Posts Tagged science
Faith or Psychosis? A Case Study
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on April 16, 2012
Abraham is an elderly male presenting with symptoms of acute psychosis. Physical exam, taken upon admittance, is normal. Psychiatric evaluation shows severe mental and behavioral distortion. Below is a transcript of the evaluation (P= Psychiatrist, A= Abraham).
Patient exhibits strong signs of psychosis, including delusions of grandeur and reduced capacity to recognize reality. Recommend treatment with antipsychotics, and need for increased patient awareness of disorganized thought processes. Talked with patient’s wife about the condition, explained the dosage of medication and need for increased vigilance toward mental wellbeing. Patient agreed not to make any big decisions until treatment takes effect. Patient will indefinitely postpone moving his family.
Patient also agreed to follow-up with psychiatrist in two weeks to discuss medication and other long-term prevention and self-care methods in the event of a repeat severe psychotic event. Prognosis is good. Patient has sufficient family support and shows initial compliance with treatment plan.
Which is it: FAITH or PSYCHOSIS? Sometimes it can be hard to tell…
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
(This post was inspired by Genesis 12 from the Bible, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschal.)
blood of a dead man
Posted by annaldavis in Cyberculture on February 23, 2011
According to NASA, dead zones in the ocean have “grown explosively in the past half-century.” A marine dead zone results when an area of the ocean is so low in dissolved oxygen that life cannot survive. The map embedded in this post shows the number and size of current aquatic dead zones.
You’ll notice that most of the affected ocean is along the most populated coastlines. Man-made chemicals like fertilizer run off into the oceans and upset the microbial balance of the water, which in turn affects oxygen levels. NASA concludes that “mass killing of fish and other sea life often results.”
This development reminds me of Revelation 16:3, which says that when the second bowl of God’s wrath is poured out, the sea will be “turned into blood like that of a dead man” and every living thing in the sea will die.
I have often interpreted this verse to mean that the water will literally turn into blood, much as it did in Pharaoh’s day. But the verse actually says that it turns into blood LIKE that of a dead man.
One of the main characteristics of the death process is that the heart stops pumping blood around the body. As this happens, the tissues and cells lack oxygen and quickly begin to die. So the blood of a dead man is low in oxygen, resulting in the death of cells and organs.
Therefore a sea that is like dead man’s blood would be low in oxygen, resulting in the death of fish and sea life.
Could it be that we are seeing this prophecy from Revelation fulfilled, right before our eyes? How interesting that science might eventually confirm what John foresaw thousands of years ago, that the seas would become like the blood of a dead man.
To track the growing aquatic dead zones, click here.
got your attention?
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on April 20, 2010
A volcano in Iceland spews ash in what analysts initially said was the worst disruption of air travel since 9/11. As the days go on, it has become the worst air travel disruption in modern history and since air travel is limited to modern history, it is also the worst disruption EVER. Despite our many advances, we can’t predict, control, or confine what will happen next.
Yesterday an earthquake in Afghanistan killed seven people and injured many more. Last week China had an earthquake, the death toll now at almost 2,000. There have been quakes in Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Mexicali and of course Haiti. I have heard that the San Francisco area has been shaking like a leaf lately, with more tremors than usual.
What is going on? If you read my blog then you know that I think our world is headed for decline, and fast. But despite my faith-based predictions, I am generally a person of science. I graduated with a high GPA from a state university, with a B.S. in biology. I love spiritual explanations for natural events, but I also like to understand the science behind them.
So I have been searching for a good scientific explanation for the increased seismic activity and have yet to find one. Every now and then a media outlet finds some expert to dispel panic. And all experts are saying the same thing, as if trying to calm an inconsolable toddler, as if their soothing business-as-usual words will allay our fears.
Here is what they say: this is normal. It just seems like we are having more quakes and more geological events because 1) our great technology and equipment have the ability to better detect even the smallest seismic events, 2) media attention makes it seem like it is happening more when it really isn’t, and 3) the world is more populated and therefore seismic events have more probability of causing death or casualities.
These explanations make sense to my natural mind. I was buying it for a while, until the volcano disrupted air travel. Does anybody out there have a good explanation? Coincidence?
One of the best explanations I have seen comes out of the Business Insider, in a column titled “Wake Up People: This Volcano Is About More Than Flights, It’s About Agriculture, Energy, And Politics.” Centered mainly around the ecological and economic impact of the Iceland volcano, the final sentence is striking:
All in all it is a reminder that there is never a time that Nature, with a little nudge, cannot remind us of the risks of complacency.
