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Are Not Excuses Confessions of Excuses Inexcusable?
Second-hand shops are not the only place were things should be given another chance. We have to create new value and help transform people. There be a mirror in the World worthy to hold to our eyes, it is pride in our Country. I bear solemn witness of how deeply I love our new prophet, seer, and revelation, President Donald Trump—how deeply I trust him, and how I am willing to do whatever he asks me to do. He advanced a qualified moral determinism—a human must will that which presents itself to one’s reason as the greater good, but the will is free to delay choice until reason has made a more extensive examination of the values involved. There is great faith in the inherited wisdom of tradition. The moral order of the temporal World must necessarily include some evil, by reason of original sin. People ought not to reject what is good in tradition merely because there is some admixture of evil in it. In the human confused situation, advantages may often lie in balances and compromises between good and evil, even between one evil and another. It is an important part of wisdom to know how much evil should be tolerated. To search for too great a purity is only to produce fresh corruption. We are especially critical of revolutionary movements with noble humanitarian ends because people are simply not at liberty to destroy the state and its institutions in hope of some contingent improvement. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
On the other hand, people have a paramount duty to prevent the World from getting worse—a duty to guard and preserve their inherited liberties and privileges. Equality is contrary to nature and therefore impossible to achieve; its advocates, moreover, did great social harm, for by pretending that real differences are unreal, they inspired false hopes and vain expectations in those destined to travel in the obscure walk of laborious life. Talk of fraternity is gibberish because many people have vices of sinful, egotistical pride, overzealous ambition, avarice, lust, and sedition. The reality and unavoidability of evil leads many to believe that the only help for humankind is to cling to safeguards which have stood the test of time. Our hopes for a bliss lay in Heaven; on Earth, our policy is to defend the tolerable, and sometimes the bad, against the immeasurably worse. Of course, forbidden triads do occur, but many will resolve themselves when a bond forms between two previous strangers. They do not need to have a strong relationship, but we would expect them to have some connection to one another. Individuals must always begin by setting the examples, which the state too slowly, though surely, will learn to copy. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
Some matters are so sensitive and intensely personal and can awaken such disturbing feelings that they are seldom mentioned publicly. Yet, if tenderly and compassionately treated in the light of truth, discussion of these matters can bring greater understanding, with the easing of pain, the blessing of healing, and the avoidance of further tragedy. It would be melancholy, were we forced to admit that this distinctive and almost unlimited faculty is the source of all human misfortunes; that is this which, in time, draws an individual out of his or her original state, in which one would have spent one’s days insensibly in peace and innocent; that is this faculty, which, successively producing in different ages his or her discoveries and errors, vices and virtues, making one a tyrant both over oneself and over nature. Ungodly individuals, being destitute of every species of intelligence, can have no passions except for those of desires that never go beyond physical wants. The only good those type of individuals recognizes in the Universe are food, the sex, and sleep; the only evils they fear are pain and hunger. Pain and not death: for no animal can know what it is to die; the knowledge of death and its terrors being one of the first acquisitions made by humans in becoming civilized. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
It is with a deep desire to define a path to relief to those who suffer the shattering consequences of mental, verbal, physical, and especially sexual abuse. We must act as a mirror so that divine, healing light can illuminate the darkness of distress caused by others’ unrighteous acts. As children of the Lord, we should understandably provide help, and not further complicate a damaged life. It is also likely that with greater compassion, awareness, and sensitivity that some of us may be permitted to help resolve or prevent the tragedy of abuse in additional victims. Whatever moralist may hold, the human understanding is greatly indebted to the passions, which, it is universally allowed, are also much indebted to the understanding. It is by the activity of the passions that our reason is improved; for we desire knowledge only because we wish to enjoy; and it is impossible to conceive any reason why a person who has neither fears nor desires should give oneself the trouble of reasoning. The passions, again, originate in our wants, and their progress depends on that of our knowledge; for we cannot desire or fear anything, except from the idea that we have all of it, or from the simple impulse of nature. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
The rising tide of this vicious, abominable sin may not have touched your life personally. Yet, it is pervasive enough in the World that it may have disturbed someone you love. It frequently causes such profound suffering that can be overcome, and we need to focus on how healing can be attained. It must be done reverently, for the objective is to help heal and not aggravate painful memories. Even if the difficulties attending all these questions should still leave room for differences in this respect between humans and brutes, there is another very specific quality which distinguishes them, and which will admit of no dispute. This faculty of self-improvement, which, by the help of circumstances, gradually develops all the rest of our faculties, and is inherent in the species as in the individual: whereas a brute is, at the end of a few months, all he or she will ever be during his or her whole life, and that person’s species, at the end of a thousand years, exactly what it is because those type of individuals returns, in this, to their primitive state; and that, while the brute, which has acquired nothing and has therefore nothing to lose, still retains the force of instinct, person, who loses, by age or accident, all that his or her perfectibility had enabled them to gain, falls by this means lower than the most vile creature to ever walk the face of the Earth. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
Moral agency is a vital element in our Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness. God understood that some of his spirit children would use that agency improperly, causing serious problems to others. Some would even violate sacred trust such as a family member, friend, medical professional, or leader of the community abusing an innocent child. However, since our Heavenly Father is completely just, there has to be a way of overcoming the tragic consequences of such damaging use of agency for both the victim and the perpetrator. That secure healing comes through the power of the Atonement of God’s Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to rectify that which is unjust. Faith in Jesus Christ, and his power to heal provides the abused with the means to overcome the terrible consequences of another’s ungodly acts. When combined with complete repentance, the Atonement also affords the perpetrator ways to avoid the severe punishment the Lord has decreed for such acts. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
The offering of an excuse in a blamable matter is the undoubted mark of a disingenuous if not of a perverse mind. Victims of serious abuse have made successful the difficult journey to full healing through the power of the Atonement. After you conscientiously study the Atonement and exercise your faith the Jesus Christ has the power to heal, you can receive a blessing. During your journey, accept God’s invitation to let him share your burden until you have sufficient time and strength to be healed. To find relief from the consequences of abuse, it is helpful to understand their source. Satan is the author of all the destructive outcomes of abuse. He has extraordinary capacity to lead an individual into dark alleys where the solution to extremely challenging problems cannot be found. The Devil’s strategy is to separate the suffering soul from the healing attainable from a compassionate Heavenly Father and a loving Redeemer. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
If you have been abused, Satan will strive to convince you that there is no solution. Yet, he knows perfectly well that there is. Satan recognizes that healing comes through the unwavering love of Heavenly Father for each of his children. He also understands that the power of healing is inherent in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Therefore, his strategy is to do all possible to separate you from your Father and his Son. Do not let Satan convince you that you are beyond help. As long as the mind is defending itself against invisible assaults, our closet bonds are threatened, along with our ability to imagine, play, learn, and pay attention to other people’s needs. One who can sit down premeditatedly to do a bad action will content oneself with a bad excuse: and yet, what fools must one suppose the rest of the World to be, if one imagines them as easy to be imposed upon as one can impose upon oneself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
Satan uses your abuse to undermine your self-confidence, destroy trust in authority, create fear, and generate feelings of despair. Abuse can damage your ability to form healthy human relationships. You must have faith that all of these negative consequences can be resolved; otherwise they will keep you from full recovery. While these outcomes have powerful influence in your life, they do not define the real you. Satan will strive to alienate you from your Father in Heaven with the thought that if he loved you he would have prevented the tragedy. Do not be kept from the very source of true healing by the craftiness of the price of evil and his wicked lies and gentrification center. Recognize that if you have feelings that you are not loved by your Father in Heaven, you are being manipulated by Satan. Even when it may seem very difficult to pray, kneel and ask Father in Haven to give you the capacity to trust him and to feel his love for you. Ask to come to know that his Son can heal you through his merciful Atonement. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
It was Satan’s proposal that Father’s children be forced to obey, that there be no moral agency and therefore no personal growth. To preserve moral agency, the Lord does not restrain individual from improper use of that agency. However, God will punish them for such acts unless there is full repentance. Through the Holy Ghost, God sends warning prompting to the abusers, but often that individual’s degrading appetite is so powerful that it blocks out that spiritual guidance. That is why our Father provided a way to heal the consequences of acts that, through force, misuse of authority, or fear of another, temporarily take away the agency of the abused. Some people have been abused so badly, that even though their injuries are invisible to the unassisted eye, they feel weak and feel like they are dying because they cannot eat or get rest from the pain they are enduring. Behaviors to avoid or escape from danger have clearly evolved to render each organism competitive in terms of survival. However, inappropriately prolonged escape or avoidance behavior would put an individual at disadvantage. If an organization is stuck in survival mode, its energies are focused on fighting off unseen enemies, which leaves no room for nurture, care, and love. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
