Gavin W. Hooks's Blog

Where Will Evil Go?

I was listening to my favorite Christian spokes person on the way in to work this morning. He was discussing a new book out by Rob Bell. You can read more about that here.The age old protest comes out of his book that a loving God would not send anyone to a “hell” where they will be eternally tormented. To make such a claim Mr. Bell has to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the origin and effects of evil (and God’s character).

If God created man to pursue and enjoy a real and meaningful relationship with Him (and He did) then man has to have the choice not to accept or pursue that relationship. If there is no choice, there is not a meaningful relationship. Without a choice the Creator would have created mindless robots to follow Him without conscious choice.

That choice is the big black box in terms of the eternal destiny of men and women.

The problem is man did chose to leave the relationship in the very beginning. The most damning consequence of that choice was the dawn of evil. When we accept that our natural habitat is the presence of God, it helps us understand that being separated from Him is harmful by definition. That is exactly what the Old Testament word evil (in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) means, harm. With the dawn of evil, a place such as that described as hell became necessary.

Someone rightly described evil as the absence of God. The poison in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was separation from God, or the experience of His absence. His absence allows every kind of harm.

Men and women absent from the presence of God have crafted every kind of harm, deliberate and inadvertent.  God’s presence precludes and nullifies all aspects of evil. Think of it in terms of His Holiness. Holiness is the absolute absence of evil (harm). If God is holy (and He is) then no (eternal) harm can come to those who experience His holiness i.e. His presence.

For those who say that a loving God would not send anyone to a place of eternal suffering, they are saying that God does not give people a choice in the matter of a relationship with Him. This is profoundly wrong. A relationship with Him is a free choice that we have. When an individual is forced to “love” someone that relationship is not based on anything meaningful other than the power of the one to force him/herself on the other.

God, as absolutely holy, defines good. Those who choose to go on without a relationship with Him are choosing to continue in evil (by definition, not necessarily as a judgment of their conduct). They continue to live in an environment where eternal harm (evil) is possible. So would a loving God 1) force someone against their will to be with Him for eternity? 2) allow evil (harm) to continue and grow eternally?

A loving God could choose to allow a period of time to transpire where people could choose a relationship with Him for eternity or live without Him (absence of God = evil).  He could set a time limit on how long evil will be allowed to continue and grow. When this time limit has transpired, evil must go. Where? Well, to a place of final, eternal, containment where all evil (harm) is confined forever. That sounds like a terrible place to be. The Bible tells of such a place; hell.

The Biggest Threat to Your Potential

I want to talk to you about another subject discussed in my book The Message of Pain; potential.

Google's definition is: Having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future. Noun: Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness.

Everyone, yes everyone, regardless of age, has potential yet to be realized. The confidence that there are things inside of you that are unseen and yet could be glorious is one of the invigorating qualities of life. It is another reason to be excited about life and living it to the fullest. At my age (47), I have friends out there who are checking out on this post right now. When you reach a certain age the temptation to dismiss thoughts of realizing some latent, untapped capacity is easy to yield to. We're just too tired.

The problem with giving up on your potential is that an accompanying depression and cynicism sets in. When you believe there is no more of you to be discovered, life can become a matter of dreary waiting for the end to come.

In every stage of your life God has some potential He built into you to be unwrapped and utilized. Age in particular gives you things to contribute to life. Experience may uncover a capacity that was not there until you reached this age. God has a bright outlook on your future. The potential still inside of you is going to play a key part.

Jer 29:11-12 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ESV

Without regard to age, there are some real enemies to potential. I just want to talk about one today. It is probably the most significant.

Discouragement is probably the biggest obstacle to fulfilling potential. Your capacity for doing good will forever be unrealized if you succumb to discouragement. Discouragement is not physical restraint. It is more effective than physical restraint because if someone tried to physically stop you from doing the good that you know to do,  it would motivate you to greater effort. 

Discouragement is an intangible, harmful illusion or belief you entertain about yourself, your life or life in general that has persuaded you not to attempt an effort to do good. Remember, past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Don't let past failures overly influence you.  When you doubt your future, you are disagreeing with God's plans and vision for you (see Jer. 29:10-11 above) It is a sin (misses the mark).

