Steven Colborne's Blog, page 59

Hearing Voices or Hearing God? (video)

Greetings, all! I hope you’re settling into 2020 well. I have resumed filming my ‘Deep Thoughts About God’ YouTube series, in which I take chapters from my book God’s Grand Game and rework them into video form.

In this week’s video, which is the fourteenth in the series, I explore the different ways in which people hear from God. I explain why people who claim that God speaks to them are not necessarily crazy.

Can you relate to the arguments I make in the video? In what ways does God communicate with you? Feel free to leave a comment over in the YouTube comments section with your thoughts.

I hope that if you enjoyed this video you’ll consider subscribing to my YouTube channel so you can be notified about new videos in this series as soon as they are released. Also, please consider sharing this video with any person or audience who you think might be interested in the issues raised.

Thank you for watching, God bless you, and I’ll see you in the next one.

Hearing Voices or Hearing God?

Greetings, all! I hope you’re settling into 2020 well. I have resumed filming my ‘Deep Thoughts About God’ YouTube series, in which I take chapters from my book God’s Grand Game and rework them into video form.

In this week’s video, which is the fourteenth in the series, I explore the different ways in which people hear from God. I explain why people who claim that God speaks to them are not necessarily crazy.

Can you relate to the arguments I make in the video? In what ways does God communicate with you? Feel free to leave a comment over in the YouTube comments section with your thoughts.

I hope that if you enjoyed this video you’ll consider subscribing to my YouTube channel so you can be notified about new videos in this series as soon as they are released. Also, please consider sharing this video with any person or audience who you think might be interested in the issues raised.

Thank you for watching, God bless you, and I’ll see you in the next one.

5 Inspirational Quotes for 2020

Everyone loves a good quote, and over on my Instagram page I share lots of quotes that have touched me or inspired me. There are quotes by everyone from Immanuel Kant to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I also share nature photos and philosophy videos as part of the same page, so please take a look and follow me if it’s up your street.

In this post, I’m going to share five wonderful quotes that are really speaking to me at the moment. I’ll also provide a little commentary explaining why I like them. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, where I’d love for you to share one or two of your all-time favourite quotes. And be prepared that I might pinch some of them for my Insta feed if they inspire me, and if you don’t mind!

Quote 1:

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

This quote reminds me of my father. He has always been a closed book — a very private person, and there’s so much I don’t know about him. I believe he is harbouring a great deal of sadness which causes him to often be steely, cold, and snappy. And let’s face it, I’m like that sometimes, and we probably all are. I think this is a beautiful and true quote.

Quote 2:

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

(Marcus Aurelius)

There is a widespread interest in the philosophy of Stoicism these days, and Marcus Aurelius is often quoted by modern day Stoics and Stoicism sympathisers. I don’t regard myself as a Stoic because my philosophical focus is much more on God and understanding the God/world relationship, whereas Stoicism offers more of a humanistic and naturalistic philosophy. I love this quote though, and I wrote about Marcus Aurelius in one of my Friday Philosophy posts, which you can check out here if you’re interested.

Quote 3:

Great wounds make for a greater glory.

(Unknown)

This quote speaks to me on many levels. To be honest with you, I’ve had a really rotten few days. My mental health has been in turmoil. I have experienced severe stress, paranoia, and depression. And when I look back at my life, there have been many emotional wounds, some of which I am still dealing with. This quote gives me hope that my wounds will one day turn to joy. The quote also makes me think of the Christian gospel and the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

Quote 4:

He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing.

(Epicurus)

Through my own life trials, I’ve learned to be satisfied with little. While some people enjoy the idea of a five course meal, I’m very happy with a bowl of soup, a bread roll, and a glass of water. That still feels like abundance to me. I do not understand why people pursue great wealth, when wealth and happiness are rarely part of the same equation. The pursuit of wealth is a kind of insanity deeply embedded in capitalist democracies and I don’t like it. We should thank God for the little things and treasure them.

Quote 5:

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

(Bertrand Russell)

This is probably my favourite quote of the bunch, because I feel it validates my ongoing struggle to help people to see the importance of my philosophical perspective. I am aware that very few people openly voice their agreement with the ideas I share on this blog and in my books. And yet, I wholeheartedly believe in the worldview I espouse. I hope there will one day be many people who understand and share my beliefs, even though I recognise that ambition to be ultimately meaningless, as I believe wholeheartedly in the futility of all human endeavour, which is described so beautifully in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.

