Have the evolutionist really found a dino that was in the process of transitioning ito a bird? No, for the Creator said in Genesis 1:24, 25 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
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Have you ever heard ‘He has a lot of issues in his life’? Yes, ‘We live in a world of complex issues, which can be very frustrating. I have been doing research on the generic structure of issues for a long time. There is an underlying pattern that might be helpful to know about. I call it the issue tree. What follows is necessarily simplified to fit into a short article, but it is still a big step forward.
By a complex issue I mean one that generates a lot of discussion. Policy issues are a good example, as these can involve hundreds or even thousands of articles and comments. The issue tree explains how this happens.
The graphic below shows a simple start to an issue tree. First there is a starter statement, followed by three responses, each of which also gets three responses. In policy cases the starter might be a radical proposal for dealing with a perceived problem. Or it might be the controversial claim that a major problem exists.
There are two levels of responses. First level responses can be objections to the starter statement, questions, additional information, etc. At the second and successive levels there are responses to previous level responses. In many cases there are two or more sides to the issue, generating lots of discussion over time.
At this point you may say, so what? There are just 13 statements. How is this complex? Here the arithmetic gets interesting.
First of all, in a major issue the tree can get very big. This tree has a branching rate of three, that is, every node that has branches going down has three such branches. Thus each level has three times as many responses as the one above it. The number of nodes at level n is three to the nth power.
At this branching rate, which is common in policy debates, the number of nodes gets very large, very quickly as the discussion continues. At just the tenth level there will be almost 60,000 nodes! The whole tree will have around 100,000 nodes.
I call this the big tree problem. In a major issue it is not unusual to have 100,000 sentences written, or even a million. For example, consider this question: What is cancer and how should we deal with it? There are over 100,000 research papers alone each year on this, plus a world of other writing. The issue tree of cancer research is enormous.
As a result of the big tree problem people are simply swamped by the complexity of the thinking. They sense correctly that there is a lot more to the issue than they know and this is frustrating. Or perhaps they feel that there is not more (which is incorrect) and cannot understand why people do not agree with them.
What one can do under these big tree circumstances is to (1) master the top of the tree, (2) dig into a few sub issues and (3) understand the magnitude of the issue.
Note that grasping the top of the tree can be difficult under certain circumstances, especially where the responses are not written down for reference. In a meeting to discuss a new issue the branching rate is often well below two, because it is hard to get back to early responses.
Another source of frustration is what I call the jumping problem. This happens with writing and talking about a complex issue. It occurs because writing and talking are both physically linear, in the sense that we only produce one sentence at a time, one after another. Because we do that it is not possible for each response to immediately follow the statement it is responding to.
As a result we are frequently forced to jump from one place in the issue tree to another. For example if you follow a series of responses down several levels, then jump back up toward the top, to consider another high level response.
Jumping can easily cause misunderstanding, which is very frustrating. When a jump occurs the statement being made is not directly related to the statement that preceded it. It may be a response to a much earlier statement. When reading or hearing such a jump statement it is easy to fail to make the proper response connection.
Getting back to the issue tree, of course different responses may have very different strengths or degrees of importance. Who says what may also be important. We can also consider how big various sub issues are, or look for places where important responses are lacking, so there is no sub issue at all. WE can watch a sub tree come to life and grow rapidly because it is the present center of attention.
In fact there is a whole new science here, which I call issue analysis.
For people who want to know more I have a free textbook online: “Issue Analysis, an introduction to the use of issue trees and the nature of complex reasoning.”
It is rather crude because I did it just for my own classroom use, on an ancient mechanical device called a typewriter, in 1975. I discovered the issue tree in 1973 and here is a bit on the early history:
The point is that all big issues have this fundamental treelike structure. Technically it is called a logical form. Hopefully just knowing the big tree is there and growing can reduce frustration when dealing with a complex issue.’https://papundits.wordpress.com/2020/11/18/the-structure-of-complex-issues/
Here are some Bible verses for perhaps the top five problems the Lefties face today.
Climate Change
Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Overpopulation
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Racism
Acts 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation
Poverty
Matthew 26:11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
Gender
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The following article is concerning ‘mental illness’ and how churches handle those who are diagnosed with such. It is interesting that Paul said in Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Thinking takes place in the mind. In Scripture, the mind and heart are closely related and according to the following two passages that is where our thoughts originate. Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
An article answering this issue in more detail from the Scriptures will be written later.
‘As studies continue to show how ill-equipped many churches are in ministering to Christians who struggle with mental illness, some who were once among the faithful are now speaking out about how the spiritualizing of their conditions in church culture forced them to flee. 
In a recent discussion sparked by a rant in a subreddit of more than 40,000 anonymous former Christians, many shared stories about how they were forced to suffer as their evangelical churches and family members urged them to pray away conditions such as bipolar disorder, anxiety and ADD before they were finally able to get help. Some, like one critic identified as just reib0t in the discussion, never got the help they needed until they were adults.
“I am 30 and was recently diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder,” the former Christian began.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness describes schizoaffective disorder as a chronic mental health condition characterized primarily by symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations or delusions, and symptoms of a mood disorder, such as mania and depression. It is often treated with a combination of medications and psychotherapy.
“As a TEENAGER I said to the Christian I looked up to, ‘Hey, I hear voices and see shadow people everywhere, also I want to kill myself.’ And I was told it was just ‘spiritual warfare’ and Satan fighting for my soul. I was told to NOT seek therapy because therapists work for the devil to drive people away from the Lord,” the ex-Christian wrote.
“I believed it easily because of the nature of my illness. He downplayed and contorted my illness so badly that even after I stopped believing in God, it took me years to get into therapy and get treatment. My life spiraled into drug abuse to cope, lost job after lost job, and my 20s wasted in pain,” the person wrote.
