Random Thoughts from DeHart

I've been contemplating the state of the world and my views upon it. I tend to do this alot as it seems to be my nature to dwell on things till I have broken them down into their base parts. Recently, my thoughts have went to breaking down my beliefs on homosexuality, abortion, and the actions of the Christian church as a whole. While my base beliefs has stayed the same through this, my attitude has changed, as well as how I wish to conduct myself when confronted or asked about my beliefs on these issues. The reason I have chosen homosexuality and abortion as topics are strictly because they seem to be a constant source of tension within the Christian community and between Christians and non-Christians. We don't tend to see the same kindof fever within Christians when it comes to infidelity, stealing, and lying. I have not seen nor heard of marches on the streets of Washington crying out for lying within the courtroom to be halted, or even in the government itself. We have al...

How my my heart hates this world, yet loves it within the same breath. It is filled with sorrow, and anger at what surrounds me everyday. It cries out, and rejoices within the moments. What a conflicted creature am I that such emotions fill my heart from beginning to end of day, and yet, I rejoice in that conflicted being which I have become.  There are times that I feel as though the waves of grief shall overcome my mind, and overwhelm my heart. I cry out to the Lord to take away this agony of which plagues my heart daily since I can remember. The reply has continued to be the same, one of which I thought was silent apathy for my circumstance, but now, blessed with new wisdom and understanding, I realize that that silence was not truly silence. It was a calling to search for the answers. To pursue knowledge, to desire wisdom, to crave understanding. "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the...

This chapter seeks to answer the question, “does religion have an adverse effect on psychology?” Within the first paragraph, we are introduced to a young man who has just committed himself to God. He gives up all he has, and sells some of his father’s possessions. Upon learning this, his father brings his son to court in order to have his son give back what he owes. The son walks out with nothing, joins a group of followers who lives in abandoned churches, and begs for food. All this is told in order to ask the question previously stated, and with a story like this, it would seem that the answer would be yes. Some say that religion is a crutch, or a disease that overwhelms people. Freud described religion as “obsessional necrosis” (p.176).  George Albee says that “religion…impedes efforts to relieve human misery by teaching that people deserve their fate, that to believe that misfortune and suffering are divine judgments on sinners legitimates blaming the depressed, the miserabl...

Think back to a time when you were truly hurt. Not a physical hurt, but rather a psychological or emotional hurt cause by someone close to you. It could be a time when a friend spread your deepest secret with those who would use it against you. It could be when someone you truly loved with left you for someone else. You would be angry. Now, did you forgive the one who caused you this harm? Forgiveness is a big part of the Christian life. We are commanded to forgive, but are there other benefits to this? Are we to forgive and forget? If we do forgive and forget, how are we any different from a child who is in constant need of redirection? Memory plays a major role in life. It is how we advance through childhood and into adulthood. Picture a child and a fire. The child looks at the fire with no prior knowledge about what it is and what it does, but knows it looks pretty. If the child reaches out and tries to grasp the fire, what happens? He burns his hand. This pain is committed t...

Dualistic thinking depends on this word. We can pray for another person’s soul, or show concern for it, but if the word soul was erased from our vocabulary, dualistic thinking would become more difficult. Another example is the use of the phrase Christian life. In using this word, we make the mistake of separating Christianity for life’s other functions and direct it inward to were Christian life only affects the person, and not his or her surroundings. This could not be farther from what a Christian life should be, because no part of life is “irrelevant to being a Christian.” (pg. 117) Words can both be used to describe, and divide. Christians use adjectives to separate themselves into sects. A Bible-believing Christian may be considered different than a Born-Again Bible-Believing Christian. This seems to be specific to the American culture. If you look at Christians from India, they refer to each other as Christians, but in America, we add an adjective, such as Baptist or Method...

Roll the dice, what are the odds you get seven? You have a secret way that rarely fails you in this endeavor. Blow on the dice, say the number you wish it to land upon three times, and throw them. Congratulations, we have a winner. Was that luck, or just finding an order in a random event? We so easily see correlations, or cause and effect links, where there are none to be found. You are blowing on the dice did nothing to improve your odds of winning, but you were so ready to make a random act seem totally predictable. In that, you have erred.  We tend to overestimate our own judgmental accuracy. When asked the question, “Which is longer, the Panama or Suez canal?” (pg. 86), people were sixty percent of the time correct, and felt seventy five percent sure they were correct. This is an example of what some psychologists call cognitive conceit. This overconfident phenomenon is present in a variety of fields of study.  A doctor has a patient with a spot on their arm that has p...