That’s your lot! I hope you enjoyed reading these quotes and my reflections. Please subscribe to this blog if you’d like to read more philosophical and theological content from me, and do leave a comment below (perhaps with a quote of your own?) if you would like to. Thank you for reading!

Happy New Year 2020

Greetings, my friends. This is a brief note to wish you all a happy new year. I also want to thank you for following Perfect Chaos over the last year. This blog is a big part of my life and I’m very grateful for your interest and support.

I have lots planned for 2020, some of which might surprise you. But you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what’s in store.

God’s richest blessings to you for the coming year!

Steven x

A Reflection on Christian Prayer

I spent many years in submission to the Christian worldview, and there are still certain modes of mind that I experience that have been strongly influenced by the Bible and by the behaviour of Christians. For instance, many times every day I feel the urge to pray.

Prayer is a curious thing. When we pray, we are asking things of God, but in reality, God is in control of the thought processes that arise in our minds during prayer (see this article), so there is a sense in which human prayer is really God praying to Himself. This is somewhat absurd.

A common Christian prayer is one that asks for God’s will to be done (for instance, the ‘Thy will be done’ of The Lord’s Prayer). It is a strange thing to pray for God’s will to be done, because there is absolutely nothing and no one in the entirety of existence that can stop God’s will being done. It is, therefore — at least from this perspective — a rather meaningless prayer.

Of course, in the Christian worldview it does make sense to pray in this way, because Christians believe we are all involved in a spiritual battle between the forces of good on the one hand (encapsulated in the person and teachings of Christ), and evil on the other hand (the work of Satan). From this perspective, God is seen as separate from, but intervening in, our life’s circumstances, so petitioning God to bring about His will makes sense.

The truth, however, is that if God is omnipresent, and not only the creator but also the sustainer and animator of all there is (which is my understanding of the nature of things, argued extensively in my books and on this blog), everything that happens is under God’s control, and there is no free will. If satanic forces exist, these are also under God’s control.

I do believe prayer can be an important part of the lives of human beings, but only if that prayer is consistent with the true nature of reality and the fact that God is sovereign over all events. While, as a statement of fact, it might be comforting to remind ourselves during prayer that God is in control, I don’t see any harm in dispensing with repetitive, ritualistic prayers asking for God’s will to be done, when really, there can be no other way.

The Flawed Philosophy Behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink

Is it morally acceptable for an entrepreneur to drill into the brains of humans and animals in an attempt to merge them with artificial intelligence? In this article, I’ll be exploring some of the philosophical and ethical problems related to Elon Musk’s Neuralink project, which is in the process of attempting to do just that.

Elon Musk is perhaps the leading figurehead in the space age industrial revolution. Musk is involved with a variety of companies that have one thing in common — they each aim to achieve technological innovation in a specific domain that will produce outcomes that are several orders of magnitude greater than anything else currently in existence. Musk has been described as “the real-life Iron Man”, a reference to the Marvel Comics superhero who achieved similar feats in the realm of science fiction. Some of Musk’s current projects include SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, as well as Neuralink which is the subject of this article.

The Neuralink project was launched in 2016 and is run by Musk and a group of co-founders. The aim of the project, according to a paper by Musk which at the time of writing is featured on the Neuralink website homepage, is to produce “brain-machine interfaces” which will achieve “the restoration of sensory and motor function” and assist with “the treatment of neurological disorders”. According to the website Wait But Why, one of Neuralink’s long-term goals is “human enhancement” (an outcome sometimes called “transhumanism”).

Musk’s stated reason for investing in Neurolink, as reported in The Week back in July 2019, is that he fears artificial intelligence will soon become so sophisticated that human beings will be “left behind”. By merging the human brain with machines, Musk believes we may stand a chance of keeping up.

Let us consider Musk’s ambitions and the work of Neuralink from a philosophical perspective. The first thing we need to consider is what exactly the brain is, and what the role of the brain is in human experience. For many decades, scientists have viewed the brain as a kind of machine that controls the body, but I fervently dispute this. Here’s a quotation from my 2019 book entitled God’s Grand Game which explains why:

I am not convinced by the argument that the brain is a machine that powers the rest of the body, for if this were the case, what is the cause of the brain’s own activity? You might say ‘I’ am causing my brain to coordinate the millions of processes that are happening in my body. But I hope you can see the absurdity of this position — you certainly cannot explain how you are controlling your brain and bodily processes.