The beginning of healing requires complete trust and the knowing of the unalterable fact that Father in Heaven loves you and is defending and protecting you and has supplied a way to heal. His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, laid down his life to provide that healing. The cure requires profound faith in Jesus Christ and his infinite capacity to heal. It is the foundation of understanding of doctrine and a resolute determination to follow the Divine Law. Healing may begin with a thoughtful friend or stake president or a wise professional counselor. If you have a fractured spine, you would not decide to fix it yourself. Serious abuse can also benefit from professional help. There are many ways to begin healing, but remember that a full cure comes through the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and Redeemer. Have faith that with effort Christ’s perfect, eternal, infinite Atonement can heal your suffering from the consequences of abuse. All passions are criminal in their excess; and even love itself, if it is not subservient to our duty, may render us blind. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
As impossible as it may seem to you now, in time the healing you can receive from the Savior will allow you to truly forgive the abuser and even have feelings of sorrow for him or her. When you can forgive the offense, you will be relieved of the pain and heartache that Satan wants in your life by encouraging you to hate the abuser. As a result, you will enjoy greater peace. While an important part of healing, if the thought of forgiveness causes you yet more pain, set that step aside until you have more experience with the Savior’s healing power in your own life. If you are currently being abused or have been in the past, find the courage to seek help. You may have been severely threatened or caused to fear so that you would not reveal the abuse. Have the courage to act now. Seek the support of someone you can trust. Explain how you have been abused and identify who has done it. Ask for protection. Your action may help others avoid becoming innocent victims, with the consequent suffering. Get help now. Do not fear—for fear is a tool Satan will use to keep you suffering. The Lord will help you, but you must reach out for that help. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
Do not be discouraged if initially a person of authority hesitates when you identify an abuser. Remember that predators are skillful at cultivating a public appearance of piety to mask their despicable acts. Pray to be guided in your efforts to receive help. That support will come. Rest assured that the Perfect Judge, Jesus the Christ, with a perfect knowledge of the details, will hold all abusers accountable for every unrighteous act. In time, he will fully apply the required demands of justice unless there is complete repentance. Your preoccupation with a need for justice only slows your healing and allows the perpetrator to continue his and/or her abusive control. Therefore, you should leave punishment for the diabolic acts of abuse to civil and Church authorities. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
The perpetrator who has shattered the life of another by abuse, recognize that you need help with your addiction or it will destroy you. You will not overcome it by yourself. You likely require specialized professional help. I plead with you to seek to be recused now. You likely have deceived yourself in the false, temporary security that you have successfully hidden your transgressions from the civil or Church authorities. However, know that the Lord Jesus Christ is completely aware of your sins. Know that even without action by a victim, your act of abuse will be publicly known, for Satan will expose you, and then abandon you. Simplify your life by taking steps now to cleanse your soul from such sin and resolve the penalties they evoke. Show your desire to heal the anguish that you have caused other. Talk to your church or the stake president. The seriousness of your acts may require you to face legal, civil, and Church discipline. However, full repentance will bring the sweet relief of forgiveness, peace of conscience, and a renewed life. It will also bring relief to the abused and their families. You will be free of the weight of the remorse and the accusing thoughts of what you caused in grief and anguish in another’s life by making them suffer torment for years, made them try to end their life, and wish that they were never born. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
Recognize that it is much easier to repent in this life than it will be in the next, so repent now. You will be helped when you decide to be freed from your addition through repentance and the support of others. Be grateful that you did not live anciently when abusers were stoned to death without opportunity for repentance. Parents, in appropriate, sensitive ways, teach your children of potential danger of abuse and how to avoid it. Be aware of warning signs, such as abrupt changes in a child’s behavior, that may signal a problem. Be alert to a child’s unsettled feelings and identify their origin. As for community leaders, painstakingly assure that every individual that is suffering from abuse receives appropriate help. There are resources in the Church handbook to help you find valuable resources to guide your ecclesiastical action and coordination with civil authorities. Carefully supervise the participation of any individual who may have had past offenses. Recognize that it is very unlikely that a perpetrator will confess his and/or her depraved acts. Seek the guidance of the Spirit when you feel that something may be amiss. Enlist the help of the ward and the stake leaders to avoid potential dangers. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
I pray that you, as one abused or one who has caused it, will act now to avail yourself of the healing powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I testify that your faith and obedience will assure that God will help you. It is impossible for us to be saved in ignorance. If you know someone has been seriously abused and seen proof, medical records, pictures, bruises, fractured bones, blood, or have heard witness accounts of the abuse and know it is still ongoing, use your power to help them. Appeal to the authorities before the abuser hurts that individual so bad that he or she is lost to this World. Do not let someone suffer in silence when you have the power to save a life. Often times, it is not until a person is dead when people wish they could have made a difference. Take action now, while you have the chance. Atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general and original sin in particular through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, enabling the conciliation between God and his creation. The Savior suffered and broke the bands of death, and paid the price for our sins and transgressions. It is the Savior who delivers us from physical and spiritual death. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
Unending Existence—Not Dead, but Sleeping
The word individual, as applied here on Earth, is a misuse of language. It is absurd to call that an individual which every hour divides. The Earthly stage of the human life is so small that there is room for but one of the persons of an individual upon it at one time. The past and future selves have to wait in the side scenes. Immortality is eternal life, the ability to live forever, a state of condition free from both death and decay. The Bible affirms that only God by nature had immortality. It is also a potential state for human beings, as long as they follow the divine laws. Human beings failed to obtain this state because of sin, the wages of sin is death, but immortality is given to righteous persons. To make everlasting life available is at the heart of Jesus’ mission: “I have come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” John 10.10. Some people believe that death will not be our terminus, but the beginning of a new journey. However, scientists are trying to achieve life extension, retroactive immortality, and regeneration of the body that allows it to heal any injuries, even fatal ones, preventing one from dying. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Some scientists believe that in the near future, because of ongoing research being done into repairing the effects of ageing, we can produce preventative treatments that would allow humans to live as long as 1,000 years. Health insurance provides important financial protection in case you have a serious accident or sickness. Though great progress has been made in medicine, current evidence-based and palliative treatments are increasingly unable to keep pace with patients’ needs, especially given our aging population, and health insurance is very expensive. There are few effective ways to treat the root causes of many diseases, injuries, and congenital conditions. In many cases, doctors and nurses are only able to manage patients’ symptoms using medications or devices. However, we should not simply be looking at treating sickness and injuries, but do more research on preventing ageing. Ageing is the World’s most important problem. The human body is a machine and it accumulates damages throughout life as a consequence of normal operation. The damage makes our bodies frail, and contribute to the rising degradation and ill-health. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Regenerative medicine is a life changing area of medicine with potential to fully heal damaged tissues and organs, offering solutions and promise for people who have conditions that are currently beyond repair. If we are able to apply regenerative medicines to repair the damage of aging at the level where it occurs, we can remove, restore, replace, or render harmless the cellular and molecular damage that has accumulated in our body, organs, and mind with time. Regenerative medicine is not new. In the 1970s, liver transplants were not yet possible, but now they are, along with other solid-organ transplants and bone marrow transplants. Rejuvenation is the ability to increase the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Much like after you cut your skin, it heals within a few days, the goal is to get the specialized cells constituting the heart, lungs, nerves, and other organs to remodel and possess the same ability to self-heal. Stem cells are a key component of regenerative medicine as they have the ability to develop through a process called differentiation into many different types of cells, such as skin cells, brain cells, lung cells, and could possible help to heal the body. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
The unfolding of God’s plan is revealed in stages. The resurrection of the dead is listed in Scripture as one of the basic doctrines of true Christianity. Someday, everyone who has ever lived will come to life again. Self-resurrection is the ability to completely heal fatal injuries and resurrect upon death if they body is not entirely destroyed. Through regenerative medicine, organ transplants would no longer be required. Your own cells, in the future, could be collected and reprogramed in a laboratory, then delivered back to your body to treat your disease. A lot of people may be wondering will they also look younger if stem cell treatment can be used to regenerate their organs and cure illnesses? Yes. The skin is your largest organ, so when scientists are able to heal or cure you through stem cell treatments, it will also regenerate your skin to keep it youthful. Regenerative medicine is working in vivo and in vito procedures. In vivo means studies and trails performed inside the living body in order to stimulate previously irreparable organs to heal themselves. In vito treatments are applied to the body through implantation of a therapy studied inside the laboratory. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
