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Does Psychology have any place in the Church?


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I know I am going to get beat up for this but here is a good article about psychology...
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/9774
I used this cause many peolpe don't like David Cloud so I figured that something from a non-IFB site might show that not just IFBers disagree with psychology. Ready and waiting to get beat up.



Interesting article!!!
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Actually, the original post was about psychology in general. Both in the quoted portion and Jonathan stated "a Christian individual or in the Church as a whole." The Church is made up of all Christians. The discussion has been about whether or not psychology is anti-Bible or can be studied by Christians.

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I know I am going to get beat up for this but here is a good article about psychology...
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/9774
I used this cause many peolpe don't like David Cloud so I figured that something from a non-IFB site might show that not just IFBers disagree with psychology. Ready and waiting to get beat up.


Now, who wouldn't like David Cloud?? :Bleh Some say that psychology is the study of the mind and there is nothing wrong with studying it, but you are trying to study something that is not tangible, you can't see thoughts, etc--only the result after those thoughts have been acted upon. I think some aspects of the mind are facinating, but really to study it--it seems you would need to know more about the way our spirit interacts with our body and such....God didn't write a book in the Bible about that, though. I think He gave us all the info. He thought we needed. We need to rely on Him for everything, not science or psychology etc. I really have a serious problem with all the psychological "disorders" that doctors are giving meds out for like candy, when the people just need to find the Lord, and live right.
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I'm not too fond of psychology or psychiatry, but as a means of therapy I would not be so quick to throw the baby out with the bath-water (even if there is a large amount of bath-water). I have known quite a lot of people who have been "helped" through this means. Mind anyone, in my view they would have better off having achieved a measure of spiritual growth so as to have been able to rely on the truth of the Word instead. But that is a little bit like telling an alcoholic he/she never should have started drinking - if you want the person to be helped, the person has to be dealt with in the state that he/she is in. So while I never recommend it and feel very uncomfortable about it, I try to steer clear of an attitude of complete prior condemnation of it.

What I do feel comfortable about condemning is the use of "pop-psychology" in the pulpit. I find it ironic that while many would condemn believers for resorting to psychologists and psychiatrists, almost the entire content of their sermons (the small part that is not composed of stories and illustrations) is entirely made up of just such "pop-psychology". If pastors want believers to be self-reliant, the only way to lead them to that place is to teach them the Bible substantively. Truth believed and digested, applied to the life and tested in times of trouble, is the only thing that can sustain in tribulation and make a believer self-sufficient - because in reality they have learned to be reliant upon the Lord instead of themselves.

Love,
Madeline

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Now, who wouldn't like David Cloud?? :Bleh Some say that psychology is the study of the mind and there is nothing wrong with studying it, but you are trying to study something that is not tangible, you can't see thoughts, etc--only the result after those thoughts have been acted upon. I think some aspects of the mind are facinating, but really to study it--it seems you would need to know more about the way our spirit interacts with our body and such....God didn't write a book in the Bible about that, though. I think He gave us all the info. He thought we needed. We need to rely on Him for everything, not science or psychology etc. I really have a serious problem with all the psychological "disorders" that doctors are giving meds out for like candy, when the people just need to find the Lord, and live right.

Remember, cells are not tangible either. They can be observed but not touched, felt, or tasted. Nerve impulses can be observed but not touched, felt or tasted. Yet we know that those impulses allow us to think just as cells make up all living things. I agree that we shouldn't rely on psychology for answers to life's problems and that "disorders" today are seriously over-diagnosed. That doesn't discount the entire field of psychology though, just as the widespread acceptance of evolution doesn't discount biology as a whole.
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Psychology' date=' though, boils down to the study of the mind, which is completely innocent. Not only that, but it is often times necessary for mental health when it encompasses things like neurological psychology.[/quote']
instead of rehashing everything, I will just say :amen: kevin to all the posts in this thread (at least I think I read them all :lol )
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Remember, cells are not tangible either. They can be observed but not touched, felt, or tasted. Nerve impulses can be observed but not touched, felt or tasted. Yet we know that those impulses allow us to think just as cells make up all living things. I agree that we shouldn't rely on psychology for answers to life's problems and that "disorders" today are seriously over-diagnosed. That doesn't discount the entire field of psychology though, just as the widespread acceptance of evolution doesn't discount biology as a whole.


Hmmm. I'm not going to spend much time on this thread because I think most people are already set in their thinking. I would challenge you; however, on the "cell" issue. Cells are most definitely tangible. I can scrape skin cells off my arm, put them under my homeschool microscope right now and let my kids observe it--I could do the same with a drop of blood, which of course contains many cells. Cells are observable and operate according to a set of principles set at the time of creation by the hand of God.....they are predictable. You may observe the inside of cells and how they function, you may watch them reproduce, under a set of certain predictable circumstances you can cause cells to reproduce exactly how you want them to. My husband does this all the time in cell culture--he is a cancer researcher. This is called science. It is observable, testable and repeatable. period. Psychology is not. You can see the brain, you can see nerve cells. You can test nerve "impulses". That is the physical aspect of our bodies. There is a non-flesh aspect to our bodies that is NOT predictable, and cannot be seen. Only God can see our thoughts and they are not observable, testable and repeatable by a researcher. You can point to studies all you want about how they can stimulate certain parts of the brain to elicit emotion, but they are still only stimulating the physical, not the non-physical. Am I saying throw out all psychology--not necessarily, but keep it in its place--it is not science, and cannot be compared to biology!
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