So perhaps your brain is controlling you? This is equally absurd. How could you attribute to a lump of grey matter the ability to write symphonies or books, to plan a holiday, or to have a relationship? Any deep-thinking person must admit there is more to human life than a series of mechanical processes somehow brought about by a mass of squishy tissue.

It is obvious that I am not controlling my brain, and my brain is not controlling me. How, then, do I explain my actions? The solution is that a spiritual being, which I like to call God, is animating all the processes that lead to my experience of my body and the world in which I exist.

(God’s Grand Game pp 18-19)

To develop this point further, I’d like to quote from another part of the same book — a chapter entitled “What is Causing Our Thoughts?” in which I state the following argument:

It is clear that when we think, there is a movement within consciousness that we are aware of. An impression in the mind seems to arise out of nothing. That impression might be a word or a sentence, or an image, or something more obscure.

An interesting point to note about thought is that it appears to be spontaneous. If you are asked to think of a fruit, for instance, then one fruit rather than another will pop into your awareness quite spontaneously (try it!). You might think ‘apple’ or ‘watermelon’ without having any particular reason for thinking of the fruit you chose. It is not necessary for you to have had an apple for breakfast, for example, or to have seen a watermelon in your local store earlier that day for you to think of those particular fruits.

It seems that we never know what our next thought will be. If I asked you to tell me what you will be thinking about in a minute or in an hour’s time, you will have no idea. We do not plan our thoughts; they arise spontaneously.

One argument for this might be that our thoughts are always linked to our needs, drives, and desires. Therefore, I might start thinking about lunch because a feeling of hunger has arisen in my body. I might start thinking about going out to a club because of a sexual urge. And in a more complex way, I might think I need to do some study because I want to achieve good grades, which will get me a good job, which will secure me a steady income, so I don’t have to worry about food and shelter in the future.

But the above explanations, which link thoughts to desires, fail to explain the often random nature of thought. Why does the theme tune to a TV show I haven’t seen for years suddenly enter my mind while I am out taking a walk? Why, when asked to name any city in the world, do I choose Prague rather than Moscow?

It doesn’t seem that we can argue that we are in control of our thoughts, so we must look for other reasons to explain why thoughts arise. I think there are only two possible explanations: either our thoughts must be determined by prior events, or they are being brought into existence by a power operating in the present moment, which is God.

Creative thought is an obvious example of how thoughts are not determined by prior events. It would be absurd if the thoughts that a composer thinks while writing a symphony could be explained by evolution, or some kind of ‘Big Bang’ event, or childhood experiences. Seeing our present-moment thoughts as the result of the past simply doesn’t make sense.

The random, unpredictable, and spontaneous nature of thought means that there is only one feasible explanation for why thoughts arise. There must be a power that is in control in the present moment, bringing our thoughts into and out of existence. That power is God.

Of course, it is not just thoughts that happen spontaneously. If we observe the unfolding of events within our consciousness, we can see that everything is happening spontaneously. Our hearts are beating spontaneously, our hair is growing spontaneously, we walk along without thinking how we walk, and we think without knowing how we think. The reason why all these things happen spontaneously is because God is doing them.

The fact that God is controlling our thoughts has very important implications for both philosophy and science. The philosophy of mind, for instance, is useless if it neglects God. Neuroscientists and other scientists have been examining the human brain for many years in order to try to understand thought. Their investigations are largely misguided because thought neither originates nor finds expression in the brain. It is people who think, rather than brains, and they do so by the power of God.

(God’s Grand Game, pp 57-60)

The problem with the Neuralink project is that it fails to take into account the spiritual aspect of existence and the involvement of God in human activity described above. I believe the work Musk is doing has the potential to create a lot of unnecessary suffering, and the flawed philosophy behind the project means it will never be able to achieve the outcomes that Musk envisages.

The Week reported in July 2019 that Neuralink has already carried out 19 surgeries on animals. I would just ask Musk to consider for a moment what such a procedure feels like to the animals. Neuralink has already carried out procedures on rats and monkeys, and it won’t be long before the company is operating on humans. This greatly saddens me, and I can foresee years of experiments that will cause pain, discomfort, and misery to sentient beings without good reason.