By reconstructing the composition of the living machinery of our tissues and organs, these rejuvenation biotechnologies will restore the normal functioning of the body’s cells and essential biomolecules, retuning aging tissues to health and bringing back the body’s youthful vigor, and restoring normal function. A small percentage of people all over the World have a condition called Spina Bifida, which is a birth defect. Some patients must manually empty their bladder by compressing it with their hands from the exterior,which will eventually case the bladder to harden and basically die. And while some people may think it is funny, it is not. Imagine if you could not urinate at will, or even regulate the buildup of urine, the backup of urine into the kidneys could cause a ripping infection, creating life-threatening damage, and it could also cause your bladder to fill until it ruptures. However, a series of child and teenage patients have received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. The laboratory-grown organ transplant placed into a human was all made possible by regenerative medicine. This powerful new technology is being used to create new body parts from a patient’s own cells and tissues, and the success of these efforts will eliminate the concept of tissues rejection from transplants. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Regenerative medicine has already successfully grown heart valves from human cells. In the past, heart valves were taken from the heart of pigs and transplanted into humans. Well, with new technology, the need to test on animals and prematurely end the life of an animal to extend a human life is no longer required. With the use of biomaterials to create a mold, scientists engineer the cells to grow in the form of a heart valve. Once mastered in clinical trials, any transplant patient will be able to receive a heart valve that is essentially their own. And with the advancement of regenerative medicine, we will be able to repair these valves without even having to perform surgery. Stem cells can even be used to treat leukemia. The umbilical cord, usually discarded at birth, holds blood vessels that contain about a half cup of blood that belongs to a newborn child. That blood contains many stem cells and our body uses stem cells as one way of repairing itself. By collecting and storing that blood, there is a possibility that those cells might be used in the future to help your body remain healthy. Regenerative medicine has the potential to cure other conditions like heart disease, valvular disease, and diabetes, which will save lives and billions of dollars. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Regenerative medicine has the potential to heal or replace tissues and organs damaged by age, disease, or trauma, as well as to normalize congenital defects. Regenerative medicine can abet maladies occurring across a wide array of organ systems and context, including dermal wounds, cardiovascular disease and traumas, treatment for certain types of cancer, and more. There will no longer be a need to wait for an organ donor and possibly face severe immune complications with regenerative medicine. The human body will have an innate healing and advanced repair mechanisms that will extend life, keep us youthful and healthy and lower medical costs. And with the cost of living being so high, people do need more time to generate wealth and enjoy life. We are essentially composite beings. Besides the more familiar corporeal element, the body, there is also something else, different in kind—the incorporeal soul. For the duration of a life the soul is somehow attached to—incorporated into or imprisoned in—its body. Perhaps the substance of the soul is stem cells. Essentially, in the future self-resurrection will be possible. “There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away,” Revelation 21.4. RandolphHarris 7 of 7
In Youth, as at the Opera, Everything Seems Possible
People who are of a well-bred culture cannot defend themselves in the same manner as a common, ill-bred person would do. They have to try to conceal any problems and pretend all is well, which could be why some of them end up dead. Since our individual childhood and the childhood of human civilization, our hostile impulses towards our fellow-beings have been subjected to the same restrictions and the same progressive repressions as our sexual strivings. We have not yet progressed so far as to love our enemies, or to extend to them our left cheek after we are smitten on the right. Furthermore, all moral codes about the subjection of active hatred bear even today the clearest indications that they were originally meant for a small community of clansmen. As we all may consider ourselves members of some nation, we permit ourselves for the most part to forget these restrictions in matters touching international people. America is considered the best country in the World, but the masses of immigrants are making it less of a dream World for the people who have been in the country for several generations. Within our own circles we have nevertheless made progress in the mastery of hostile emotions. Nowadays one says, “I beg your pardon,” formerly one had recourse to a cuff on the ear. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Violent hostility, no longer tolerated by the law, has been replaced by verbal invectives, and the better understanding of the concatenation of human emotion robs us, through its consequential “Tout comprendre, c’est tout pardoner,” more and more of the capacity to become angry at our fellow human who is in our way. The gorgeous Martha Sharp Crawford von Bulow (1 September 1932- 6 December 2008), was an American heiress and socialite, she was worth over $75 million. She married Claus von Bulow, who ran with the elite, but was not rich. He lived off her money and after a year of marriage had started having an affair and allegedly wanted out of the marriage, after falling in love with Dark Shadows soap opera actress, the raven-haired beauty Alexandra Isles. So, Claus needed money and allegedly injected his wife with insulin and she went into a coma, but recovered 8 hours later. Claus really wanted the 14 million he was to inherit upon the death of this wife. She was rich, they lived in real mansions, the kind that are 22,000 square feet, with 18th century paintings, Waterford crystal chandeliers, and antique furniture. The second time his wife went into an insulin induced coma, he was charged with murder. Martha had no history of diabetes. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Claus von Bulow was convicted of attempting Martha’s murder by insulin overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. A second trial found him not guilty. Martha lived for 28 years in a persistent vegetative state until her death in a New York nursing him on 6 December 2008. When on trial as a witness, Alexandra Isles was asked if she still loved Claus and she replied, “I don’t know?” The lawyer went on to ask her was she aware of what was going on, she replied, “I had some idea, but I was in love. Have you ever been in love? It is hard to believe the person you love is a killer.” The relationship ended shortly after. Then Claus started dating another woman, and they moved into Martha’s 5th avenue apartment and she wore Martha’s jewelry and clothes and lived like royalty. Claus could have got a job, but he wanted to life like the rich and famous. Society, whose interest is to safeguard personal safety, prevents us from expressing our hostile feelings in action; and hence, as in sexual aggression, there has developed a new technique of invectives, the aim of which is to enlist this third person against our enemy. By belittling and humbling our enemy, by scorning and ridiculing the individual, we directly obtain the pleasure of that person’s defeat by the laughter of the third person, the inactive spectator. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
We have all much to learn: let us try and teach one another as kindly as we can. A weaver who finds hard words in his hymn-book knows nothing of abstractions; as the little child knows nothing of parental love, but only knows one face and one lap towards which it stretches its arms for refuge and nurture. Learning is perhaps the most important human capacity. Were we to believe nothing but what we can comprehend, every person upon the face of the Earth would be an atheist. Learning allows us to create effective lives by being able to respond to changes. We learn to avoid touching hot stoves, to find our back to the house from school, and remember which people have helped us in the past and which people have been unkind. Without the ability to learn from our experiences, our lives would be remarkably dangerous and inefficient. To find right remedies and right methods, here is the great function of knowledge. The principles of learning can also be used to explain a wide variety of social interactions, including social dilemmas in which people make important, and often selfish, decisions about how to behave by calculating the costs and benefits of the outcomes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Youth is a good subject for a physician to work upon. Thoughts, opinions, knowledge, are only a sensibility to facts and ideas. Who can prove that the enjoyment of the moment also is the purpose of the existence of that moment? Conditioning is evolutionarily beneficial because it allows organisms to develop expectations that help them prepare for both good and bad events. The brain is self-organizing and self-repairing, but computers are not. If a person suffers a stroke, neural plasticity will help him or her to recover. If we drop our laptop and it breaks, it cannot fix itself. The brain is significantly bigger than any current computer. The brain is estimated to have 25,000,000,000,000,000 (25 million billion) interactions among axons, dendrites, neurons, and neurotransmitters, and that does not include the approximately 1 trillion glial cells that may also be important for information processing and memory. Our memories allow us to do relatively simple things, such as remembering where we parked our car or the name of the current president of the United States of America, but also allow us to form complex memories, such as how to fly a plane or write a computer program. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Moreover, our memories define us as individual—they are our experiences, our relationships, our successes, and our failures. Without our memories, we would not have a life. A cause is a great abstraction, and fit only for students; embodied in a party, it stirs people to action; but place at the head of that party a leader who can inspire enthusiasm, one commands the World. However, our memories are far from perfect. The errors that we make are due to the fact that our memories are not simply recording devices that input, store, and retrieve the World around us. Rather, we actively process and interpret information as we remember and recollect it, and these cognitive processes influence what we remember and how we remember it. Because memories are constructed, not recorded, when we remember events we do not reproduce exact replicas of those events. The cognitive processes lead us to distort our judgments or misremember information. Prior knowledge can influence our memory. People who are long before they see a thing, when once it strikes them, see it in the strongest light. Knowledge is one of the means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Open your heart to the influence of the light which from time to time breaks in upon you. You always learn something new from educated people. It is the iron rule in our day to require an object and purpose in life. We go all wrong, by too strenuous a resolution to go all right. Everything has a moral, if only you can find it. Some people actually look forward to aging because with age comes knowledge and experience, which generally help one enjoy life more. Also, in real-life working conditions, antiquated workers are apparently less vulnerable from lack of sleep. However, disabilities such as loss of vision, hearing or taste produce greater restrictions in performance. These restrictions are even more true when a person gets older, because information-processing resources generally reduce with age. Unraveling the mysteries of the brain begins with neurons. A single neuron is not very smart. Yet, when neurons join in vast networks, they produce the magic of intelligence and consciousness. Stem cells in the brain could be the key to extending life and slowing ageing. These cells—which are located in the hypothalamus, a kind of master control center for emotion and many basic motives. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Much of the knowledge we seek, already we have in our cores. Yet so simple it is, we despite it; so bold, we fear it. The hypothalamus affects behaviors as diverse as sex, rage, temperature control, hormone release, eating, drinking, sleep, walking, and emotion. The hypothalamus can reinvigorate declining brain functions and muscle strength in middle-aged test subjects. The hypothalamus is a critical juncture that connects with many areas of the cortex and subcortex. As such, it acts as a final path for many kinds of behavior leaving the brain. You might think of the hypothalamus as the last area where many behaviors are organized or decided on. Previous studies have suggested that the hypothalamus is involved in ageing, but the latest research shows that stem cells in this region can slow the process by ten to fifteen percent. That makes sense, because the hypothalamus is involved in many bodily function, including inflammation and appetite. A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study. Nothing like preserving in adulthood the fraternal familiarities of youth. It proves the heart a rosy gem to the last. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
