Satan or science?

[DonnyT]

I was reading some the forums and was wondering is it really Satan?

For example, lust is simply a chemical reaction brought on by our hormones.

murder can be attributed to environment, upbringing, or mental disorders etc.

The same for thievery, etc.

Is this really Satan "whispering" in our ears?

 

[Stryder06]

I was reading some the forums and was wondering is it really Satan?

For example, lust is simply a chemical reaction brought on by our hormones.

murder can be attributed to environment, upbringing, or mental disorders etc.

The same for thievery, etc.

Is this really Satan "whispering" in our ears?

Outside of the mental disorders (which are still the result of sin) yes.

 

[DonnyT]

Outside of the mental disorders (which are still the result of sin) yes.

So Satan = hormones

 

[spr]

1Timothy 6:20-21 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge(or science by some translations)— by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

Avoid it like the plague.

 

[DonnyT]

1Timothy 6:20-21 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge(or science by some translations)— by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

Avoid it like the plague.

I'm thinking it's this verse which lead to the Amish?

 

[MrPolo]

Satan ≠ hormones. Satan whispers to you to misuse or misinterpret your hormones. He suggests you use them as an excuse to commit sin. Of course, God always gives us a way out of any temptation, and where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

 

[spr]

Avoiding the products of science is not the same as avoiding science. Unless a Christian is already tied up with science they should avoid it (1Corinthians7:20). It's better to have both feet in the church than one in the church and the other in science.

 

[laconicstudent]

Avoiding the products of science is not the same as avoiding science. Unless a Christian is already tied up with science they should avoid it (1Corinthians7:20). It's better to have both feet in the church than one in the church and the other in science.

[BIBLE]Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. [/BIBLE]

ummm.. Ok. I find your assertion that the Church and science are somehow mutually exclusive unusual.

 

[MrPolo]

ummm.. Ok. I find your assertion that the Church and science are somehow mutually exclusive unusual.

They aren't. In fact even the Bible speaks of science:

For example, Paul uses biology to help us understand the unity Body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:15-16 Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love.​

Medical science:

1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
​

Astronomical science, the earth is suspended in empty space (this is significant because Job is debatably the oldest book of Scripture)

Job 26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.​

And there are many other places...

 

[Vanguard18]

Satan ≠ hormones. Satan whispers to you to misuse or misinterpret your hormones. He suggests you use them as an excuse to commit sin. Of course, God always gives us a way out of any temptation, and where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

I think, more or less, Satan does not equal hormones so much as he manipulates the human mind by seduction. He offers the means in which to satisfy those desires brought about by our natural hormones. We, as obedient christians, are of course expected to use God given discernment and understanding of the responsibilities and consequences (both in this life and in the next) to say no to our primal urges and refuse the temptation of the devil. Humans are inherently neutral beings, as dictated by our free-will. It is our choices that define whether we are good or evil.

In any case, we do have the hormones for a reason, but they should be implemented for that reason. God gave us the drive to repopulate, but that doesnt mean we can just go out and abuse it. We are meant to be able to control it long enough to wait until in the bond of holy union and marriage to finally give into that urge.

If in doubt, pray. If you cannot say no to it, then give it to God, and let Him say no for you.

 

[Yarddog]

I was reading some the forums and was wondering is it really Satan?

At times but that doesn't mean that we can judge which it is.

For example, lust is simply a chemical reaction brought on by our hormones.

Hormones accounts for for the sexual attraction but we decide how to react to that attraction. God gave us the hormones and the ability to act properly. Satan can effect people but I don't think that we can place all blame for our actions on Satan. (The Devil made me do it, doesn't work for me, in most cases.)

murder can be attributed to environment, upbringing, or mental disorders etc.

The vast majority of people exposed to these environments do not commit murder.

The same for thievery, etc.

The answer is the same as well.

Is this really Satan "whispering" in our ears?

I think that there are cases where Satan actually does affect people but for the most part it is the people choosing the paths that they walk.

 

[spr]

They aren't. In fact even the Bible speaks of science:

For example, Paul uses biology to help us understand the unity Body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:15-16 Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love.​

Medical science:

1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
​

Astronomical science, the earth is suspended in empty space (this is significant because Job is debatably the oldest book of Scripture)

Job 26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.​

And there are many other places...

Knowing and using common words to convey a spiritual understanding has nothing to do with science.

 

[BokuWaKurohyou]

.

 

[sungaunga]

So Satan = hormones

well, it is definitely possible there are homornal unbalances. Never the less, like someone mentioned, unless they are helpless and mentally retarded, all sin comes from within our hearts. One can blame Satan all he wants, if the person sins, that person is going to Hell. I hear a lot of this saying, hate the sin not the sinner, while all that is true and indeed we are to love all men. God is not sending just that persons "sins" to hell, He sends the sinner. Just as a reference, Satan can't make us sin, he tempts us. And God certainly can't be blamed for our evil deeds.

"Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust."

hope that somewhat helped ^^

 

[DonnyT]

I'm not denying the existence of Satan. I wondering whether we can attribute things like lust to him given that we know more about human biology.

Hearing "voices" comes from two sources: God, or satan.

You've gotta admit that sounds pre-20th century

 

[chingchang]

I was reading some the forums and was wondering is it really Satan?

O.k.....

For example, lust is simply a chemical reaction brought on by our hormones.

Are you saying that if I feel sexual attraction...that is really Satan's doing? I shouldn't be attracted to females?

murder can be attributed to environment, upbringing, or mental disorders etc.

How about Troops in Afgahnistan/Iraq? When they murder someone is that Satan causing them to murder...or is that attributed to their war-time environment?

The same for thievery, etc.

People sin. Desperate people do desperate things. Maybe if Christians did a better job caring for the poor...crime would go down?

Is this really Satan "whispering" in our ears?

In general...I'd say yes...which makes it all the more important to pursue truth so we know when we are being mislead and when it is God "whispering" to us.

CC

 

[chingchang]

For the sake of this argument I think it is important for Christians to understand that science does not stand in opposition to God...because God created science. For what is science? Science (IMHO) is man's attempt to explain that which God has created. It is a language meant to convey understanding and reason such that man can make an attempt to wrap his brain around God's creation. So...if I feel sexual attraction...and "science" says that testosterone is the hormone that is attributed to that feeling (which has been proven)...then it is safe to assume that God created testosterone...at least in part...so men would feel sexual attraction and "multiply and fill the earth". And no...Satan did not whisper that in my ear...

CC

 

[Stryder06]

Satan ≠ hormones. Satan whispers to you to misuse or misinterpret your hormones. He suggests you use them as an excuse to commit sin. Of course, God always gives us a way out of any temptation, and where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

What he said

 

[laconicstudent]

If you had to speak to an atheist about the evils of man, which would sound more attractive: Man kills and steals because of some chemical imbalances (which man can control via medicine), or man steals and kills because of spiritual wickedness, temptation, and the weakness of man (which man cannot control, and must rely on Jesus).

They of course can both be true. We can clearly see that some mental disorders have a definite neurological basis.

Everywhere we turn science is telling us that we won't die if we take this pill, or that one. Consciously, everyone knows they will die, but conditioning people to believe their lives can be increased if you take a pill or get an nip/tuck is ludicrous.

No one disputes that death is inevitable, but yes, modern medicine will give you pills that can prevent you from dying early of preventable causes.

And, be careful what you all say about "schizophrenia." Like I said before voices in ones head does not denote "crazy." It denotes a problem no less, but not terrestrial in nature.

Yes, there is a physical component. Neuregulin 1-erbB signaling and the molecular/cellular basis of schizophrenia - Nature Neuroscience

Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disease that affects 0.5−1% of the world's adult population. The hypothesis that this disease is a developmental disorder of the nervous system with late onset of its characteristic symptoms has been gaining acceptance in past years. However, the anatomical, cellular and molecular bases of schizophrenia remain unclear. Numerous studies point to alterations in different aspects of brain development as possible causes of schizophrenia, including defects in neuronal migration, neurotransmitter receptor expression and myelination. Recently, the gene that encodes neuregulin-1 (NRG1) has been identified as a potential susceptibility gene for schizophrenia, and defects in the expression of erbB3, one of the NRG1 receptors, have been shown to occur in the prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients, suggesting that NRG1-erbB signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. These findings open new approaches to defining the molecular and cellular basis of schizophrenia in more mechanistic terms.

Hearing "voices" comes from two sources: God, or satan. How one interprets it (craziness, "schizo," or it is what it is) makes the difference. Just because you don't understand what is going on doesn't mean you dismiss it as crazy.

Before you unilaterally dismiss everyone who hears voices as not crazy....

Elsevier: Article Locator

Abstract

Auditory verbal hallucinations ("voices") are thought to arise from a disorder of inner speech (thinking in words). We examined the neural correlates of tasks which involve inner speech in subjects with schizophrenia who hear voices (hallucinators), subjects with schizophrenia who do not (nonhallucinators), and normal controls. There were no differences between hallucinators and controls in regional cerebral blood flow during thinking in sentences. However, when imagining sentences being spoken in another person's voice—which entails both the generation and monitoring of inner speech—hallucinators had a normal left frontal response, but reduced activation in the left middle temporal gyrus and the rostral supplementary motor area, regions which were activated by both normal subjects and nonhallucinators (p<0·001). These findings suggest that a predisposition to verbal hallucinations is associated with a failure to activate areas concerned with the monitoring of inner speech.

That is foolish: don't you know God talked to MANY people in history, as did satan?

How does that preclude an observable basis for auditory hallucinations?

 

[BokuWaKurohyou]

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