Jas 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. ESV

When you disagree with what God sees in your future you are exposing your self to darkness, hopelessness, fear, deceit and other harmful influences of evil. Continuing in or acting under the influence of discouragement may in fact cause you to do harm to others e.g. discourage them from accomplishing their potential. Discouragement is contagious/infectious.

The cause of Good suffers when you leave a portion of who God planned for you to be undiscovered and undeveloped. Evil has a stake in you believing that you have no more potential to explore.

American Freedom Is at Stake

Following is a re-post from my other blog site. I am reposting because this one explains why we MUST learn to discern Good from Evil…

I want to build on this notion of American Freedom. American Freedom is unique and potent but it has some standards that go with it. In order to have the kind of freedom we have enjoyed for over 230 years there are some responsibilities that come with the benefits. Those standards safe guard this liberty.

A large portion of our population has been attacking and nullifying those standards over the last 50-60 years. It has cost us a lot but these standards can be restored. It is called in old terms "revival."

The Declaration of Independence claimed Freedom as God granted, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (Emphasis is mine.)

This is a self-evident truth, that God created and intended men to be free. Our Founding Fathers claim to this brand of freedom is uniquely American. America Freedom is based on God's idea of what real Freedom should look like. Like no other country in the world we have proven the benefits and superiority of this kind of freedom. That is, until we abandoned the responsibilities that come with real freedom.

American men and women of their time and hundreds of thousand since have been willing to die to keep it here. What's more inspiring is that we have been willing to die to give it to men and women in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and various places all over the world. A taste of, or just hearing about this kind of freedom changes your life forever. No other system in the world will compare after you have enjoyed the opportunity to better yourself and keep the fruit of your labor to help others. Yes, that is part of God-given freedom.

God-given freedom is under attack. (American freedom is under attack.) The attack was first leveled on those principles that keep freedom strong and available to all. Hard work, self-responsibility, and morality that protects you and keeps you from financial dependency have all been under attack without much defense.

I spoke about the uniqueness of American freedom in the last post and quoted two prominent figures in American history. They were not the only ones. It was recognized by all American's in the early years of our country's life. Lincoln acknowledged it in his Gettysburg Address:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

That liberty of course is granted by God, the God that the Bible tells us of. This is a critical point because the principles, standards and responsibilities required to maintain this freedom are found in the Bible. They are distinctly Christian. Here is Lincoln again talking about our founding documents and how Americans might look to them in the future (that's us):

"…[T]hey established these great self-evident truths that… their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew that battle which their fathers began, so that truth and justice and mercy and all humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land…Now, my countryman, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence…let me entreat you to come back…[C]ome back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence." (Taken from Original Intent Barton pg 250.)

May I ask the same? I beg you in coming days when the financial crisis is in full bloom remember this. We don't need a new form of freedom. We need a renewal of our original freedom with the responsibilities of it, renewal of our claim to the unalienable kind granted to us by God. This is the foundation of real freedom. It is the foundation of American freedom. The experience of this variety of freedom convicts us that we ought to keep it at all costs and that other men ought to have it too.

God is the author of the freedom our Founders tapped into. The principles in the Bible tell us how to keep it. Our Founders understood this and laid the foundation for the greatest country in the history of the world with Its guidance. We simply must return to the study of these principles.

The ability to discern Good from Evil is found there and we cannot maintain real freedom without this ability. What would American freedom be apart from God and Goodness? It would be the same as the "freedom" the French experienced in the French Revolution; Anarchy that consumed itself. It knew no guide for discerning Good and Evil.

May God bless and keep us free.

The God Abandonment Syndrome

I recently had a discussion with  friend who would describe himself as a progressive/atheist. I have long had the conviction that a high percentage of people who describe themselves as liberal/progressive/atheist have some concrete experience in their life that provides them with all the evidence they need to dismiss the notion of God, His existence, and the Biblical characterization of Him. In the case of my friend he opened up about the event that provided him with the concrete evidence. It was a horrific event. I'm not going to share it because he did not give me permission and really it's not important what the details are but I will say on my scale it was a life changing painful experience.