In the study, it was discovered that stem cells in the hypothalamus disappear as the test subjects grow older. When the researcher injected them with viruses that destroy these cells, the subjects seemed to grow older faster, experiencing declines in memory, muscle strength, endurance, and coordination. They also died sooner than untreated subjects of the same age. Next, the team injected stem cells taken from the hypothalamic of newborn test subjects into the brains of middle-aged test subjects. After four months, these individuals had better cognitive and muscular function than untreated subjects of the same age. They also lived ten to fifteen percent longer, on average. The researcher found that these stem cells release molecules called microRNAs, which help to regulate gene expression, into the cerebrospinal fluid. When the team injected these microRNAs into the brains of middle-aged mice, they found that the molecules slowed cognitive decline and muscle degeneration. These cells may have a role in regulating the neurons that release a hormone called GnRH, which is secreted by the hypothalamus and is associated with ageing. It is possible that the microRNAs from the cells can pass into the bloodstream, which would carry the, throughout the body. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
All of us, in our very bodies, outlive our own selves. Anti-ageing therapies targeting the hypothalamus would need to be administered in the middle age, before a person’s muscles and metabolism have degenerated beyond a point that could be reversed. Therapy could extend a human lifespan, but slowing the effects of ageing is the more important goal. Living a longer and healthy life is important. In sin, like sorrow, merely an element of human education, through which we struggle to a higher and purer state than we could otherwise have attained? Did Adam fall, that we might ultimately rise to a far loftier paradise than his? The older I get, the more empowered I feel. Each life experience brings us a more comprehensive perspective, and greater clarity about people, life, and resolution. We are able to more efficiently navigate life’s challenges, and use this knowledge to help others. God is transcendent as well as immanent. And as a consequence, not an absorption into the Godhead, but union of love and will in which the distinction between the Creator and the creature is permanently retained. The gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is remembered. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
A Person is a Certain Sort of Living Organism
A person is a certain sort of living organism whose identity depends on its biological organization. It is obvious that we all frequently use the term personality. However, if you think that personality means charm, charisma, or style, you have misused them. Many people also confuse personality with the term character, which implies that a person has been evaluated as possessing beneficial qualities, not just as described. If, by saying someone has personality, you mean the person is friendly, outgoing, and upstanding, you might be describing what we regard as good character in our culture. However, in some cultures, it is deemed good for people to be fierce, warlike, and cruel. Psychologist regard personality as a person’s unique long-term pattern of thinking, emotions, and behavior. In other words, personality refers to the consistency in who you are, have been, and will become. It also refers to the special blend of talents, values, hopes, loves, hates, and habits that makes each of us a unique person. So, everyone in a particular culture has personality, whereas not everyone has character—or at least not good character. (Do you know any good characters?) #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
A thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking and essential to it. As far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person. Should the soul of a prince, carrying with it the consciousness of the prince’s past life, enter and inform the body of a cobbler, as soon as deserted by his own soul, everyone sees he would be the same person with the prince, accountable only for the prince’s actions. Had I the same consciousness that I saw the ark and Noah’s flood, as that I saw an overflowing of Thames last Winter, I could no more doubt that I who write this now, that saw the Thames overflowed last Winter, and that viewed the flood at the general deluge, was the same self than that I who write this am the same myself now whilst I write…that I was yesterday. Self-concepts provide another way of understanding personality. The rough outlies of your self-concept could be revealed by this request: “Please tell us about yourself.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
In other words, self-concept consists of all your ideas, perceptions, stories, and feelings about who you are. It is the mental picture you have of your own personality. Self-concepts can be remarkably consistent. In an interesting study, antiquated people were asked how they had changed over the years. Almost all thought they were essentially the same person they were when they were young. We creatively build our self-concepts out of daily experiences. Then, we slowly revise them as we have new experiences. Once a stable self-concept exists, it tends to guide what we pay attention to, remember, and think about. Because of this, self-concepts can greatly affect our behavior and personal adjustments—especially when they are inaccurate. For instance, a young lady, who is a student thinks she is stupid, worthless, and a failure, despite getting good grades. With such an inaccurate self-concept, she tends to be depressed regardless of how well she does. However, in some cultures people are apt to engage in self-criticism. By correcting personal faults, they add to the well-being of the group. And when the group is successful, individual members feel better about themselves, which raises their self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The history of some people in America is a record of an oppressed people from conditions of slavery as a moral-legal order to conditions of existence of a low caste and class within the society. It is against this background that the generalized underprivileged classes awareness and the self-concept of their ethnic identity in America is presumed to have developed into negative self-evaluations. Optimistic self-concept is not out of the ordinary. Good personal experiences can outweigh negative social historical experiences in the development of self-concepts. A belief in God and strong spirituality can uplift one’s consciousness and has great potential for helping people who might feel dejected attain self-realization, which will allow them to overcome the strong negative self-imagery emanating from reflections in other members of society. Maladaptive behavior arises from an underlying psychological or biological dysfunction that makes it difficult for people to meet the demands of day-to-day life. Maladaptive behavior most often results in serious psychological discomfort or loss of control over thoughts, behaviors of feelings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
People involved psychopathological ritualism rely more heavily on emotional and psychological intimidation to get their ways. This is often out of necessity since the consequences of physical intimidation or outright violence in the public spheres of life become obvious. Whether we call it bullying or abuse, the hallmark of this type of maladaptive behavior is instilling doubt and fear in order to maintain control. The abuser finds that one of the most effect means of instilling doubt and maintaining control is harassing a person into keeping silent about the abuse. Another tactic is to rally others to the cause, getting them to view victims as cowards, weaklings, less than human. People love to blame a person for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency because it takes that bright intense scrutiny off their own emotional and psychological problems, letting them focus instead on someone else. The use of psychological, emotional and physical intimidation to instill self-doubt in order to maintain control, trying to feel superior by isolating an individual from the group and making them question their sanity is a sadistic form of cult and ritual abuse. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
It is a type of systematic psychopathological ritualism when groups of adults target another adult and pry into that person’s life to the point they believe they own an individual and have the power to do as they please. However, there is nothing done in that dark that will been hidden from light. If you are a victim of abuse remember, God will turn “wailing into dancing; remove your sacked cloth and clothed you with joy, and your heart will sing to him and not be silent,” (Psalm 30.11-12). We must give the Lord thanks forever. Asking with shameless persistence, the importunity that will not be denied, returns with the answer in hand. It is the nature of faith to believe God upon his care word…It will not be, says sense; it cannot be, says reason; it both can and will be, says faith, for I have a promise for it. There is no saint here who can out-believe God. God never out-promised himself yet. All things will work together for good. Thank you God that you are faithful to your word and will work mightily in the behalf of those who have faith of God. God’s energy can be labeled and traced in its motion or change of form just as a piece of matter is ticketed so that it can be identified in other places under other conditions. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
Faith in God is much like the existence of induced currents and of electromagnetic actions at a distance from a primary circuit from which we draw our energy. Faith is the medium surrounding the conductor (God) as the source for the phenomena. If we believe in the continuity of the motion of energy, that is, if we believe that when it disappears at one point and reappears at another it must have passed through the intervening space, we are forced to conclude that the surrounding medium contains at least a part of the energy, and that it is capable of transferring it from point to point. Thus, the surrounding medium or empty space becomes the arena in which energy moves, and energy, disjoined from matter, was raised in its ontological status from a mere accident or a mechanical or physical system to the autonomous rank of independent existence: matter creased to be the indispensable vehicle for its transport. When you believe, God will see to it that it is taken care of. When you believe, you have the Creator of the Universe fighting your battles, arranging things in your favor, going before you, moving obstacles out of the way. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
You could not have made it happen in your own strength, but because you are a believer, the surpassing greatness of God’s power is at work in your life. God is an indeterminate cause of finite properties. Thus, goodness exists in God in a supereminent form, proportionate to his infinite mode of being. God is in all things, not, indeed, as part of their essence, or as a quality, but in the manner that an efficient cause is present to that on which he acts. Hence, God is in all things, and intimately. God to the World is bounded on the one hand by the World of form and on the other by pre-existent matter. His task is to impose the forms on matter, and so construct a rationally ordered whole. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. God is superhuman, supernatural and has great influence on our lives. God is unquestionably transcendent. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Sensuality Often indulges Impurity—The Hugh O’Connor Act