If Elon Musk is concerned about artificial intelligence taking over humanity, the solution is clear. Stop creating artificial intelligence that has the potential to do this. I know that from the standpoint of profit-driven capitalism putting the breaks on technological advancements may not make much sense, but from the point of view of the survival and flourishing of sentient beings on Earth, it makes perfect sense, and is absolutely critical.

The Future is Terrifying

It’s currently 3am and I haven’t gone to bed yet. I’ve been watching YouTube videos about technological innovation. It’s absolutely staggering what machines are doing these days, and the scope of their applications is frightening — there are even startup companies trying to engineer biology in various ways.

It seems that in the last couple of years there has been an explosion in these areas. It feels as though God has been completely forgotten about. Arrogant scientists disregard God as though He is a ridiculous fiction. One of the reasons I wanted to start a new forward thinking church was so there could be a forum for discussing ethical issues related to scientific and technological progress. But it feels as though it could be too late to make a difference.

I have been praying to God about this because it feels as though the human race is speedily heading for total disaster. Surely a catastrophic third world war isn’t too far off, such is the recklessness of technology companies which are seemingly not being constrained by politicians and governments.

I don’t feel at all excited about all of this technological ‘progress’. There is a global race for technological dominance but the catastrophic effects of this ongoing industrial revolution are not being properly considered. How can they be when everything is happening so quickly.

Obviously, God is in control and knows what is going on. But I am despairing for myself and for all the sentient beings that will endure great suffering in the name of scientific progress. Technologists are in the process of connecting human brains to machines and cyborgs are in the process of becoming a reality.

Please, God, show me how I should react to everything that’s happening. Should I persevere and try to build a church? Should I commit my life to following Christianity? Should I kill myself? Or should I move out of London? I could be homeless soon unless my Universal Credit payments are reinstated, and even then I expect that this new Conservative government will make the welfare system so much worse, possibly using mental health patients to carry out cruel experiments in the name of science and technological innovation.

I desperately, desperately want God to give me a passage to safety, a way to escape from the terrifying future which is emerging so quickly. Please, God, save me from this disastrous state of affairs. I would much rather die than live through the times I see coming. Please, God, help me to develop a plan and a way to escape the rapidly approaching torment. Please be merciful to me, Lord, and to the human race.

Remember, Lord, how terrible it is for us humans to suffer torture. Please don’t do it to me, and to us, Lord. Should I pray to Jesus? It’s so hard not having a spiritual home. I have never looked at the future and dreaded it so much.

Lord, all I want is to experience simple joy and peace. I don’t covet power or money, I just want the comfort of a deep love that leaves no room for fear. What must I do, Lord, in order for You to end my suffering? I beg of You, Lord, be merciful. Please, God, be merciful.

Why I’m Voting Labour

The United Kingdom is holding a general election on 12th December 2019. The choice that we make, and which party or parties are elected, will affect the quality of our lives, and the role of our country in the world, for decades to come. This election is huge.

This is a philosophy blog, and regular readers will know that I only occasionally delve into the world of politics. So, the fact that I’m writing this post about UK politics can only mean there’s something going on which is incredibly important to me.

For the last nine years in the UK we’ve had Conservative-led governments who have all but neglected the majority of our citizens. Under the banner of ‘Austerity’, sweeping cuts have been made to public services, crime is on the rise, and increasingly people are living in poverty or being forced into homelessness.

We have also drifted into a state of affairs where our human rights to both privacy and freedom of speech have been compromised. Large multinational corporations have come to control what we see and hear, everything we do is monitored by the ‘Big Brother’ State, and more and more people are becoming isolated and depressed. According to the charity Samaritans, suicide rates are on the increase.

Living in the UK right now is bleak. In 2008, I was diagnosed with a mental health condition and have been in hospital several times as a result of this. In many ways the care I have received has been good, although it has been gradually getting worse as the effects of austerity have deepened. Here are three examples of how bad things have become:

On one occasion my care coordinator had to buy plasters from a shop to use with patients because the hospital had run out of them
My care coordinator has been off work with stress because the workload he has been put under became unbearable
When I have visited A&E the atmosphere has been more like something out of an apocalyptic nightmare than a hospital

The idea that healthcare is about love, compassion, and healing, has become almost completely eclipsed by the motives of greed and power. For example, I believe the philosophy that mental health conditions are best treated with pills is very deceptive, as I explained in depth in this post. The influence of large pharmaceutical companies infiltrating the National Health Service has caused the spread of this myth, and it needs to stop. The Labour party have pledged to make prescriptions free for all, and I believe they would put people before profit when it comes to health.