After this event God did not make sense. He denies that the event had any influence on his abandonment of his belief in God but I find it suspicious that it occurred very shortly after the event. I gathered that, after the event, he felt foolish for having believed in God.

He is a very intelligent man and very good to his family. He has a very well founded concept of good but he has disallowed the idea of a God who embodies the concept from which we get our understanding. This has led to a lot of conflicting beliefs.

Through our discussion I came to understand why liberals/atheists believe in government as the solution to everything; there is no God to make things right or depend on.

A misunderstanding of a painful event can lead to a multitude of problems. I talk in more detail about this in my book but for now let me sum this conversation up by saying…

Pain is not an indictment of God's character or proof He does not exist but it is proof that evil exists. Misunderstanding pain leads to a life without hope, transcendent hope that makes life worth living and gives it meaning. My friend has found the path to peace of mind even without God but it is interesting that this path is exactly what the Bible prescribes…forgiveness.

Christian Boot Camp; Preparing for War

The New Testament refers to the life of a Christian in terms of warfare in several places and in different ways. Consider the following passages:

Eph 6:11-12 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV)

2Ti 2:3-4 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. (KJV)

Our chief responsibility as Christians is to oppose and defeat evil at every chance. I think sometimes we lose sight of how to do this. In The Message of Pain I offer a definition of evil that helps in identifying the opposition. If you cannot identify the enemy, it is impossible to oppose and defeat him. I also explain the most effective weapons against evil. Christ identified them in His teachings. The main offensive weapon in our arsenal against evil is love (Mt 22:37-40). There is little to defend against this. (Let me say that people are not the enemy. It is "arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God" that we war against (2 Cor. 10:5 ESV).

If love is the chief weapon against evil, it is very important to learn how to use this powerful weapon effectively. Love stops the progress of evil in the life of a young boy or girl. Kids who never have a real encounter of love are most likely to learn the ways of evil and further its cause. Evil's main effect is to cause damage. Damage causes pain and pain multiplies itself, advancing evil's cause. Love can be a potent preventative or curative.

I certainly don't have all the possible strategies for using love against evil. I do know that when you are feeling loved is when you are most like to try it on someone else. If I can offer some strategies I have learned from others who have "assaulted" me in surprise attacks that set me back on course.

The Right TImes (much like in modern warfare timing can be the difference between victory and defeat):

1. Choose a vulnerable time such as when you "target" has experienced a big disappointment. I knew of a young boy who got left behind when his father and older brother went on a fishing trip. He was one sad boy until a neighbor stepped in and took him for a boat ride all on his own. I'm sure it was not as fun as he had dreamed but it made him understand someone cared about him.

2. It always meant something to me when a person took the time to come to significant events in my life such as funerals of my loved ones, my wedding (you usually get just one chance at this), graduations (mine and my children's) and award presentations. If you are trying to make a break through these are key events.

3. Financial reversals are critical times but utter discretion is of utmost importance. The wrong impression could bar a relationship for a very long time. Anonymous help would be appropriate at times like this.

The Right Ways

1. I was always surprised when someone learned my name and used it to address me before I knew them.

2. Learn your "target's" likes and dislikes. Remembering that someone drinks only diet coke and showing up with one when you know you will you will be seeing them is a great opening salvo with the weapon of love.

3. There is no more effective way to drop your "target's" defenses than demonstrating care for them with something that they have a like for. Combine this with a well-timed expression and you will hit the mark solidly and in a way that continues to work on them after the encounter. Starbucks is a weakness of mine. Showing up with my "drink" at a time when I am exhausted or having a bad day speaks in a way that words cannot. It can create an experience of love that will not be forgotten and begin to loosen the seal on the door to considering the Gospel.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Please share ways you have learned in the comments to make us all better at throwing back evil's advance and begin to take back lost ground.

Just a Line for Today

Pain is the private room we create to prevent the experience of any more.

Evil’s Prince

In my book, The Message of Pain I discuss the Bible’s account of how evil got its start, why it had to be that way and what got the devil his kingdom. In the book I don’t discuss the following aspect of the beginning so I would like to here.