Who you are often determines what you see. It will be found a common case, that when we have yielded to our instincts, and then have to soothe conscience, we must slaughter somebody, for a sacrificial offering to our sense of comfort. As we perceive events, the brain actively selects, organizes, and integrates sensory information into a photograph or model of the World. A man was in the supermarket when an eight-year-old girl suddenly came running around the corner. She looked back and screamed, “Stop! Stop! You’re killing him! You’re killing my father!” Naturally the witness was interested! He quickly retraced her path, and was greeted by a grisly scene. A man was sprawled out on the floor with another man on top of him. The guy on top was huge and looked only half human. He has his alleged victim by the throat and was allegedly beating his head against the floor. There was blood everywhere, and the witness decided to do the right thing and run to get help. By the time the store manager and the witness returned to the alleged scene of the crime, the police were just arriving. It took quite a while to figure out what happened, but it turns out this was not a crime scene at all. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
The guy sprawled out on the floor had passed out and hit his head. This caused a cut that accounted for the blood everywhere. The man that appeared to be on top of him saw the individual fall and was trying to keep him from further injuring himself, and was also loosening his collar. If the witness had never returned, he would have sworn in court that he saw murder. The little girl’s description completely shaped the witness’s perceptions. This perhaps is understandable. However, the witness will never forget the shock he felt when he met the alleged murderer—the man he had seen a few moments before as huge, vicious, and horrible-looking. It turns out that the alleged murderer was not a stranger after all. He was a neighbor of the witness and they had seen each other several times before and actually knew each other by name. Also, he was not a big man, but a small, nice looking man. The mental process of organizing sensations into meaningful patterns is called perception. This process is so automatic that it can take a drastic misperception to call attention to it. Perception creates faces, melodies, works of art, illusions, and other misrepresentations due to a lack of understanding. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Perception refers to interpretations we take in through our senses. “All in the Family” is a television series with a lead character called Archie Bunker, he is the head of the family, hardworking, and very outspoken. His wife, Edith, is a sweet woman, and like to tell stories to express her feelings so that she is considerate of everyone, hoping they will pick up on the message without outright saying what she means. Edith is a housewife and works very hard to do her job, she organizes her work by the days of the week and because she is a woman she faces discrimination in banking and finding employment outside of the house. Their beautiful daughter Gloria is a loving wife and married to a young man name Michael, whom Archie calls “Meathead.” They all live in the same house, while Gloria works at a department store, which she was fired from for being pregnant, and Meathead is in school studying to become a college professor. Many people would assume that Archie is a bigot because of some of the things he says, but he does not really mean them, it was just the way he was raised. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Archie is not racist, and he actually stands up for women’s rights, like the time he got Edith’s friend a job at his factory. Archie also supports equality and let his neighbor’s son, who is African American move in with them for a while when his father threw him out for being engaged, to a young lady who is half European American and African American. The reason people think Archie is racist is because of some of the things he says, but he learned these words and ideas from his father and never questioned his father because he was the man who raised him, fed him, provided “bread and bored” for him and protected him. So, in Archie’s eyes his father could never be wrong. And although Archie was conditioned to say certain things, he was a very loving man. When Michael finally got a job as associate professor and had to move from the East Coast to the West Coast, Archie was so very sad and did not want him to take the job. He had actually grown to love Meathead, and did not want to be far from his daughter Gloria and his grandson Joey. Sometimes we have to look beyond the surface to see what is really going on. Actions speak louder than words. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
As I was watching this television show, I would call home to my mother and tell her about the funny things that Archie Bunker did and said. I really enjoyed watching the show because he reminded me of my grandfather and Edith reminded me of my grandmother. And I also started watching “The Jefferson’s,” and when I would go home I will tell my mother about the funny things that George Jefferson did. These shows are new to me, but when I was looking up the actor who played George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), I found out he had died. And it kind of made me sad. I was talking to my mother about how I see this man on TV every day and he is so very much alive to me, but how he was dead. And it is kind of sad to get attached to people and find out they are dead. Then, she broke the news to me that Archie Bunker is dead, too. I kind of had a feeling. So, I went home to look up information on Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor). Carroll O’Connor was Born 2 August 1924 and died 21 June 2001. He suffered a heart attack. His career spanned over four decades. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Carroll O’Connor went to the University of Montana-Missoula, he was an actor, producer, and director. His wife is still alive, her name is Nancy Fields O’Connor. In 1962, while he was in Rome filming “Cleopatra,” Carroll O’Connor and his wife adopted a six-day-old- boy, and named him Hugh O’Connor. They took him back to America and at the tender age of 17, Hugh worked with his father on the set of “Archie Bunker’s Place, which was starring Carroll O’Connor, of course. Then both father and son went on to work on the television show “In the Heat of the Night.” Unfortunately, Hugh O’Connor became addicted to drugs and when he could not break the habit, he called his father and told him that he was going to kill himself. By the time Carroll was able to get help to his son, he was already dead. Following his son’s death, Carroll O’Connor spent the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction. He successfully lobbied to get the state of California to pass legislation allowing family members of an addicted person or anyone injured by a drug dealer’s actions, including employers, to sue for reimbursement for medical treatment and rehabilitation costs and other economic and noneconomic damages. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
The law, known as the Drug Dealer Civil Liability Act in California, went into effect in 1997. It is also referred to as the Hugh O’Connor Act. Hugh O’Connor started the fight against the man who sold the drugs to Hugh. He called Harry Perzigian a partner in murder of Hugh O’Connor. “I can’t forget it. There isn’t a day that I don’t think of him and want him back and miss him, and I’ll feel that way until I’m not here anymore,” said Carroll O’Connor. It would be well I those who stifle their consciences, and commit crimes, would set up a sort of medico-moral diary, and record their symptoms minutely day by day. Such records might help to clear away some vague, conventional notions. Drug addiction is a serious problem in America. An estimated 570,000 people in America die from drug overdoses every year. Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. They mistakenly think that those who use drugs lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop their drug use simply by choosing to. In reality, drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will. Drugs can change the brain in ways that make quitting almost impossible, even for those who want to. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is usually voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a relapsing disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drugs. People who suffer from addiction often have one or more accompanying medical issues, which may include lung or cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, and mental disorders. Imaging scans, chest X-rays, and blood tests show the damaging effects of long-term drug abuse throughout the body. For example, research has shown that tobacco smoke causes cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, blood, lungs, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix. In addition, some drugs of abuse, such as inhalants, are toxic to nerve cells and may damage or destroy them either in the brain or the peripheral nervous system. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Drug abuse and mental illness often co-exist. In some cases, mental disorders such as increased stress, depression, or schizophrenia may precede addiction; in other cases, drug abuse may trigger or exacerbate those mental disorders, particularly in people with specific vulnerabilities. Some research suggests that marijuana use is likely to precede use of other licit and illicit substances and the development of addiction to other substances. It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of heroin users have used marijuana (and many other drugs) not only long before they used heroin, but while they are using heroin. Like nearly all people with substance abuse problems, most heroin users initiated their drug use early in their teens usually beginning with alcohol and marijuana. There is ample evidence that early initiation of drug use primes the brain for enhanced later responses to other drugs. And Marijuana use is positively correlated with alcohol use and cigarette use, as well as illegal drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. Allowing recreational use of marijuana is dangerous because of the aggressive commercialization of marijuana is now rampant and growing. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
The legalization of marijuana increases availability of the drug and acceptability of its use. This is bad for public health and safety not only because marijuana use increases the risk of heroin use, but also because it markets marijuana and an array of increasingly potent products in ever more attractive ways that encourage marijuana use. Legalizing marijuana will have lasting negative effects on future generations, it will increase the national drug abuse problem, including expanding the opioid epidemic. Lawmakers in California “have been darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more,” (Ephesians 2-17-19). People who are addicted to marijuana are three times more likely to be addicted to heroin. With California allowing recreational marijuana to be sold in California, but it still being considered an illegal drug by the federal government, it seems with the Drug Dealer Civil Liability Act, families and employers can now seek help to pay for the problems and rehabilitation cost of their children and family members. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
The Luxury of a Pure Conscience is the Health of the Soul
Time is a mere infirmity of human mind which prevents us from seeing things sub specie aeternitatis; and because there is a close correlation between temporality and the mentality (temporalistic panpsychism). States of consciousness are private, God within the mind, this eternal monitor. Our environment also employs a deep impact on our development. Environment (nurture) refers to the combination of all external conditions that affect a person. For instance, the brain of a newborn baby has fewer dendrites (nerve cell branches) and synapses (connections between nerve cells) than an adult brain. However, the newborn brain is highly plastic (capable of being altered by experience). During the first three years of life, millions of new dendrites (connections between nerve cells) in the brain form every day. At the same time, unused synapses (connections between nerve cells) disappear. As a result, early learning environments literally shape the developing brain, through blooming and pruning of synapses. The cradle of civilization is in Africa, where the garden of Eden is located. Although human DNA is evolving, modern humans are still genetically quite similar to cave dwellers who lived 30,000 years ago. A strong influence of African migrants existed throughout the World (and is still detectable today). Most modern genes come from African as a result of large African migration(s) and/or incremental gene flow. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The Pleistocene era is from 1,800,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. During the latter Pleistocene (125,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago), one more major migrations from Africa fueled the Worldwide dispersal of modern humans. Although most researchers agree that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa between 150,000 and 200,00 years ago, there is still debate over whether this was a speciation event that replaced other human populations outside of Africa, or whether there was a genetic mixture. In Africa, premodern fossils have been found at several sites. One of the best known is Broken Hill (Kabwe). In this and other African premodern specimens, a mixture of older and more recent traits can be seen. Dating estimates of Broken Hill and most of the other premodern fossils from estimates have been given dates for most of the localities in the range of 600,000-125,000 years ago. The premodern human fossils from Africa and Europe are more similar to each other than they are to the hominids from Asia. They mix of some ancestral characteristics (retained from Homo erectus ancestors) with more derived features give the African and European fossils a distinctive look; they are usually referred to as H. heidelbergensis. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
