Random Thoughts from DeHart

Individuality is something we prize here in America. Each man is his own, and each woman her own. It is engrained in our education, our television, and our literature. On the other hand, in Eastern society, collectivism is the way to go. It is in their education system, their literature, and so on and so forth. Each type of society says that they are the best, but which one is Christian? In Lewis’s essay entitled “Membership,” he seeks to answer this. Let us address membership within the church first. Lewis states that “In our own age the idea that religion belongs to our private life – that is, in fact, an occupation for the individual’s hour of leisure.” (p.332) This means that the world looks upon religion as something you can do in your private life, but not in the open. The only problem is that, while the public says you can do want you want behind closed door, they make sure that you do not have the privacy in which you can do your worship. Closed door policy is looked upon wi...

Evolutionary psychology is the study of the evolution behavior and mind. This type of psychology challenges the views of other psychologists relating to the views of human nature, and humanity’s place in nature. One question posed throughout the years is, what makes us human? More specially, what differentiates us from animals? Most people would find that the comparison between humans and animals is demeaning, going into insulting. This is hardly a new question though. The problem with answering a question like this is addressing both similarity and uniqueness. Humans are both similar to, and unique from animals. Focus on one side of the augment creates a dangerous ignorance to the man or woman listening. Evolutionary psychology seeks to fix this ignorance dilemma. Some psychologists are wary of evolutionary psychology, saying that it seeks to take over psychology as a whole. Evolutionary psychologist, on the other hand, stay they seek to show how humans came to be and what...

There is an ongoing debate about the relationship between body and soul. Two key point of views, or theories are at the forefront of this argument, one of Dualism, and the other of Psychophysical unity. The dualistic theory was the accepted by the Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates. This theory stated that the body and soul are two entirely different entities, while Psychophysical unity, a theory suggested by H. Wheeler Robinson, states that the soul and body are one, inseparable entity. In this chapter, the author seeks to shed light on these theories, and see which one prevails. If you take a poll asking everyday Christians, “what is soul in relation to the body,” most will reply with a dualistic point of view saying that the soul and the body are two separate entities. To begin contradicting this theory, we run into a few problems. Christians have been taught this belief since they committed their lived to Christ. A theory that has been held onto for so long sinks hooks in...

How are we to truly understand? Imagine for a moment one of those early 2000’s movie boxes with a moving picture. From the top, a character appears in holding a little girl's hand. Looking from the bottom, it looks as though the little girl is standing all alone beside an unmarked grave. This has two perspectives based on how you look at the box, and could be two very different stories. In one, it is about a little girl and her daddy. In another, it is about a little girl and standing in a graveyard, which seems like a setup for a horror movie. The trick, if we take in both perspectives. If we do that, we see that the movie is actually about a girl struggling with the death of her father and moving on, thus he fades into a grave as we look at the movie box in its entirety. Transposition, for this essay, is the taking in of two perspectives to complete a full picture. To start off this essay, we are thrown into a discussion on the speaking of tongues and Pentecost. Within this,...

This chapter starts out by telling the story of Dr. Samuel Johnson. One day, he woke up and found that he had lost the ability to speak. He quickly found that he still had language capabilities by writing a prayer in Latin, but could not form audible words. He drank wine, seeing if he could “loosen his tongue,” but all that did was put him to sleep. When he awoke, his speech still not accessible to him, he called upon his physicians who diagnosed him with a “disturbance in the vocal apparatus.” To treat this, they blistered each side of his throat. His speech returned with only a slight impediment. Dr. Johnson passed away the next year. Philosophers and psychologists have spent centuries debating the relationship between mind, soul, and body. During these centuries, scientific research has both came up with, and put to rest many theories about the mind and body. Around four-hundred B.C., Aristotle theorized that the mind was located in the heart. Around the same time, Hippocrate...

      Think back to your high school years. Do you remember how every person belonged to a group? I my school, we had the athletic kids, the popular crowd, the nerds, the “prissy” girls, and the abnormals. Do you ever remember looking in from the outside of a group and thinking, “what I would not give to be in that group?” These groups are not groups at all, but rather rings. Lewis talks about there being rings in which we desire to be in. The problem is that, once we are inside of one ring, many more become available to us. We strive and struggle to become part of the “in crowd” only to find that there is an “in crowd” in the “in crowd.” These rings are like an onion in which we peel back layer after layer, desiring to be accepted. This is the problem though, we fear being outside of the ring. We cram our weekends full of different activities, from movie goings with friends to dinners with family. We are often approached by people saying, “You should join this club,” o...

I was recently thinking over the past few years about the different types of people I have interacted with. It is an interesting thing to try to take yourself through the conversations you have had with people and look at them from an outside perspective. What I focused on in this last round of conversational analysis was the different kind of hearts people had, and how they presented themselves. I sent some of these observations to my best friend Joe, and he liked the ideas that I had presented, so I decided that I would delve in further to these different types of hearts. The first is the Heart of Stone. This is a strong heart, yet one that is heavy with the burdens it carries. It is a foundation for the holder's friends and families, a solid base for those who might use it. It can chip away under pressure, and the weight of such a heart may be too much for some people, yet overall it is a strong heart to admire. Unfortunately, because of it's nature, it is impossible to se...

Hey guys who actually read my blogs. I am having some issues with the text formatting in my blogs where it won't switch the text over from black to white. I'm working to solve this. Thanks for stopping by and reading.

The central task to any scientific field is often debated between those who practice it. Psychology is no exception to this observation. A century ago, it was said that psychology’s central task was the study of human nature. Today, psychologists are still debating the scientific base for their practice, but are more restricted in doing so compared to years past. This difficulty comes from the view of psychology, which is supposed to be neutral both ethically and morally, becoming complicated due the worldviews of those who practice it.   In any field of science there is the possibility of worldviews leaking into the practiced field. These interests and experiences can, unknowingly to the person, direct what, how, and when we study certain subjects. Psychology is not innocent in this. Worldviews of those who practice psychology can influence their work without them knowing. Scientists study what they are interested in, which can be influenced by the culture the scientist res...