The Message of Pain explains that in the beginning God created man to have a living, vibrant, fulfilling relationship with Him. He created the perfect environment for this relationship to germinate and grow, the Garden of Eden. Because we were created for this relationship, it has become my conviction that man’s natural habitat is in the presence of God.

Every real and meaningful relationship has one essential quality, it is based on the choice of two individuals to accept and pursue it. If one of the two individual does not have a choice to care for the other person (or to abandon them), it is not a meaningful, fulfilling relationship. It is bondage in one form or another. There has to be an option to leave a relationship in order for it to be real.

In the center of this paradise God planted two trees; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I believe the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the option God gave man to leave the relationship. There were no hostages in the paradise He created.

Since every phase of creation was pronounced good by God, Adam and Eve already knew what good was. Certainly walking daily with their Creator was good. The only thing new the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could be offering is the experience of evil.

These trees being in the center of the garden is no coincidence. Every time Adam and Eve walked by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil without eating from it they demonstrated their love for God. The constant supply of the fruit on the tree of life was God’s demonstration of love for Adam and Eve.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is interesting in this light. God said in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (Gen. 2:17.)

I imagine in the mind of Lucifer, the arch angel, he must have said, hmmm… die? The devil was originally created as an angel to serve God. He knew God’s heart and character. He knew no harm could come to anyone in God’s presence. Therefore, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil must be a door or exit from God’s presence (the choice for man to leave the relationship we discussed earlier.) In his pride I think he saw the potential for a kingdom of his own, out of God’s presence.

God had to allow for a place out of His presence and sovereignty for man to have a choice to love Him or not. That place, out of His presence is evil as inferred from the name of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This matches the theological definition of evil being the absence of God.  

In the beginning (and in the end for those who choose a relationship with Him now) no harm could come to man because he was (or will be) in God’s presence.

Ps 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. ESV

Rev 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” ESV

 I think the person who now rules over the kingdom of evil figured out that since no one could be harmed (or die) in God’s presence there must be a place out of His presence. That place out of God’s presence or sovereignty (by God’s design) was a place without a sovereign, a vacuum of power that Lucifer set his designs on and recruited the first two candidates in Genesis 3.

A world of evil opened up to the experience of man as a result. Pain was first mentioned shortly afterward in Genesis 3:16; the promise of pain in child-birth. Can you think of a reason God would make child-birth a painful experience?

(You can read more on this subject in The Message of Pain chapter 4.)

Evil's Prince

In my book, The Message of Pain I discuss the Bible's account of how evil got its start, why it had to be that way and what got the devil his kingdom. In the book I don't discuss the following aspect of the beginning so I would like to here.

The Message of Pain explains that in the beginning God created man to have a living, vibrant, fulfilling relationship with Him. He created the perfect environment for this relationship to germinate and grow, the Garden of Eden. Because we were created for this relationship, it has become my conviction that man's natural habitat is in the presence of God.

Every real and meaningful relationship has one essential quality, it is based on the choice of two individuals to accept and pursue it. If one of the two individual does not have a choice to care for the other person (or to abandon them), it is not a meaningful, fulfilling relationship. It is bondage in one form or another. There has to be an option to leave a relationship in order for it to be real.

In the center of this paradise God planted two trees; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I believe the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the option God gave man to leave the relationship. There were no hostages in the paradise He created.

Since every phase of creation was pronounced good by God, Adam and Eve already knew what good was. Certainly walking daily with their Creator was good. The only thing new the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could be offering is the experience of evil.

These trees being in the center of the garden is no coincidence. Every time Adam and Eve walked by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil without eating from it they demonstrated their love for God. The constant supply of the fruit on the tree of life was God's demonstration of love for Adam and Eve.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is interesting in this light. God said in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (Gen. 2:17.)

I imagine in the mind of Lucifer, the arch angel, he must have said, hmmm… die? The devil was originally created as an angel to serve God. He knew God's heart and character. He knew no harm could come to anyone in God's presence. Therefore, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil must be a door or exit from God's presence (the choice for man to leave the relationship we discussed earlier.) In his pride I think he saw the potential for a kingdom of his own, out of God's presence.