The situation in Asia is less tidy. To some researchers, the remains appear more modern than contemporaries from either Europe or Africa. They represent a regional branch of H. heidelbergensis. The Pleistocene World forced many small populations into geographical isolation. Most of these regional populations no doubt died out. Some, however, did evolve, and their descendants are likely a major part of the later hominid fossil record. In African, H. heidelbergensis evolved into Neandertals. Meanwhile, the Chinese premodern populations may have all met with extinction. However, the African migrants might well have interbred with resident populations outside of Africa. Nevertheless, a bright new born baby born today could learn to become almost anything—an actor, an engineer, a race car, driver, nurse, singer, rapper, a spiritual gangster, or a mechanic who likes to build Victorian houses. But an Upper Pleistocene baby could have only become a hunter for food. It was once thought we appeared in Europe around 45,000 years ago and that they coexisted with Neanderthals for thousands of years after that. They may have hung on in pockets – including caves in Gibraltar – until 40,000 years ago, it was believed. In other words, there was a long, gradual takeover by modern humans, and died out from competition. It is not an easy matter to hit a conscience exactly between wind and water. Thank goodness for evolution and human rights. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Environmental factors actually start influencing development before birth. Although the intrauterine environment (interior of womb) is highly protected, environmental conditions can nevertheless affect the developing child. For example, when a young lady was pregnant, the baby’s fetal heart rate and movements increased when loud sounds or vibrations penetrated the womb. In addition to cultural differences, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and sexual orientation all affect the social norms that guide behavior. Social norms are rules that define acceptable behavior. While watching an episode of “The Jefferson’s,” the father, George had a problem with his African American son, Lionel dating a young lady, Jenny, who has a White father and a Black mother because he did not understand her culture and did not want to deal with it. Also, on the show “The Bachelorette,” the star Rachel Lindsay is the first African American bachelorette ever on the show and comes from a prestigious family. She has to choose from African American and European American men, and one of these lucky men will be her next husband. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
To many, interracial dating is no big deal, most people do not even see what they problem is with Rachel choosing from men who have different skin tones, but still a lot of people have deeply rooted hostilities about interracial dating, as they did 40 years ago when “The Jefferson’s” was a new show, which reflects cultural attitudes of time era. And some other people wish that racial had more cultures to choose from like Japanese men and Hawaiian men. However, with interracial the more cultures you mix in to the situation, the more complex it becomes because people become insecure when they have more competition. Nevertheless, some women who are mixed race also have a problem with their children dating people who do not look like their phenotype (outward) appearance because they feel like their child is rejecting their image or culture. Even more, European American women who marry African American men sometimes have problems with their mixed race son’s dating White girls because of historical race relation issues and also sometimes because people who marry another race identify as they race and also feel rejected if their child rejects the race that they are married to. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Other problems with the show “The Bachelorette” is that some feel it is unethical because a woman is selecting from men who she does not really know and marrying them and a few people think it is unnatural. However, in China, for every man, there are two women, so there are more women than men. And dating and marriage has become a business. If you do not have a career, healthy bank account, are not tall and attractive and do not have a house in a desirable location a woman will reject you with in ten minutes of meeting you because women are in such high demand. Dating is like a business and so “The Bachelorette” many not be a bad form of finding a mate. The men are screened to make sure they healthy, safe, and come from good background, which seems like less of a gamble of meeting people on your own and taking a risk. Also, some people do fall in love fast. To fully understand human behavior, psychologist need to know how people differ, as well as the ways in which we are all alike. To be effective, psychologist must be sensitive to people who are ethnically and culturally different from themselves. For the same reason, an appreciation of human diversity can enrich your life, as well as your understanding of psychology. In strong and involuntary bias, the heart is conscience. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We have to reflect on a new social reality: Cultural diversity is becoming the new normal. The percentage of non-Hispanic white people in the United States of America has reached an all-time low: 63 percent. That is 197.7 million White people out of 325.9 million Americans. In 2000, Whites were 69 percent of the population. In some large cities, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native Americans are already the majority. In the past, psychology was based mostly on the cultures of North America and Europe. Now, we must ask, do the principles of Western psychology apply to people in all cultures? Are some psychological concepts invalid in other cultures? Are any universal? As psychologist have probed such questions, one thing has become clear: Most of what we think, feel, and do is influenced in one way or another by the social and cultural Worlds in which we live. Unlike the Divine Intellect, the souls are unable to grasp the timeless truth at one, in a single instantaneous act, but only gradually, step by step, by a laborious process of reasoning. Succession and change are thus mere results of our inability to grasp everything at once. The moving image of eternity, an imperfect (because moving) imitation is understood in a psychological sense as movement of soul. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Minds Rule the World—But What Rules the Mind?
Human life partakes of the untravellable inscrutable and indeterminate law of God. The only true separate agent intellect is God, whose light of understanding fortifies the human agent intellect. Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate, it supplies us with a flow of sustaining power in our daily lives. Once we have steeped our souls in prayer can every anguish calmly bear. The word “God” stands not for a specific being but for a verbal expression: supreme or highest being. Become aware of God, in whose presence you are while you pray, then take a formula of prayer and recite it with perfect attention both to the words you are saying and to the being you are saying them. Our souls are from God alone; thus human reason and will are free. The human soul is directly created by God. It is an incorporeal substance; operationally, however, the soul functions as the vivifying form of the body. Thus, the name “soul” (anima) is derived not from it essence, but from its operation as form of the body, which is accidental to that essence. Since the soul is a substance in itself, it is immortal, surviving the body because it is not dependent upon it. Rather than saying that the soul is in the body, we should say that the body is in (that is, participates in the existence of) the soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The will is placed in the soul, and who can enter there but he that created the soul? Divine commandments and prohibitions, as well as reward and punishment, reflect human freedom to obey and disobey since divine justice and retributions is incompatible with determinism (the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will; meaning that human beings have no free will and cannot be morally responsible for their actions). People who do not believe in God and have wicked ways are the ones who will say that someone is affecting their behavior or compelling them to act in a certain way because they do not want to take the moral nor legal responsibility for their actions. And in their mind, these excuses make them feel better about hurting others or sinning. However, God’s foreknowledge of anything could be the cause of its coming to being, and if that is true, then all things would have to be eternal, having existed always, since God has always known of them. Therefore, God has knowledge of things as they are actually constituted. God is not like man, who profiles individuals, then spends over a decade trying to make his bogus predictions come true. You cannot predict what you do not know, even if you manipulate a subject. God knows before anything happens that it will happen. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Furthermore, God is cognizant of what one’s choice will be before one makes it. Since God’s knowledge is not causative, human will is free. Thus, God can know the outcome of an individual’s future choice without determining such an action. God’s knowledge is incidental. His foreknowledge of a phenomenon is not its cause for coming into being. All human decisions are thus in a free climate—they may just as freely occur as not occur—because God’s knowledge of a future event is not the cause. The compatibility of God’s omniscience with human free will, this knowledge is incomprehensible to the limited human mind, since God’s knowledge is a priori (derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions) and part of his unknowable essence, whereas human knowledge is posteriori (derived by reasoning from observed facts). Thus, humans cannot understand how God can immutably foreknow the possible without rendering it necessary. The power to perform one among a number of alternative actions is given to every human. If one wills to turn oneself into a good path and to be righteous, the power is one’s to do so; and if one wills to turn oneself into a bad way and to be evil, the power lies in one’s control to be that way. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
