Tuesday, September 3, 2024

PSYCHOLOGY: RELIGION OR SCIENCE - Final

 The dynamic of guilt is paramount in both psychology and Judeo-Christianity. First, examine guilt: “Guilt most commonly refers to an emotion that occurs when a person feels that they have violated a moral standard(Wikipedia 2024). Those without a moral standard are emotionless. In psychology, an emotionless, non-caring person is a “psychopath.” Humane people — humans — should feel some type of emotion. If any, a psychopathic person may feel exultation.

Moral standards are required for civilization, or everyone would do what is right in their own eyes and many would be psychopathic. Not by coincidence, in ancient times, about the so-called elect of God, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6). Israel was no longer a religion but a conglomeration of psychopathic people that were out of control.

Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited and egocentric traits, masked by superficial charm and the outward appearance of apparent normalcy. (ibid)

In other words, whatever a psychopath chooses to do is the normative; they can hurt others with impunity, believing they will not be punished themselves. They are too smart for the law of man and since God does not exist, in their world, psychopaths are their own kings just as scripture reveals them to be.

Mobs are groups of psychopaths doing whatever they think is right. You often see the outcome of that with the “woke” crowd in big cities.

Their moral standard is their own with regard to society’s standards, let alone any divine standard. They are like the mob that crucified Jesus who were out for blood… divine blood. Anyone would not do; they required the blood of “The Man” with Authority — the Man who lived the Law of Love. It was not Jesus they sought, but they endeavored to “defund the police,” so to speak, by putting an end to oppressive laws.

Mobs are excused nowadays; they are seen as merely the oppressed expressing their anger at anyone, even statues, that differs in opinion. The woke people excuse their behaviors and they are “awake” because of good-meaning psychologists.

Note that psychologists are not mean people. Those in schools of psychology are taught empathy, just like the Christian catechism: “As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31). Christ said to have empathy. It is okay to protest against injustice, but it is not okay to violently, or destructively protest. The woke crowd, conditioned by the DSM, are showing empathy, but the law of the land and the Law of God does not condone violence to show empathy!

In thought, modern-day mobs think they are empathetic. They hold all types of empathetic signs so that those who are sound asleep know just how empathetic they are. Although they think good thoughts their actions speak otherwise; they tear down what good people have made to show their empathy.

With that said, people are like Adam and Eve who were cunningly manipulated to do immoral acts. Just as the cunning Devil used pleasantries to instigate lawlessness, “children of the Devil” (John 8:44) use the same tactics to get the masses to do the unthinkable.

The DSM is a manual with good intentions. It provides standards to identify who needs help to overcome life in this world. (It is the capable giving to those with needs in a Marxist way.) The DSM is meant to be for good just like the Communist Manifesto was intended to be good, but in practice they can harm.

It is not bad to help people, but it is bad to “help” them with bad advice. The problem with the DSM is not the paper, but those behind the standards written on the paper. The writers of the DSM have written their own standards of normalcy whereas the Bible is written by those inspired by God, to wit: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).

Just what is so bad about sharing doctrine to correct bad thoughts and behaviors to live right and joyful lives? Because the Bible already provides safety, asking its adherents to refrain from dangerous behaviors. Indeed, The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Doing sinful things leads to death. For instance, insobriety and non-vigilance is dangerous in any doctrine. However stupid those two things are, people will still do them because of enjoyment, just as children do not fear danger because they want to explore.

To keep mankind sober and vigilant for their own safety, God wrote standards of safe behavior. The Bible is His “DSM” in a manner. It identifies abnormal behavior that might be dangerous to you. The problem with the DSM is that their standards are not God’s Standards because their thoughts are not His Thoughts (Isa 55:8). The DSM is not written by righteous men who desire that you live forever, but that you merely cope in this world.

It is not mean to want people to cope! They encourage you to do what they feel is best for you.

Stress is the most prevalent killer of mankind, so it is logical for empathetic people to want you not to have stress.

Is stress from God or is it from Satan? that is the question. Stress is what the world imbues upon its people. Stress, according to scripture, is the outcome of sin, ignoring the standards of God. From where does that come? Genesis 3:16-19 wherein the woman got pain, and the man got toil. Who is to blame for that? Satan, cleverly disguised in some image, did not force Adam and the woman to do anything, and God forbade them to get into trouble with the Law.

In other words, mankind was a free agent to do as he pleased, and both the man and woman chose stress.

God had a plan to alleviate stress: do what is right and avoid stress. So, God wrote down standards; His “DSM” is written on stone to endure forever, and it does include empathy (Commands five through ten) for others and empathy for God (Commands one through four).

So, both psychology and Judeo-Christianity shares the concept of empathy. The contrast is the punishment for failure to be empathetic.

In Genesis chapter three God provided the consequence for coming short of empathy — stresses of all sorts, or “tribulations.” 