God had to allow for a place out of His presence and sovereignty for man to have a choice to love Him or not. That place, out of His presence is evil as inferred from the name of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This matches the theological definition of evil being the absence of God.  

In the beginning (and in the end for those who choose a relationship with Him now) no harm could come to man because he was (or will be) in God's presence.

Ps 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. ESV

Rev 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." ESV

 I think the person who now rules over the kingdom of evil figured out that since no one could be harmed (or die) in God's presence there must be a place out of His presence. That place out of God's presence or sovereignty (by God's design) was a place without a sovereign, a vacuum of power that Lucifer set his designs on and recruited the first two candidates in Genesis 3.

A world of evil opened up to the experience of man as a result. Pain was first mentioned shortly afterward in Genesis 3:16; the promise of pain in child-birth. Can you think of a reason God would make child-birth a painful experience?

(You can read more on this subject in The Message of Pain chapter 4.)

The Message of Pain; A Whisper of Hope

The longer I live the more I am intrigued with the concept of a moral fiber or fabric that holds a society together. This is the subject of my book, The Message of Pain. Mystery and spirituality seem to shroud the connection of morality to our lives. Religious people repeat the mantra, “Morality, morality, morality!” Is it just for them? Is it important?

Understanding morality and what force it really exerts in life is difficult to assess at times. For instance, traditional morality tells us that lying is wrong. So you would think that when you lie you would immediately get an electrical shock, a pain in your head or a tweaked conscious at the least. But the truth is when someone lies they most often benefit from it. Examples like this make it hard to say morality matters or is important. Politicians seem to demonstrate this every day.

The current state that we are in as a nation has brought the question to the forefront. Does morality matter? Or are we just in a financial mess that has nothing to do with morality. Did morality (good or bad) have anything to do with this situation we are in or is it the result of an accounting mistake? Would a sound moral standard have prevented this crisis?

If there is a moral standard or law that is woven into the existence of man then it must be important. If there is a moral law that is written into our conscious then when it is violated in some way you would expect some consequence.

May I gently suggest that there are consequences. Those little lies people benefit from build a character that will meet with trouble. Even if it is after you have been elected governor of a state.

When I was a kid there was a commercial whose by-line was “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Well, not without consequences anyway. If there is a moral law that is universal then you would think the same would be true for it. You can’t fool the moral law, something will make you aware of the infraction.

Is there any evidence of this thesis? If there is a moral law and it is important, then if you violate the law you would expect to have some adverse experience from violating it. This would be true whether you are aware of, believe in, or know all of the moral law.

The last thing I want to do is injure someone who is already hurting. My real hope is to start a process of healing in the lives of those who are hurting. The stakes are very high so I think we have to have this discussion. A recent article I read provides a good place to start. My thanks to http://dyspepsiageneration.com/ for high-lighting this article.

You can read the article at :

www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/09/16... .

The article addresses the phenomena of women who have had an abortion and are suffering afterward with depression, grief, anxiety etc. This does not happen to all women who have abortions. To women who experience this, it does not matter if they believe abortion to be morally wrong or a legitimate choice. A couple of captions from this article fascinated me. The authors are talking about a web site for women who are struggling to connect and help each other through this experience:

The website contains thousands of women’s stories about their abortions—and about their post-abortion feelings. And many of these women are in acute pain; some are almost totally incapacitated. One writes in a post: “I am not coping at all; I feel as though the top of my head is going to fly off.” Another says: “I am just grieving like crazy!” A third: “I don’t understand why I am not getting better, but worse all the time! I am so depressed!” (Stories on this website are protected by copyright, and it is not permitted to quote directly from them. Quotations provided here are therefore faithful rewordings.)

The use of the word “pain ” to describe what these women are experiencing is accurate and insightful. One medical definition of the word is: an emotional response to a noxious stimulus. In laymen’s terms it is an emotional reaction to an unpleasant or damaging event.

