Feel depressed? Drugs aren't the answer

According to a current American radio ad, "customers who have taken Zentra compared the feeling they had to that of falling in love". They had "an overwhelming sense that everything is well with the world, and that things will get better". Yikes. IT'S A DRUG, not a source of hope and happiness.

Given the side-effects attached to these current drugs on the market, you're probably better off with a bottle of Jim Beam to soften your brain. If you take the drug Ambien for insomnia, there is the risk of suicide, anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, and/or difficulty sleeping. Are you really that desparate for sleep? Have you heard the statistics on America's armed forces who have taken these types of meds? Since 2002, the number of suicide attempts in the army has increased by six times. More than 128 soldiers killed themselves in 2008. We're more dangerous to ourselves than terrorists are! The facts show that placebos are healthier for depression/anxiety sufferers than these drugs. There are many other drugs that are potentially harmful, though claim to be remedial. If you take the birth control pill Yaz, you have the risk of heart attack and/or stroke, among other side-effects. Women who are willing to take that risk for the sake of sexual pleasure need to re-think their priorities.

I understand that clinical depression is a real and serious condition, but it's important to know how it starts. The original cause of it is not a chemical imbalance, which the drug companies and many doctors want you to believe. It starts with your thoughts. If you think of yourself as a useless and unintelligent waste of space, your body will echo that. Our brain is an organ that translates our thoughts into physical response. Our brains essentially control our bodies. That's common sense, but in consideration of where these medications come from, that's not the issue. GlaxoSmithKline, Lily, Pfizer, etc.-- they don't care about the source of the problem, because it doesn't align with their profit goals. The drug co's and doctors never address the importance in seeking psychological counseling first, which would target the actual problem. If you don't work on the solution, then of course things will negatively compound. In the case of depression, without a helpful degree of psych counseling, the brain can be affected so much over time that it eventually does need something to support normal function. Most people who are suffering from depression and anxiety mistakenly take the latter route prematurely. What really boggles me is that these dangerous chemicals are being engineered and sold to the public. Sadly, this is nothing new.

We shouldn't listen to what the mainstream media/government says is good for us. In lieu of America's current debate on socialized healthcare, we need to educate ourselves so that we can scrutinize our own health, as well as the policies that impact our care options. It's not about equal healthcare, it's about profit and control. As long as there are impressionable consumers, there will be people who prey on their vulnerabilities. One of America's current leaders had said that the country's constitution is a negative liberty, in that it says what the government can't do to you, instead of what it can. It's important to know who your true allies are.

Friend, if you are suffering from depression, you need to face your fears and seek to control your thought life. In some cases we can't always do it on our own, that's why counseling should be sought out. Most importantly, you need to seek guidance and protection from The Great Physician. God knew you before you even came into this world, and he knows what you need. Through trust in His Son Jesus Christ, you can begin to see things like depression as a choice, and not as some disease. You may look at Jesus as just a mere coping strategy, but He is definitely not. There is nothing more essential for our lives than faith in Christ. He paid the price for the sins of all mankind, and choosing a life according to that gift makes us victorious over the things that keep us from God's best. We don't have to be victims of ourselves, especially when we understand what is and what isn't in our control.

The Gap Theory, Carbon Dating, and Aunt Ida

We are all aware of the design v. evolution debate. Those two sides will always be at each other's throats. Interestingly enough (but not for long), there is also a group that believes in both as being compatible, and they rely on carbon dating and speculation without a firm ground in sound doctrine. They believe that billions of years took place right after "God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). During those billions of years, all forms of life were created, including the dinosaurs. That would make for a pretty long week. It is a highly speculative detour from God's Word, since He was just beginning to create space and time, as we can see in the next verses.

If you read past Genesis 1:1, it's obvious that God wasn't finished with His creation. The gap theory presumes that the second verse of Genesis describes God's wrath on Earth, making it "without form and void", and that the rest of chapter one outlines what God has already done. It's true that God can do anything, but God's Word is God's Word, and it says nothing about billions of years taking place during the first day of creation. In my entry evolution and intelligent design, I wrote that what drew me fully towards the design belief was the fact of man's original sin. Man's conscience isn't in any way a part of a "chemical evolution", and death is not simply "nature's law". In an article by this amazing ministry called Answers in Genesis, the author addresses the gap theory, and uses sound doctrine that reinforces my view based on man's sin.

"The Bible says specifically that ‘by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin’ (Romans 5:12), so that there was no death in the world until man brought sin into it. The ‘gap’ theory would require billions of years of suffering in the world before man or even Satan had sinned, and that means that God Himself would be directly responsible for sin in the world. God could not be the author of sin. So the ‘gap’ theory is precluded theologically."

So, if you hear a Christian teetering between design and evolution, this is one point you can share with them.

Another fallacy which the gap theory clings to, and what atheists have ignorantly given praise, is the method of carbon dating. Carbon dating, or radiometric dating, has been used in mainstream science to "prove" that the Earth is billions of years old. I am not a scientist, so I won't attempt to explain this scientifically on my own. In regard to Aunt Ida, our "monkey ancestor", you would basically need to know how much carbon was present in her corpse at the time she died, which is individually different for all creatures and impossible to determine from a fossil. Also, there needs to be a certain constant in regard to the carbon level in the atmosphere. 14C in the atmosphere needs to be equal in production rate to the removal rate of 12C from a corpse, which is referred to as an "equilibrium". Since there are various rates of decay between every dead organism, and 14C in the atmosphere isn't fixed, that dating process is inaccurate. The Answers in Genesis article I found on carbon dating goes into excellent detail. It includes that the inventor of the method, who was an evolutionist, knew the discrepancies in carbon dating but chose to write them off as experimental errors. Pride can really screw things up, can't it?

Considering how non-human the fossil 'Ida' looks, isn't it funny how atheist scientists refer to it as the "missing link"? If that's the case, then where's my tail? I got jipped.

In Conclusion...

The more that this world attempts to disprove God and separate itself from Him, the more proof we acquire of His existence and omnipotence. If you deny there is a God, I urge you to open your heart to Him. He came to us as Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. By putting your trust in Him as your Redeemer from the punishment of sin, life is yours. And through repentance (a change of mind), you begin to align yourself with God's best for your life. Man's intellect is a powerful gift from God. Archeology and all of the other forms of science are great blessings. But, if your objective is to elevate man and eliminate God, you are headed down a foolish path.