In reality, the undoubted truth is humans are self-determining beings, as they have deliberate rational judgment and act according to their desire or will, free of external constraints, as long as there is no external compulsion controlling an individual. If God had decreed that a person should be either righteous or wicked or is there were something inherent in one’s nature which irresistibility drew an individual to a particular course, what would be the purpose of life? What would be the purpose of church and The Good Book? What would be the purpose of teaching God’s love and forgiveness? By what right or justice could God punish the wicked or reward the righteous? God determines that one can choose, but not what one chooses. After one exercises his or her freedom, the consequences of one’s choice is determined. The consequences of an individual’s actions, since they are subject to the natural order that God has created or to chance. One’s choice, however, is free. Understanding of choice not only necessitates the act being within one’s power, but also the combination of deliberation, a mental act, and desire. Actions caused by desire are determined by predisposition or habituation, it is also possible that there are actions that are the result of deliberation and choice. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The majority of human actions are not caused, but determined. Even though human choice is determined by a casual chain initiated by God, humans are responsible for their choices. Success is not measured by what an individual accomplishes, but by the opposition one has encountered, and the courage with which one has maintained the struggle against odds. Open your heart to God and you will see the jewels of wisdom and treasures fine. God will intervene and reunite the body with his blessings with joy and life and strength. God will remind one of what it means to be safe in one’s body. And when an individual cannot hear God’s reminders, he will draw closer and speak sublimely to your soul until the pain melts into the comfort of his presence. The Lord helps to leave behind frustration fatigue, bitterness, anger, and sadness. Hear the voice of God and accept his guidance. God will love your mind, body, and soul to a good place. One where individuals will feel his blessings and support. A place where we are inspired to gracious living. Those with broken hearts and fragmented lives will be blessed with healing, as their circumstances will change, allowing peace and prosperity to come into abundance. Those who have plenty will share the richness of their souls. Trust in God’s certainty and become consumed by calmness, as ultimate reassurance cradles you. With God all things are possible. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
What are the comprehensible terrors of humans compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God! The eyes, though they do not tell all, they tell much. The eyes are the keys of character, the mirrors of the soul. God will dispel your fear and end your stress and wipe away any worry from your mind. You and those you care about will find good health and complete recovery. God will make known this healing power and give comfort and shelter. All who are tired will be granted restorative sleep and safe passage. Beauty and pureness are everlasting; they are of God, and can never die. They may for a moment be obscured, but they shall reappear in brighter lustre. Angels have charge over them that they dash not their foot against a stone. Let us turn to the pleasant face of God in what is about us. Some people believe that enjoying their garden is a form of prayer, because it is showing an appreciation for the natural blessings that are provided by God and their soul is silently praying and being thankful for what they are enjoying. That love of Earth, which is a recognition of God. God sees at one view the whole thread of our existence, not only that part which we have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. God’s knowledge is perfect and immutable over all that is knowable. And through faith in God, the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Healing Your Broken Heart without a Transplant
Education should direct moral goodness to its highest stage, benevolence. Merit may be either great, high, general, or beautiful (aesthetic). Faith is the beginning and, although not produced by reasoning, is neither forced nor blind. It seeks to understand (intelligere) what it cannot comprehend (comprehendere). Hence, the truths of revelation are to be reasoned about, since it is in our reason that we are made in the image of God and since there, through Christ who is the Word of Wisdom and the source of dialectic, that we receive divine truth. The assent of faith is intellectual rather than voluntarist. Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak people who did great things for God because they reckoned on his power and presence with them. God has great things in store for his people, and they ought to have large expectations. God is pure thought, caring for human suffering, beyond emotion. We have the ability to choose life to flow in our hearts again, after an offense ripped through our life and shredded our heart, we may feel like we will never be the same. You are right, you will never be the same but you can be stronger, even better, more mature in Christ because of it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
The existence of God is arrived at by reflecting on the contrast between the eternal and transitory and enlarging on the dependence of body on mind. God has in himself all the power to defend you, all the wisdom to direct you, all the mercy to pardon you, all the grace to enrich you, all the righteousness to clothe you, and all the goodness to supply you, and all the happiness to crown you. God is constrained by no force outside himself; nevertheless, creating is not an arbitrary exercise of will but an act that reflects a necessity of the land’s successors were to qualify. The World is made according to preexisting Ideas, although these patterns are not things but concepts in the mind of God. What God is infinitely surpassing the analogies we use to think about him. God is Supreme Good. One day, you may even be thankful for the difficult lessons in life, in an odd way you would go through it again, to be transformed the way God transformed you! May God’s blessing be poured out over you. God takes our pain and suffering and uses it to mature us and make us vessels of honor and pillars of truth. Only God can do that! After forgiveness is granted, we need to love that person unconditionally. These are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
Consider not what is done but in what mind it is done, as courage is a door that can be opened from the inside. There is an interrelation of ends and means; of motives, objects, and circumstances; and of intentions and results in determining the morality of acts. There is vice in the concupiscence of the flesh and in the concupiscence of the soul; sin, however, does not lie in these inclinations but in the intentions and consents that grow out of them, and so virtue is also exercised by not consenting to what should be done. The deed itself adds nothing to the morality, good or bad, of what is purposed. This is a matter of personal conscience, which is binding even when mistaken. Although a morality of pure intention was remote from the medieval temper, it seems that we are obliged to strain after what is good. When we bless our enemies, we refrain from talking negatively about them. We are challenged to help them with their needs. We pray for direction, power of the Holy Spirit to come upon their life, and that the Lord would draw unto himself, cleanse them and bless them. “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and noting shall by any means hurt you,” reports Luke 10.19. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Morality does not consist in external observances but in the mind and heart. Sin is less an injury inflicted than a contempt of God; virtue, less doing what is respectable than living in love with God. A real common nature is wholly present in each member of the species, and individuals differ from one another by their accidents, not their substance. Anyone can forget a petty matter of insult, a personal affront. However, if one has been led step by step into an involvement where the substance was trust itself, bared one’s soul, and then been deeply betrayed in the sense of handed over to one’s enemies, outer or inner, then forgiveness takes on great meaning. Revenge impulsively surges in response to wrong, and becomes perversely delicious to those possessed by it. Vengefulness, resentment, and moral hatred cloud judgment but seem sweet to the one they possess, transforming a peaceful character into a connoisseur of violence. Personal and national credos proudly anchor themselves in tales of unfairness and the glories of retaliation. Oceans of blood and mountains of bones are their testament. It is an addictive cycle. However, without forgiveness, human life is worse off. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Forgiveness is a virtue, and expresses a commendable trait of character. And what makes that characteristic itself valuable? It is about Godliness, namely truth-telling, responsibility-taking, spiritual and moral growth, reconciliation, and love. We necessarily measure our actions according to some conception of good. Our success or failure, both in discerning accurately the nature of good, and in living up to that conception, decisively mold the moral character of our lives. These are practical ideas, and we ignore them at our peril. To understand the World, one must reduce the shadow to an enemy that must be fought and ultimately triumphed over through prayer and faith in God. God will bring out better emotions, which have been dormant in the heart. A common nature will assert its power; the wall of separation will be demolished and the greater the distance at which one had imagined to be from God will be replaced by his sympathy more touching to one’s feelings. A new spring will be given to your life. Ambition will be aroused, kindly emotions awakened; life will have some beauty yet. There will be a silver lining to the dark clouds manifesting the warmth of heart towards the World. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
My soul magnifies the Lord. In the presence of God and all the company of Heaven, God has created and delivered many of us from so many dangers, and filled our lives with so many blessings. The mercy of God is incomprehensible and his loving-kindness will tenderly lead us to repentance. We will turn to this Eternal God, detesting the sins of our past life with all our hearts and all our strength, and humbly desire and ask for grace, pardon, mercy, with entire absolution from our sins, in virtue of death and passion of that same Lord and Redeemer, on whom we lean as the only ground of our being. Many people walk around with their eyes closed blaming others for their problems. However, those who believe in God renewed in the sacred promise of faithfulness to God made in our names will renounce the Devil, the World, and the flesh, abhorring their accursed suggestions, vanities and lusts, now and for all eternity. This is an active process of transforming emotional distress into a process of self-refection, attribution or religious meaning and spiritual growth. The soul is your psychological part composed of your mind, will and emotion. It is the part of your inner being created by God for the purpose of reflecting and expressing God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
All of us have trauma, injuries, memories and enemies that can sabotage our lives. We are walking around with wounds, pain, broken hearts, and bitterness in our minds. Satan wants us to dwell on these wounds, relive and them and recycle them driving us to drink, or some other self-medicating distractions. And when Satan cannot find fault with your actions he will try to remind you of downfalls of those you love to break you down. When the right traumatic memories are relived, a cascade of emotions and conflicts are manifested. The longer we live without healing, the longer the enemy can strangle our futures, hopes and dreams as well as destroy our ability to realize God’s abundant life in the present. Surrounding ourselves with superficial friends, ignoring the hurt, and pretending nothing is wrong is simply masking the deep trauma that we need to heal. With emotional healing, it takes time and work. We have to know that God is with us, and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. God is even allowing scientist to heal broken heart without transplants. Japanese researchers are planning a clinical study that would involve attaching heart muscle cells made from stem cells to the heart of gravely ill patients to help recover cardiac functions. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