Pain could be considered to originate from one of three areas of our being, our physical body, our psyche and (I believe) our spirit. Science has discovered a great deal about physical pain. The biology of pain is one of my areas of interest. I believe that physical pain is a great model for understanding psychological and spiritual pain. Many cultures do not make a distinction between these types of pain. All pain is physical, psychological and spiritual. Even if they are not the same, they are all three intimately mingled. After all, the same drugs that relieve physical pain are used by addicts to relieve psychological and spiritual pain.

Pain is the universal warning. It is universal in its message to the body, mind and soul. Its says, “Something is wrong, something is being damaged.” The acute phase of pain tells us that something is being damaged. The chronic, dull ache tells us there is something wrong. Melzack and Wall’s The Challenge of Pain gives great insight into the science of pain. Pain is a perception or assessment that the brain makes based on a wide variety of inputs it receives from the body or the environment.  With that said lets read more of the article:

What is particularly striking is that most of the women who have these powerful emotional reactions to their abortion are stunned by them. They were not opposed to abortion; many were actively pro-choice. They were blind-sided by their own reaction. One woman lamented—and thousands of others echo her mystified anguish—“If this was the right decision, why do I feel so terrible?”

and

Thus, though a woman can decide rationally to have an abortion, afterwards the other shoe may drop—and it may drop very hard indeed. For the thousands of women on afterabortion.com and similar websites, a terrible and shocking reaction sets in after their abortion. Many women have discovered that somewhere down in their psyche—deep in their limbic system—they were already in a living relationship with the fetus, their “baby” (though they may have thought they thought it was just a random clump of cells). Often what lasts is not the relief or the power of the logical arguments: these may prove very short-lived. It is, rather, the failed, betrayed relationship between the woman and her fetus—now, in her mind, her dead baby—that has staying power.

This kind of ache of the mind and soul has a deep meaning that can’t be ignored or misinterpreted without grave consequences. This mysterious, mystical thing called moral law may be the very thing that is sounding the warning, “Something is wrong, something is being damaged.” Pain is the language it speaks in. If this moral law was written into the psyche and soul of men and women from the beginning and we have lost our conscious ability to know and abide by it, we are in for a tsunami of pain. Breaking this moral law in ignorance will leave us suffering. Science is now working looking for new drugs that will “fool” the brain into not making the assessment that something is wrong. This new drug could be marvelous for those in physical pain, but if it also negates the conscious it may be the parent of a thousand Hitlers. Could mankind survive without a normal, healthy, functioning conscious?

The writers of the article then go into a strange explanation of this experience these women have.

If we look at all this in evolutionary terms, we cannot be surprised. Human mothers (unlike the females of most other species) produce few offspring. For infants to survive, they must be very carefully tended and protected, over many years. Historically, culturally, the investment of women in their young has been tremendous. Billions of mothers have lavished their time, energy, and attention—their love—on their children. And what is the reward, the reinforcement for all this maternal time and effort? What does the mother get out of it? Whatever it is, it must be a reliable, immediate, and strong reinforcement. Otherwise, infant mortality—always high in the human and primate past—would have led to our extinction. Thus, we should not be surprised that human mothers are richly rewarded—by their own feelings, their own brain responses, their own chemistry—for good mothering, and that they are emotionally punished, internally, for failure.

It is a contradiction in reason to say that evolution, a “system” of random mutations that result in the advancement of a species (this is a stretch of reason in itself) has intelligently designed a sophisticated physiological system of punishments and rewards for the furtherance of a species. It looks like design to me but not the “design” of a mindless, random process.

If that mythical moral law really does exist and has an author, experiences like these women relate may be first hand encounters. Biological pain warns us of harm to the body. Psychological and spiritual pain warns us of harm to the soul. This moral law, when breached, may result in pain, the signal for damage or harm. This moral law, if we could know it and live by it, would then protect us from harm or damage.

If there is a moral law that could protect us from harm then the author must have a motive for writing a law for us to live by that would keep us from harm. Could I be so bold as to suggest the author cares about those for whom the law was written? That avoiding harm and pain was part of the reason for writing this moral law?

For further discussion and discovery on this topic please see my book, The Message of Pain.