Barbarian observes:
Killing people seems like something we should leave to God. The only statement Jesus made on the death penalty was to shame people into letting someone live.
Jesus upheld the death penalty for dishonoring parents and stated it plainly.
Jesus castigated the Pharisees for pretending to follow the old covenant, while not following it. He cites the passage in the OT of death for cursing a parent, while noting that they don't follow it.
Matthew 15:1 Then came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: [2] Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. [3] But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: [4] Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. [5] But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee.
As He said, he came to fulfill the law. The old convenant is not the new covenant. So the OT says that an adulterer must die. Jesus refused to condemn a woman who was an adulterer. If this puzzles you, ask yourself; "do I eat bacon?"
Condemning such people to death was part of magnifying the law and making it honorable.
He shamed a mob out to stone to death a woman caught in adultery, and then told her that He would not condemn her, and that she was to go and sin no more.
Have you ever considered capital offenders not executed but sentenced to life are really "trophies" for the state? If executed they are no longer trophies.
All the trophy hunters I know, kill the animals they consider trophies. My "trophies";
a pair of great horned owls living at the pond near my house. Over several years, they got comfortable enough with me to let me see this:
They were, one morning, teaching the owlet to hunt. I was quiet and moved slowly, but they knew I was there, and had gotten sufficiently familiar with me that they didn't react to my presence. The owlet wasn't too happy with me, though.
That moment of mutual trust beats any body part any hunter ever collected from the corpse of an animal he killed.
What 'hunter' wants an empty trophy wall?
All of it seems empty to me. These seemed like old friends; I would go to sleep at night, hearing them softly calling. I miss them.
In bed, listening.
The owl tree fell last year
An empty silence.
We don't have laws to address our most pressing problems, thus we make a business of them. The death penalty is a solution, not a problem.
It's not what Jesus chose to do.
Barbarian observes:
Actually, scientists have realized that there are many different body signaling systems, and research is ongoing for many of them. Yours, I don't know.
I appreciate this very much. We are only learning how the heart itself exercises control of the body, i.e. "the body has a mind of its own", and may influence the brain in ways yet to be discovered.
My son has always had depression; it's a burden he carries every day. Vigorous excercise (he's in his 40s, and still plays hockey) helps a lot, as does sunlight. And he lives in Seattle; artificial sunlight seems to help.
Obviously, chemicals and pheremones affect the brain.
The Pineal Gland and Melatonin
The pineal gland or epiphysis synthesizes and secretes melatonin, a structurally simple hormone that communicates information about environmental lighting to various parts of the body. Ultimately, melatonin has the ability to entrain biological rhythms and has important effects on reproductive function of many animals. The light-transducing ability of the pineal gland has led some to call the pineal the "third eye".
The health of the gut can indeed affect brain functioning, although there is a huge amount of quackery over the way it happens, and what might be done to change how the brain works.
It's not totally crazy, though; there's enough anecdotal and case information to get researchers looking. It's still an open question:
Neuropsychobiology. 2019 Apr 4:1-6
A Systematic Review of the Effect of Probiotic Supplementation on Schizophrenia Symptoms.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Derangements of the gut microbiome have been linked to increased systemic inflammation and central nervous system disorders, including schizophrenia. This systematic review thus aimed to investigate the hypothesis that probiotic supplementation improves schizophrenia symptoms.
METHODS:
By using the keywords (probiotic OR gut OR microbiota OR microbiome OR yogurt OR yoghurt OR lactobacillus OR bifidobacterium) AND (schizophrenia OR psychosis), a preliminary search of the PubMed, Medline, Embase, Google Scholar, ClinicalTrials.gov, Clinical Trials Register of the Cochrane Collaboration Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group (CCDANTR), and Cochrane Field for Complementary Medicine databases yielded 329 papers published in English between January 1, 1960 and May 1, 2018. Attempts were made to search grey literature as well.
RESULTS:
Three clinical studies were reviewed, comparing the use of probiotics to placebo controls. Applying per-protocol analysis and a fixed-effects model, there was no significant difference in schizophrenia symptoms between the group that received probiotic supplementation and the placebo group post-intervention as the standardized mean difference was -0.0884 (95% CI -0.380 to 0.204, p = 0.551). Separate analyses were performed to investigate the effect of probiotic supplementation on positive or negative symptoms of schizophrenia alone. In both instances, no significant difference was observed as well.
CONCLUSION:
Based on current evidence, limited inferences can be made regarding the efficacy of probiotics in schizophrenia. Although probiotics may have other benefits, for example to regulate bowel movement and ameliorate the metabolic effects of antipsychotic medications, the clinical utility of probiotics in the treatment of schizophrenia patients remains to be validated by future clinical studies.
Front Pharmacol. 2019 Mar 20;10:268
Gut Microbiota-Based Pharmacokinetics and the Antidepressant Mechanism of Paeoniflorin.
Abstract
Paeoniflorin, the main component of Xiaoyao Wan, presents low oral bioavailability and unclear antidepressant mechanism. To elucidate the potential reasons for the low bioavailability of paeoniflorin and explore its antidepressant mechanism from the perspective of the gut microbiota, here, a chronic unpredictable depression model and forced swimming test were firstly performed to examine the antidepressant effects of paeoniflorin. Then the pharmacokinetic study of paeoniflorin in rats was performed based on the gut microbiota; meanwhile, the gut microbiota incubated with paeoniflorin in vitro was used to identify the possible metabolites of paeoniflorin. Molecular virtual docking experiments together with the specific inhibitor tests were applied to investigate the mechanism of paeoniflorin metabolism by the gut microbiota. Finally, the intestinal microbiota composition was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing technology. The pharmacodynamics tests showed that paeoniflorin had significant antidepressant activity, but its oral bioavailability was 2.32%. Interestingly, we found paeoniflorin was converted into benzoic acid by the gut microbiota, and was mainly excreted through the urine with the gut metabolite benzoic acid as the prominent excreted form. Moreover, paeoniflorin could also regulate the composition of the gut microbiota by increasing the abundance of probiotics. Therefore, the metabolism effect of gut microbiota may be one of the main reasons for the low oral bioavailability of paeoniflorin. Additionally, paeoniflorin can be metabolized into benzoic acid via gut microbiota enzymes, which might exert antidepressant effects through the blood-brain barrier into the brain.