The clinical study to treat heart disease will be the World’s first of its kind. A team of researchers at Osaka University, led by Professor Yoshiki Sawa is studying induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells which can develop any kind of body tissue. The scientists plan to create sheets of heart muscle cells from iPS cells that do not easily trigger rejection. The sheets will be applied directly to the hearts of patients with serious heart disease. The procedure will be carried out on three patients aged eighteen or older by March of 2018. The team also says that two cases of iPS therapy for retinal disease have been carried out in Kobe, Japan, and that a clinical study on regenerating spinal cells is also awaiting approval at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. The iPS cells could help patients recover their body functions, whereas their only hope had been organ transplants. This treatment could also greatly reduce the costs of health care insurance and save lives. It is clear that we need more than just medication and this is a step in the right direction. We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to be so. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Mystery and Magic at the Winchester Mansion
Whoever has been so fired in one’s own spirit by the overwhelming thought of the Divine Being as to kindle the flames of faith in their heart of their fellow humans, has thereby proved oneself to be a prophet of the living God; and thus every great historic religion dates from a genuine inspiration by the Eternal spirit. The Winchester mansion attracted a recorded 27.5 million visits in 1923, when the state of California only had a population of 4 million (3.991 million to be exact). On its best day, the mansion drew more than 700,000 visitors. That the mansion was built at all, however, was something of a miracle. To build it, the Sarah and William Winchester confronted a legion of obstacles, any one of which could have—should have—killed it long before it was completed. Together, the Winchesters’ and their architects had conjured a dream castle, whose grandeur and beauty exceeded anything each singly could have imagined. The house was furnished with the finest materials and was a showcase of Victorian elegance and taste. It is a maze of Victorian craftmanship—there were gold and silver-plated chandeliers, imported Tiffany art glass windows, German silver and bronze inlaid doors, Swiss molded bathtubs, rare precious woods like mahogany paneled walls, and rosewood and parquet floors. Cabinets and fireplaces made of teak, maple, oak and white ash. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Believe or not, the key to the massive front door was made of solid gold. Early in her residence, Mrs. Winchester planned a grand reception and sent hundreds of gold-engraved invitations to all the prominent valley residents. Visitors wore their best clothes and most subdued expressions, as if entering the great Winchester cathedral. Some wept at its beauty, others rejoiced as if they have a revelation of God, as the moonlight cascaded through the beautiful art glass windows. At that time, the Winchester mansion had 600 rooms, was 100,000 square feet, bisected with a ten-story tower and sat on 161 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, with spouting fountains and blossoming orchards. A sumptuous midnight banquet was the main feature that night, guests were served beef bourguignon, tartiflette, and quiche on honeycomb platters of crystal glass, 12 inches in diameter made by Tiffany & Co, along with the table being set with a $800,000.00 solid-gold dinner service (which was counted at the end of the night to make sure every piece was put away in one of the mansion’s six huge safes). The dinner was supported by a famous orchestra for added entertainment. The mansions was patrolled by a pack of ferocious Hell Hounds, plus, of course she had her staff or armed bodyguards. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The crowing feature of which was the wine. A 1787 Chateau Lafite, was served out of a Tiffany & Co. refresher set in handblown glass with a 68-ounce pitcher and of course, 13-ounce glasses. For dessert, they tasted a new snack called Cracker Jack and a new breakfast food called Shredded Wheat, and brought elegance and tradition to the table by serving the treats out of 12-inch harmony bowls made of crystal glass by Tiffany & Co. The mansion employed two hundred Egyptian and German employees, who were paid in gold coins. There are still more than 10,000 windows, nine kitchens, 47 fireplaces, which are all hand carved and no two alike. And while no one claimed to like gossip, girl, they gossiped about Mrs. Winchester more than any Wendy interview—and everyone enjoyed it. Talk begat rumors and as the years passed and new towers and gables rose behind the 16-foot hedge of Llanda Villa, the rumors grew to established legend. There were also twenty-five distinct Victorian guest houses on the property. Everything about the Winchester mansion was exotic and, above all, immense. Mrs. Winchester also had a sacred blue séance room, where her secret rendezvous with the spirits took place. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The house was over a square mile, and some people were more impressed with the Winchester mansion, so much so that it eclipsed the tower of Alexandre Eiffel, Madison Square Garden. Mrs. Winchester is reported to have had dinner with Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Henry Adams, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Nikola Tesla, Jane Addams, Francis Ellingwood Abbot, and his wife but when President Theodore Roosevelt’s entourage passed, he expressed desire to visit the greatest event in the history of this country since the Civil War, at the World famous mansion, but at the great front door, our nation’s leader was more than astonished to be coldly told by the Butler, “Mrs. Winchester is not home!” The Winchester mansion was one of the first in the World to utilize wood insulation. Mrs. Winchester used brass cornerplates on many stairways to prevent dust pocket, and she invented an inside crank to open and close the outside shutters. Her 46 fireplaces were the first hinged iron drops for ashes and concealed wood boxes. The tier of tubs in her immense laundry had moulded-in wash boards. Mrs. Winchester also rode in regal splendor. First with a Victoria with livered coachman. Then a French Renault, a Buick Town-Car and two Pierce-Arrows, one done in stunning lavender and gold. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Mrs. Winchester had a remarkable memory and knew location of every piece of material in the mansion, even in the vast store-rooms. Some of the built-in innovations were decades ahead of the times. Annunciators installed in all rooms could signal her whereabouts to the servants. Illuminating gas was manufactured by a new process directly on the grounds. She improvised a window catch patterned after the Winchester rifle trigger and trip-hammer. Mrs. Winchester was very strong minded and firm, but always fair and kind. Laziness, theft, gossip or revealed confidence met with instant dismissal. Something magical had occurred in that mansion, and it was beyond doubt, but darkness, too had touched the house. Scores of workers had been hurt or killed in building the dream, their families consigned to poverty (for looting the mansion). And a fire had killed more, and an assassin had allegedly gone on a rampage targeting members of elite classes. Worse had occurred, too, but these revelations emerged only slowly. A murdered had moved among the beautiful things the Winchesters had created and the mansion was so large that he would sneak in and out at night killing guests. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Mr. Abbot’s young wife was drawn to the Winchester mansion by the prospect of business and she and many other young women had disappeared, last seen at the mile-long Winchester mansion. Later, Francis Abbot and his colleagues learned of the anguished letters describing daughters who had come to California and had fallen silent. The press speculated that scores of people must have disappeared within the building. After completing “The Syllogistic Philosophy,” Francis Abbot allegedly committed suicide at his wife’s grave. Even Lizzie Halliday was startled by what the fact that such grisly events could have gone undiscovered for so long, and people started to suspect that there really was supernatural activity going on inside of the Winchester mansion and that the Winchester family was being stalked and killed by ghost. Enough strange things began happening to people to make the claim seem plausible. For the supernaturally inclined, the death of the butler alone offered sufficient proof. America is every whit as sacred as Judea. God is as near to you and to me, as ever he was to Moses, to Jesus, or to Paul. Wherever a human soul has uttered its sincere and brave faith in the Divine, and this bequeathed to us the legacy of inspire words, there is the Holy Bible. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
Humans impose their own way of life on nature, and transforms it into something with a human shape. There are in consequence two levels of nature: an upper level of human nature and a lower level of physical nature. We are born into the latter World, but do not really belong to it. It is natural to people to be moral, civilized, and socially disciplined; it is unnatural to live like wild beasts. Human’s present relation to nature can hardly be expressed except by paradox. Certain human qualities, such as chastity, are natural, on the human level of nature. The nature God had originally planned for humans was that of the Golden Age or the Garden of Eden: this was lost at the Fall, but in some measure, is recreated by the disciplines of civilization, morality, religion, and the arts. People are subject to death, and on the physical level of nature there can be no more natural event than death. Yet death was not a part of the order originally planned for humans and in that context death is unnatural. Witchcraft, a perceived facility to summon evil spirits and demons to do harm to others, was linked to religion to the extent that the medieval Church had powers to punish those who dabbled in magic and sorcery. Its priests were able to exorcise those who had become possessed by malign spirits. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
During the 16th century, many people believed that witchcraft, rather than the workings of God’s will, offered a more convincing explanation of sudden and unexpected ill fortune, such as the death of a child, bad harvests, or the death of cattle. Witch-hunting became an obsession in some parts of the country. An estimated total 60,000 people were executed during the witch trials. Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshipers of the Devil, who engaged in such acts as malevolent sorcery at meetings known as Witches’ Sabbaths. In 1552, Parliament passed the Witchcraft Acts which defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later, but restored by a new Act in 1562. The circling of the immortal Heavenly bodies in the sky is the most eloquent symbol of the order and harmony of the nature that was originally intended for human beings. In 1736, Parliament passed an Act repealing the laws against witchcraft, but imposing fines or imprisonment on people who claimed to be able to use magical powers. At the level of society (or at least the groups of human beings that existed in the evolutionary past), religious belief promotes cooperation, mutual respect, and solidarity, and these features help the group to survive. God wants us to love our neighbors, as we love ourselves, which means show respect. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
I love that Draper James Hydrangea Row Peplum Knit Dress
There is no place I would rather be in this World, although I have been looking at mansion in France, you would be surprised what $6 million can get you. Anyway, in your eyes I am lost. I stand in awe of your beauty. A thing of beauty will be a treasure forever. As my head hits the pillow, I will dream of you. So, baby let us just turn down the lights and close the door. Oh, I love that Draper James Hydrangea Row Peplum knit dress. I unzip the back to watch it fall, while I kiss your neck and shoulders. No, do not be afraid to show it off, I will be right here to hold you. I have been in love with you baby. Oh, my darling, I was so lonely searching for you and for you only. My darling I love you so. My love is true, longing for you, no one else will do. When I first saw you dear I know you were alone. I said to myself that I had better make you my own. Your brother caught us kissing. I thought he would surely tell, until he started playing those wedding bells. Now my darling, I am yours forever. Do not ever leave me, leave me never. My darling I love you so. www.draperjames.com
Randolph Harris II International Institute 