We are God’s partners in determining the contributions of what is yet to come. Human activity, energized by belief, is a creative force in reality, codeciding the future course of an unfinished Universe. To cooperate with God’s creation by the best and rightest response seems all God wants of us. In such cooperation with his purpose must be the real meaning of our destiny. Both psychology and theology are necessary to understand the complexity of human nature and behavior. In other words, scientific and religious explanations can be ways of looking at the same phenomena through different lenses. We do not pray to get what we want from a Santa Claus-like God. Instead, the purpose of prayer is to acknowledge our dependence on God and our intimate relationship with him. The knowledge we gain as we study psychology can honor God when we use that knowledge in wise ways and for God’s glory. It is worth time and effort to gain knowledge and develop wisdom. We must remember to remain humble because our knowledge is limited compared to God’s. Many modern people are weighted down by enormous feelings of guilt. Indeed, it seems impossible for people to by-pass guilt feeling. No one can live without drawing distinctions of some sort between what one judges to be better or worse. Out of these distinctions there arises in every life a concept of what life might be. Paralleling this, inevitably, runs the sense of failure. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

The times that we violate our norms are not confined to ones in which we treat people less well than we should; they include opportunities for ourselves that we let slip irretrievably. Guilt may keep its distance while the Sun is up, but there are times when alone in the night it comes up us all, when we are cold and all we did seems awful, whatever it was, and shame to make us shake. Unrelieved guilt always reduces creativity. In its acute form it can rise to a fury of self-condemnation that stiles creativeness completely and brings life to a standstill. The human curse is to love and sometimes to love well, but never well enough. We have to break that curse and it will be dramatically lifted once bring our souls to the Lord’s vineyard. If we will act in faith to fulfill the Lord’s work, God will assist us in our labors, and love will flow freely from its former, self-demanding constraints. It is not difficult to see how release from guilt, fear, and self could give people a new birth into life. If someone were actually to save us from these devastating drags against our love and joy, we too would call this person Savior. Our Savior wants us to really love him to the point that we want to align our will with his. God should be the center of our Universe—our literal focal point. And it is not just the thoughts of our hearts that are important, but the intents. How do our behavior and actions reflect the integrity of out intents? #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

The Lord gives us ways to help remember him and his sustaining powers. Indeed, the belief that the World teems with ancestors’ spirits—the souls of people who have been liberated from their bodies through death—is common across cultures. We can imagine our bodies being destroyed, our brains ceasing to function, our bones turning to dust, but it is harder—some would say impossible—to imagine the end of our very existence. The notion of a soul without a body makes sense to us. Others have argued that rather than believing in an afterlife. This was Dr. Freud’s position. He speculated that the doctrine of a soul emerged as a solution to the problem of death; if souls exist, then conscious experience need not come to an end. As we look back at the trials we have faced, it is clear that they have resulted in our growth, understanding, and empathy. They have drawn us closer to our Heavenly Father with experiences and refining engraved into our hearts. This notion of an immaterial soul potentially separate from the body clashes starkly with the scientific view. For psychologists and neuroscientists, the brain is the source of all mental life; our consciousness, emotions, and will are the products of neural processes. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

As the claim is sometime put, the mind is what the brain does. We do not want to overstate the consensus here; there is no accepted theory as to precisely how this happens, and some scholars are skeptical that we will ever develop such a theory. Since scientist have found an area of the brain that is related to religious belief, God and religion can now be addressed by science. With the link between brain activity and the spiritual feelings that any people have when they pray, meditate, or perform some other religious activity, the question is raised whether the brain creates the spiritual experiences, or whether the brain is responding to spiritual connection of God’s making. For this energy to be released the atom must be bombarded from within. Locked within every human life, a wealth of love and joy that partakes of God himself, which can only be released through love. We see this clearly in child psychology. No amount of threat or preachment will take the place of the parents’ love in nurturing a love in nurturing a loving and creative child. We are beginning to see the point likewise in psychotherapy where love is coming to be a key term in theories of treatment. The best evidence, however, is that of personal experience. If we really felt loved, not abstractly or in principle but vividly and personally, by one who united in oneself all power and perfect, the experience could melt our fear, guilt, and self-concern forever. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

The Lord wants us to develop the faith that will help us rely upon him in solving our problems and trust him. Then we can feel his love more constantly, more powerfully, more clearly, and more personally. We become united with God, and we can become like the Lord. For us to be like God is the Lord’s goal. In fact, it is God’s glory as well as his work. It is also important to remember that religious experience is not the same as religious belief. Christians may have varying religious experiences due to brain construction or psychological issues. Some Christians may have a strong relationship with God, and yet do not necessarily feel these experiences. If at every moment both present and future it were eternally certain that nothing has happened or can ever happen, not even the most fearful horror invented by the most morbid imagination and translated into fact, which can separate us from God’s love, here would be the reason for joy. This love of God is precisely what the first Christians did feel. They became convinced that they directly felt the force of God’s love. Our Savior wants us to really love him so we can then feel his love and know his glory. Then God can bless us as he wants. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