The DSM lists no penalties for sinful (abnormal) behavior at all but encourages pride. Rather than ashamed of nakedness like Adam and the woman (Gen 3:10), it is okay to come out of the closet with about any type of trans-behaviors.

Adam and the woman were naked before and were not ashamed. Their nakedness was not their flesh but their innermost being — their two souls with God within them. After sin, they were ashamed of what they had become. Eve was trans-mutated by an alien in the Garden. She was ashamed that her divine chromosomes had become stained by alien actions… behaviors that were alien to God.

God did provide a “pressure valve” to relief the stress of mankind. God is the Author of “guilt.” Satan had not sinned; he (it) had persuaded mankind to sin and when the woman did, she became another kind that Adam named “Eve” (Gen 3:20).

Since “guilt” refers to an emotion that occurs when a person feels that they have violated a moral standard, then eliminating moral standards suffices in the viewpoint of psychiatry. The DSM removes religions viewpoint of morality from their standards; it matters not what God says, but what the APA says. Oftentimes they say the same thing, but increasingly so, they are saying very different things.

Paul wrote to Christians to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thes 5:1). (I am not implying that all the DSM, nor all the APA, is bad, but to warn people to test all the things in their lexicon and hang onto what is good.

The problem is that the modern Church, and even well-meaning Christians, allow the DSM and psychology to have precedence above God. In a sense, the DSM is a new invisible god in violation of the First Commandment.

Now examine a psychiatric appointment: you talk; they listen, then they direct your thoughts. Their intention is for you to have a ground-breaking repressed thought emerge from your mind.

That is the method of Christianity as well. You speak, God corrects with scripture, and you are guided to a better Way. Finally, the Word speaks to you in the same manner as the psychiatrist.

In whom do you trust… mammon or God? The problem with Christians is that they now trust the therapist more so than God. Sin is not necessarily abandoning God but putting another God before Him (Exod 20:3).

The Jewish problem in ancient days was that they trusted themselves more than God. They preferred to wonder in the wilderness under the pretense of following God all the while their route was chaotic as Moses allowed them to wander wherever they might go. In a symbolic manner, the Israelites were following the “Wanderer” Cain in the land of Nod. In a sense, those directing themselves on the psychiatric couch are going where they want to go, and about anyplace they would rather go than to follow God.

It is important to understand the concept of guilt. It took the Israelites forty years to find their way to sanctity and peace, when if they had followed God, they would have arrived there quickly.

God threw all sorts of tribulations to the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt to serenity. He truly stressed them out. He put up all sorts of stressors to shorten the way to serenity: war, famine, more war, thirst, and on and on. They were pretty much apathetic, even pathetic; they failed to see that God was providing for them the same perils as Adam and Eve. He was testing them to determine to whom their hearts belonged.

On each occasion, the Israelites felt the emotion of guilt. To resolve their guilt, God blessed them for them to understand that they failed with God’s standards. He loved them anyway. God did not empathize with their unrighteous behaviors and thoughts, but that they were worth correcting. It took forty years to correct their dysfunctionality, and God took them to serenity, not in Canaan, but serenity in heavenly Paradise.

If only people would live the standards of God, tribulation would not be required. Stress and the response to it — guilt — is more of a guidance to the Way to sober thinking rather than an impedance. Why would Satan want you to feel guilt for bad behavior? He would not; he would want you to feel free.

That is the same outcome expected of your empathetic therapist. He tries to direct you to shortcut to serenity by traveling his way. The objective of a psychiatrist is not for you to reject stressor-inducing behaviors but to continue on your merry way as you are. Of course, that is not in all cases, but with people that they think are born that way.

We are all “Born This Way” as the song goes. The song itself is a song of pride.

James wrote to “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Jas 4:10). Pride is of the Satan, Lucifer, his “pomp” (Isa 14:12). Flamboyant people are pompous; you must accept them as they are. Their type of love is no different than God’s agape, caring love. You were “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5), you were born this way, coming short of the glory of God in all way!

Sure, we love them, but not their ways because their ways will destroy them. Sincere love is wanting better for them. To cherish them as they are, is condoning their behaviors. To be honest, we want them to change. We are much like them in a manner of speaking — they want us to be like them without a standard, and we want them to be like us... that is to God’s standards.

The argument condenses to whom does your heart belong? Does it belong to Freud, Jung, Maslow, or even Marx; or does your heart belong to God?

Indeed, psychology does some good things, but like the tree of the same name, they can do great evil as well. They are indeed a religion that is cleverly disguised as a science. However, even their name gives them away — psychology — the “study of the soul.” That is the very purpose of reading the Bible, but most people spend a hundred-fold more time studying books of psychology rather than the one good book that covers all normal and abnormal behaviors using the metrics written by God Himself.

When I asked Dr. Fong, "Isn't psychology just another religion?" she responded, "Are you just now figuring that out?" Are you just figuring that out now?

picture credit: humanwindow.com

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