There is one man, a politician here in the UK, who has consistently spoken out in favour of humane and compassionate politics for decades. That man is Jeremy Corbyn and he is leader of the Labour Party. The Labour Party is currently the second biggest party in the UK and the official opposition to the government.

Corbyn’s policies are a breath of fresh air. Here are just a few:

Renationalise some public services (including water and rail)
Raise taxes for the wealthiest few
Raise the minimum wage significantly
End privatisation of the National Health Service
Free full-fibre broadband for every home and business
A large budget to end homelessness

With every policy announcement that Labour make, I am more and more convinced that with this general election we have the potential to change UK society for the better and be pulled back from the brink of Conservative-caused catastrophe.

Obviously, one of the biggest issues facing the UK at the moment is whether or not we remain in the European Union. This issue has divided our country as in 2016 there was a referendum on membership where the result was almost 50/50 (‘leave’ won by a very narrow margin). Since then there has been Brexit chaos as the Conservative government have tried to negotiate a deal with EU, but have been unable to convince Parliament that their proposed deals would do anything other than harm the majority of UK citizens.

Jeremy Corbyn’s policy on Brexit is to negotiate a credible ‘leave’ deal — one that protects jobs, rights, and the environment — and then put this to the public, alongside an option to remain in the EU, in a second referendum. This would mitigate a great deal of uncertainty, and would hopefully have the effect of uniting the country behind whichever option we choose in the referendum.

No politician is perfect. No political party is perfect. No blog post about politics is perfect! But the issues at the heart of this general election are undeniably important, and if you’re reading this and have a vote in the UK I implore you to consider voting Labour. Trust your heart in terms of what is good, right, and just. Trust the politics of compassion, fairness, and peace, rather than greed and profit. Please, on 12th December, vote Labour for a better Britain.

Mental Illness and the Chemical Imbalance Myth

I believe that what are currently diagnosed as mental illnesses should be seen as expressions of character or personality rather than brain disorders. The way in which we behave could only be described as a brain disorder if the reality is that chemicals in our brains control our personalities. But I’m quite sure this isn’t the case. Please allow me just a couple of minutes of your time so I can explain how I have arrived at this conclusion.

If the way we behave is merely the result of chemicals operating in our brains, one would have to ask the question of what is causing this chemical activity. One argument might be that our brains are like machines, but if this is the case we would have to ask, who built the machines and what is controlling their activity?

The philosophy of materialism has led many to believe that our brains are autonomous. From this perspective, we are no different to robots who have been programmed in a certain way. Those who believe in such a vision argue that our behaviour is due to our genetic makeup and evolution, but nothing more. This reality construct leads scientists to see everything that happens as a cause and effect process which began in a single moment, when the universe came into being due to a ‘big bang’ event. This view attempts to exclude God entirely.

I believe the truth of the matter is that all human beings are created and animated by a living God. So there is a spiritual component to our personalities which, despite being a reality, is not even considered by most doctors and scientists who promote a materialistic view of reality.

It’s easy to see how the materialist ideology came about if one considers that the proponents of these theories have not had a revelation of the reality of God, and also have the incentive that they can make a lot of money from promoting the ‘brain as machine’ myth. Pharmaceutical companies have become very rich by exploiting the ignorance of patients who will simply believe the ‘chemical imbalance’ myth, trusting in their doctor’s supposed wisdom and not questioning whether the philosophical arguments made by doctors and neuroscientists are sound.

I’m quite convinced that the scientific paradigm which has led to the chemical imbalance theory of mental illness is very misguided. In reality, all of the activity that we experience in our bodies and minds is brought about by God, who is animating all activity in existence. God is omnipresent and in control of everything that happens. Causes and effects only happen on a particular occasion if God actively brings them about.

