Help for the Human Heart

No, it is not an artificial heart that I was thinking about - again robotics over feelings - no, we want to first take an outward look and  recognize that as different as we are, one from the other, there are some shared feelings expressed quite universally.

Laughter is a universal language, according to new research. The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans.

http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/48205-laughter-is-a-universal-language

Grief has always been considered a universal language.  Let me share the link below for an excellent article on a cross cultural dialogue regarding grief - there are definitely biological universalities - like crying - and then not so much.  It is a very good read - includes a short paragraph on whether animals grieve and then explains the process of healing - very interesting.

http://www.deathreference.com/Gi-Ho/Grief-and-Mourning-in-Cross-Cultural-Perspective.html

There are a number of movie postings describing The Virgin Story as one of the most emotionally powerful  movies of all time. The Virgin Spring tells the story, set in medieval Sweden, of a prosperous Christian whose daughter, Karin is appointed to bring candles to the church. Karin is accompanied by her pregnant foster sister, Ingeri, who secretly worships the Norse deity, Odin. Along their way through the forest on horseback, the two part, and Karin sets out on her own.

Ingeri encounters a one-eyed man at a stream-side mill, converses briefly with him, and then flees in terror. Karin meets three herdsmen (two men and a boy), and invites them to eat her lunch with her. Eventually, the two older men rape and murder Karin (while Ingeri watches from a hidden distance). The trio then leave the scene with Karin's clothing.

The herders then, unknowingly, seek shelter at the home of the murdered girl. Her parents, discover that the goat herders murdered their daughter when the goat herders offer to sell Karin's clothes to her mother. In a rage, the father locks the trio in the chamber and kills them.

The next day, the parents set out to find their daughter's body, with the help of Ingeri. Her father vows that, although he cannot understand why God would allow such a thing to happen, he will build a church at the site of his daughter's death because his conscience is forcing him to atone. As her parents lift her head from the ground, a spring begins to flow from where she was lying. Her sister Ingeri then begins to wash herself with the water, and Karin's parents clean her muddied face. 

Friedrich Nietzsche comes up with a statement that I am sure no one reading this will like -  “Watching suffering makes people feel good; creating suffering makes them feel even better—that’s a harsh principle, but an old, powerful, and human, all-too-human major principle . . . without cruelty there is no celebration: that’s what the oldest and longest human history teaches us—and with punishment, too, there is so much celebration!” 

(Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth have resulted in much commentary and interpretation, mostly in the continental tradition. His key ideas include the death of God, perspectivism, the Übermensch, the eternal recurrence, and the will to power. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be.)

Jesus makes these comments in Mark 7:21-23: 

         “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

Lets continue with some more biblical illustrations that express feelings outwardly and try to define if God is near or far from us in each case.

•Jonah – But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?“

•Older brother to the prodigal son - . He had probably for years been jealous of his younger brother as their father’s favourite, spoiled and indulged as younger siblings can be, and he had deeply resented the father’s yielding to the whim of his young brother to go his own way, taking his share of the family’s substance and abandoning all feeling of responsibility to their father or the family or the inheritance.

•          Elijah - The voice of the Lord came to Elijah while he was in that cave. "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

 Being honest with ourselves in an attempt to explain our own sense of God’s nearness or distance is critical  and we will start by examining four questions.