context for that: the great Corinthian Chain Saw Massacre.

"Follow the instructions" is a great Christian principle and for some Christians it means following to the letter - which can be difficult, for often the letter is not there, even when the Church has interpreted the teaching of Christ to apply it to fields of human activity. The Old Law gave copious details about how to regulate life in detail, but the New Law does not. The New Law, as Christ teaches it, prefers to boil itself down to the principle "love God and your neighbour as yourself' and then leave practitioners to work out the details with greater or lesser success.

After his Resurrection, Christ's simple instruction to his friends was "Tell!". And like Isaiah before them, they must have been tempted to ask: "What shall I tell?" Christ singularly failed to give detailed instructions, to issue a userfriendly "disciple's pack" or to warn against the obvious though he did predict to his followers that 'in the world they would have trouble'. By the standards of today, Christ would have been sued for not giving a proper 'spiritual health warning'.