Sometimes people experience extremes of behaviour which can be dangerous, and there may be a role for medication in dealing with these. However, the medication I’m referring to should not be prescribed with the aim of correcting chemical imbalances, but instead it should aim at helping to restore a healthy equilibrium in the personalities of those whose behaviour might be considered dangerous. For instance, if someone is experiencing a very elated mood, they might be prescribed a medication like Diazepam which could have the effect of relaxing them. If someone is deeply depressed, a small amount of MDMA could be prescribed in order to lift their mood.

Currently, psychiatric medication has horrendous side effects, and the medication doesn’t work effectively in most cases. Mental health patients often become like zombies and suffer terribly. Once again, this is because the medications are designed to alter ‘chemical imbalances’, when really chemicals are not the cause of our behaviour — God is.

Those reading this article might not understand why I believe that God is the cause of all human activity. This perspective is explored in many articles on this blog, and a complete overview of this perspective can be found in my 2019 book release entitled God’s Grand Game: Divine Sovereignty and the Cosmic Playground.

I believe that healthcare should primarily be about compassion and love. I believe that when the free-for-everyone National Health Service was established in the United Kingdom in 1948, this was the vision of its founders in the Labour Party. They wanted to help reduce suffering rather than profit from it.

There is, of course, an important role for doctors, nurses, and other health workers in helping to reduce suffering. But the world of healthcare has become so corrupt that this noble aim has been almost entirely neglected, and because elements of our healthcare system are run for profit rather than genuine compassion, patients are abused and suffer terribly.

Of course, when it comes to the way reality has unfolded, and continues to unfold, nothing has happened or can happen aside from the will of God. Where there have been abuses in the system, these have not taken place outside of the will of God, who is sovereign over all events. The fact is, God includes suffering in His plans for creation. I have described some reasons as to why this might be the case in God’s Grand Game.

My prayer is that God will bring enlightenment to those who work in healthcare around the world, and that the suffering of people who have been boxed-in and abused by the mental health system will end. If you agree with me, please say a prayer and ask God to bring about reforms for the better.

Please share this post if you are tired of people suffering due to false ideas and corruption within the healthcare system. You can check out the book mentioned in this post, as well as my other books, by clicking here.

Humane Prisons

Hi friends. I’ve spent quite a lot of time on YouTube over the last few days, as I signed up for a free trial of YouTube Premium. This means no ads and a considerably better viewing experience. While using YouTube without ads has been wonderful, I’ve still found myself skipping around content quite a lot looking for videos that will educate or inspire me.

And, WOW. I stumbled upon something which had a profound impact on me. I have for many years been a supporter of the idea of a justice system that rehabilitates rather than punishes. As I explained in this post from 2012, I feel that aggressive forms of punishment for criminals only continue the cycle of bullying, fear, anger, and hatred, and do little to rectify society’s ills.

When I spotted a video this evening on YouTube entitled How Norway Designed a More Humane Prison, my interest was piqued. I think that the idea of compassionate justice is so alien to us in the West that I had never really considered places of imprisonment could be humane to this degree.

What the video made me realise is that so much of what I struggle with on a daily basis comes from fear of the kind of violence and oppression that is commonplace in prisons in Britain and America. Please don’t get me wrong. I haven’t committed any crimes. But I realised I have been living for many years with a subconscious fear of accidentally breaking the law in some way and ending up in a prison where I would suffer violence and intimidation.

If Britain were to introduce prisons of the kind featured in this video, it would be liberating in a way that could be really transformative. That underlying sense of fear — which is perpetuated by the media and politicians, I might add — would be lifted, and I for one would feel so much freer — not free to commit crimes, but free to just relax and focus on contributing to society in a positive way. I feel that without the fear of harsh imprisonment most of us would be kinder and better people, because, paradoxically, fear of being bullied is actually the cause of most bullying.

This really is a life-changing moment for me, and I hope some of you, after watching the video below, will feel the same way. I immediately feel more motivated to campaign for humane prisons in the UK, and I really hope some of my American readers will be inspired by this video, because I know rates of incarceration in the States are especially high.

As I write this I have a vision of a future where populations do not live in fear of punishment, and where this actually reduces rather than increases crime. This is huge for me. I’m realising that prisons are a major cause of crime rather than functioning to prevent it. Crikey, praise God for this revelation.

I’ll leave the comments open below and you’re welcome to share your thoughts.

Here’s the video:

(Image by Pavlofox from Pixabay)