 Once the love of God reaches us it could not be stopped. Melting the barriers of fear, guilt. And self, it poured through them as if they were sluice gates, expanding the love they had hitherto felt for others until the difference in degree became a difference in kind and a new quality which the World has come to call Christian love was born. When we reach the stage where we trust the Lord implicitly, he will bless us with all that we ask. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved—beauty, gaiety, friendliness, cheerfulness, personal charm, or some other. The love we encounter in God needs no such virtues to release it. It embraces sinners, outcast, and everyone; it gives not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving is its nature. God is always near, especially in sacred places and in times of need; and sometimes, when we least expect, we feel almost like he taps us on the shoulder and lets us know that the loves us. We can return that love in our own ways by giving God our hearts. Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise nor dilute our commitment to the truths we understand. We must not surrender our positions nor our values. Loving kindness is required. We should also teach the truth and the commandments plainly and thoroughly as we understand them from the plan of salvation. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

Our environment is one of the greatest examples we have of God’s power. The Word environment encompasses all of God’s most beautiful and awesome works. The World is God’s creation, a precious and holy recourse with which he entrusted all humans the loving care and wise use of. Creation is beautiful in its simplicity; yet, psychologist have only begun to understand the complexity of the nervous system and the brain. Through this process, God’s wisdom, intelligence, and creativity continues to be revealed. God created humans and holds them in high regard. The complexities of our bodies and especially our brains is God’s good creation. Evolutionary psychology and the Christian faith use different language to explain what goes wrong with human behavior. Christians tend to explain bad behavior as a result of personal sin and/or the brokenness of the World. Evolutionary psychology, on the other hand, assert that behavior that is currently unacceptable was hard-wired into the brain earlier in human history when such behavior was adaptive. Our brain does not evolve quickly, and thus some behaviors are not appropriate in our contemporary environment. For instance, some people live in an atmosphere of doubt and unbelief, it is just a fact that some have a much more difficult time maintaining a walk of strong faith. That doubt-filled environment will try to rub off on you! #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

God’s design for the family is revealed in his perfection creation. God teaches us that in the beginning he made a special man, and from him the Lord made a special woman, and they were untied as one flesh. God created them in his own image, and they were destined to be the Father and Mother of us all. Until recently, we assumed that how religious one is coms from environmental influences. However, more recent studies suggest genes contribute about 40 percent of the variability in a person’s religiousness. Interestingly, the effects of nature and nurture on religiousness seems to change over time. Researchers at the University of Minnesota asked 169 pairs of identical twins and 104 pairs of fraternal twins about their religious practices. The twins believed that when they were younger they shared similar religious behavior with their families. However, only the identical twins reported maintaining the similarity as adults. The fraternal twins were about a third less similar than they were as children. This would suggest that over time, genetic factors have more of an influence on religious practices than does growing up together. Some wonder if God places knowledge of himself in humans at a genetic level or whether our genetic code creates God out of a basic human need for morality, organization, and avoiding the fear of death. It is possible that God might have created people with a God gene so that they could know and experience him. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

Scientist has statistically analyzed over 800 human mitochondrial sequences from around the World, and have been able to reconstruct and publish a very close approximation of Eve’s mitochondrial sequence. Using this sequence, they discovered that the average human being has only derived from the original Eve sequence by about 22 mutations (although some individuals are as much as 100 mutations different from Eve). As time passes, we are all slowly getting further and further from the original Eve sequence as mutations accumulate. The most recent estimate of the mutation rate within the human mitochondrial DNA is about 0.5 mutations per generations. Thus, even for those individuals with the most mutated sequences (100 mutations different from Eve), it would only require 200 generations (less than 6,000 years) to accumulate this many mutations. This leads to a remarkable conclusion—a real woman, who lived less than 10,000 years ago, is the mother of all humanity. We know her mitochondrial DNA sequence. Within Each one of us is a slightly-mutated version of her original sequence. Evolutions have chosen to call her Eve. All parties now agree that there is only one paternal ancestor for all people on Earth. A real man, who lived less than 10,000 years ago, is the father of all humanity. We know his Y chromosome sequence. Within each male alive today there is a slightly-mutated version of this original DNA sequence. Following the case of Mitochondrial Eve, evolutionists have chosen to call him Adam. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

Since all dating methods are only approximate, it is safe to day that both Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam lived in the same basic timeframe—and this timeframe is remarkably consistent with the most straightforward reading of the Bible. The divine is a concept that is present in human cultures Worldwide, which makes since if God created humans with the capacity to have a relationship with him. And in the midst of the trials they are able to lay hold of an inner peace that finds expression in a joy that is almost boisterous. The Holy Spirit is described as intoxicating. Radiance is hardly the word we would use to characterize the average religious life, but none other fits so well the life of many Christians because they are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Once we belong to the Savior, the Holy Spirit strengthens us to accept the fruit of the Spirit. Life ceases to be a problem to be solved and becomes a glory discerned. “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your Earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” reports Colossians 3:5, 12. Biology and environment alone do not determine our behavior. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

As Christians we have access to the Holy Spirit who makes these virtues available to us despite or limitations. Thanks to be God who gives us the victory. In all thing we are more than conquerors. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. The qualities themselves are universally coveted—the secret is how they are to be had. The explanation is that intolerable burdens will suddenly and dramatically be lifted from our shoulders. God is the source of all healing, peace, and eternal progress. We are able to repent, change, and progress eternally. Because of the power God gives us as we are obedient, we have become more than we ever could on our own. We may not understand completely how, but each of us who has felt faith in God increase has also received a greater understanding of our divine identity and purpose, leading us to make choices that are consistent with that knowledge. Despite a World that will try to know us down to the level of animals, knowing that God is our Father assures us that we have divine potential and royal promise. Despite the World telling us that this life is a dead end, knowing that God made it possible for us to be redeemed and resurrected gives us hope for eternal progress. We want to experience peace and happiness we have found. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11