The individual explained that since they decided to get professional help, their life has changed for the better.
“I feel a lot better on medication, have better understanding, and am looking forward to my 30s being a lot better in general, but… I think back to my teenage years and wonder what my life could have been if I wasn’t Christian and got on the right meds much sooner. F**k the evangelical Christian view on mental health,” reib0t said.
About one in four Americans are estimated to suffer from some kind of mental illness in any given year, NAMI says, and many, according to LifeWay Research, turn to the church for help.
A 2014 study by the Nashville-based research organization, which was co-sponsored by the conservative organization Focus on the Family and the family of a man who endured schizophrenia, pointed to the lack of awareness and help available to Christians who turn to the church for help with mental illness.
The study found some pastors were reluctant to help those who suffer from acute mental illness because it takes too much time and that most Protestant senior pastors rarely spoke to their congregation about mental illness.
Asked to describe current church culture on mental illness, Tim Sanford, clinical director at Focus on the Family, said there has been some progress made in recent years but many churches continue to blame mental issues on sin.
“Fortunately, there has been positive movement in recent years as the church is beginning to respond to mental health issues and recognize their legitimacy. While many churches acknowledge mental illness as legitimate and are actively helping their parishioners with such issues, sadly, the belief (and subsequent responses) that anxiety or depression is sin or is a ‘lack of faith’ on the individual’s part is still too common in the body of Christ,” Sanford told The Christian Post.
“Blind adherence to a flawed ethic on mental illness can lead to unnecessary guilt, debilitating shame and fear. This, in turn, limits access to help and freedom — the kind of freedom and compassion Christ modeled and died for (John 10:10). Focus on The Family encourages believers to take a measured, integrated approach to the subject of mental health; hold to what is biblically true and accurate and also hold to what is scientifically true and research proven.”
One former Christian in the subreddit group identified as CastIronMystic, called out Focus on the Family, however, for what they described as an insensitive encounter when they once tried accessing a Christian therapist.
“I was told that I was sinning by having anxiety and intrusive thoughts. This caused me anxiety about anxiety and a spiral of feeling like I wasn’t a true Christian because a true Christian wouldn’t worry. Then there was the time I called Focus on the Family because they said they had a hotline for mental health. I got to their hotline and was matched with a cold rude and condescending mental health worker who tried to charge me $60 to match me with a Christian therapist in my area. Their hotline was a referral program that charged its patients a finder’s fee,” the individual wrote.
Sanford apologized for the encounter and debunked the notion that “true Christians” don’t worry.
“I’m very sorry this person was treated in such an uncaring manner and their relationship with Jesus was put into question because of anxiety. The statement ‘a true Christian wouldn’t worry’ is simply not true. I can only imagine the added stress and pain that statement caused this individual,” Sanford said.
He pointed out that Focus on the Family does not provide fee-based tele-mental health services nor does the organization function as a hotline service.
“We have a highly experienced and caring staff of 15 licensed and/or pastoral counselors who return calls to people requesting a consult. We are not a hotline service nor do we provide tele-mental health counseling services for a fee; rather we provide a free, one-time consultation for the caller. Our primary task during this brief consult is to assess how we can best assist the caller,” he explained.
“We will provide answers to questions as we are able, direct them toward resources that may be helpful (be it online or printed resources), make suggestions of professional treatment facilities to consider (if that is what is requested) and provide referrals to licensed counselors in the caller’s area for ongoing therapy as appropriate,” he noted.
As Christians with mental health illness struggle to find help from churches, research also suggests that the need for mental help is not just among the laity. Many pastors struggling with reconciling their mental illness with their faith have turned to suicidebecause they feel they have nowhere else to turn.
Some pastors, however, are choosing to fight back and turning to places like the Shepherd’s Canyon Retreat Ministry in Phoenix, Arizona, for help. The organization offers weeklong counseling retreats for men and women in ministry who are in the midst of various stages of burnout, stress, depression and conflicts of all kinds.
In the last 10 years, Pastor Phil Lee, a Lutheran pastor since 1981, and a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1999, who serves as the organization’s counseling care director, says he has seen 400 to 500 at-risk leaders.
He explained that rather than ignoring the spiritual nature of Christian leaders to address their mental health issues, they take an integrated approach to care.
“We are very careful not to separate the emotional and spiritual; they are interwoven. They are integrated. So our approach to mental health issues, whatever they may be, is that they are part of the overall human condition. Physical, emotional, spiritual — that is all interwoven,” Lee told CP.
“We do not take the simplistic approach, that just pray about it and it will be alright or just pray about it and it will go away. Mental illness is most always more complex than that. Folks on the more conservative end of the spectrum within Christianity often take a pretty simplistic approach — just give it to God. Just pray about it,” he said.
“It really does require different interventions along with Scripture and prayer. Many mental illnesses, for example depression, especially if it’s clinical depression, bipolar, those kinds of things, they really call for therapeutic interventions like talk therapy, counseling, sometimes medication, and other mental illnesses,” he continued. “More complex mental illness like personality disorders, those are things we usually don’t work with because they are more complex than we are prepared to deal with.”
He noted that based on the reporting collected by his organization, the need for the services they provide is “huge” in the Christian community.
Sanford explained that churches can help make churches safer for Christians who struggle with mental health issues by acknowledging that they exist, be knowledgeable about them, establish what level of mental health care ministerial staff can provide and have a trusted network of mental health professionals to which they can refer them.’ https://www.christianpost.com/news/as-churches-struggle-to-help-christians-with-mental-illness-many-flee.html?utm_source=The+Christian+Post+List&utm_campaign=f57bbeb629-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_25_05_59&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dce2601630-f57bbeb629-2218869
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