Emotions

In the past two weeks my emotions have been severely challenged. The pendulum has swung wildly from euphoric to grief and back again, back and forth. When these emotions occur I get very weary of them. Sometimes I question the wisdom of God in making us humans capable of experiencing these extreme emotions. One professional counselor told me it is these emotions that make us human, one should not discount their importance.

As I was thinking about this again this morning, mulling over this aspect of emotions and its purpose in life I am left with some interesting insights I never considered before.

Humans are the only ones in nature that experience these emotions, right? In all of our interactions with animals we never saw them express emotions. Their responses were always centered upon their physical well-being of being satisfied with food or personal pain or contentment, like the purring of a cat or the churring of a raccoon. Sure dogs are loyal to their kind master, horses love their kind masters, cows can be tamed as well as a host of other animals and fowls. But if these animals are devoid of human contact they will revert to a wild state where they become very hostile to humans and even dangerous, like feral hogs and cats. We had a cat that went feral because she was lost for a couple of years...she came back and was very wild - the look in her eyes was one of fear and severe distrust.

Does the existence of emotions as experienced by humans not teach us that we are indeed a superior creation then that of other life forms? Scripture teaches us that man is made in God's image; we read that God expresses emotion...does this trait not prove it?

What do you think?

ginnyrose

Hello.

I had just read this when I came upon your post.

http://www.hissheep.org/past/the_believer_and_emotion.html

Not sure it applies to your situation, but it's helped me to understand why my spiritual life has been so chaotic.

I briefly scanned this article, MPS. I agree one should not be ruled by emotions. The fact they exist and are operative in the life of a human is what I am focusing on.

It is true too many will make decisions based on feelings at the moment. Experience has taught us they cannot be trusted because they are so unpredictable which is why a person needs to be grounded in the WORD, filled with the Spirit so our reactions will be in keeping with it.

It is also revealing that Jesus showed emotions. He wept, he had compassion. God laughs, gets angry... What other forms of life are capable of these qualities? Seems to me the presence of this is another piece of evidence that man has not evolved.

Any comment from those who are more familiar with the evolutionary theory?

I may not follow this thread further, but I just wanted to reply/clarify 1 point.

Animals especially certain birds (especially certain species of cockatoos like the mollucan and umbrella cockatoos) do show emotion more than you can ever imagine. They grieve, stop eating, get angry, get hurt--much much more than most people realize. So humans are not the only one with 'emotions'/superior emotions. Because certin of these birds show such a superior range of emotions, they generally don't do well in captivity especially if they are hand-reared instead of reared by their own kind.

Some even know how to 'apologize'/make amends when they act wrongly by offering their 'favourite food' to their humans when they would never do so otherwise. Much much more.And this are not taught by the humans.

The 1 big difference that I see between humans and animals is that humans wear clothes whereas animals don't.

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"certain birds (especially certain species of cockatoos like the mollucan and umbrella cockatoos) do show emotion more than you can ever imagine. They grieve, stop eating, get angry, get hurt--much much more than most people realize."
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Thank-you for this insight. I was not aware that [some] birds have the capability to feel like you mentioned. Reckon we never observed this in our chickens, turkeys... although it is well known chickens have a 'pecking order', literally. Some will work to have the preeminence in the flock and to accomplish this they will literally pick on a chicken's tail until she is bleeding. The victim will cower in the pen, eat little.

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"The 1 big difference that I see between humans and animals is that humans wear clothes whereas animals don't.."
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Excellent point.

Thank-you for sharing your insight.

Must be my observation is based on limited knowledge...

I think emotions are great, a bit unbalanced at times but as you said already before God made us in His image. And He is definitely a being a emotions. We read in scriptures He is grieved, happy, angry etc. What is the difference between us and the Father? He has perfect balance, Jesus had perfect balance. We should seek perfect balance as well but it is only possible if we rely on Christ and let Him live through us.

Jesus shows us a full array of emotions and that is why we can't discount them or say they are bad. Anger is a popular one to call bad, BUT Jesus got angry and even threw a few tables around yet He was showing Godly Anger and a justified Anger. We have the same opportunity and chance to show that same kind of anger (Godly Anger that is).

Ginnyrose,
No problem.

Thanks for the chicken insight. A long time ago, I had 2 hens together for a veryvery short time and one would keep pecking at the black hen and would not let her eat. Used to get me so angry with that hen. Now, I know why that yellow/brown hen behave in such a way.

edited for correct name :hen

Animals don't have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we do.

Animals don't have to answer for their sins, we do.

Animals, as we know, were not made in the image of God.

God did not breath into animals the breath of life, he did breath into man's nostrils, Genesis 2:7.

Man named the animals, animals cannot name anything.

Just food for thought.

by enid on 2012/9/21 1:13:15

Animals don't have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we do.

Animals don't have to answer for their sins, we do.

Animals, as we know, were not made in the image of God.

God did not breath into animals the breath of life, he did breath into man's nostrils, Genesis 2:7.

Man named the animals, animals cannot name anything.

Just food for thought.

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one hundred percent right on and shows just how much difference there is between people and animals. God created man above the animals in his image but the animals were not given those same attributes as man.

rdg

Our emotions are corrupt. Just as sin has caused us to live in bodies that are corrupt, the mechanism by which we experience and express emotion is also corrupt. So, we cannot trust our emotions. This is why we must learn to walk in the Spirit and hear the voice of God. This is why we must receive by faith as true whatever the Word of God says to us though we may be feeling something totally different at the moment. A doctor could, by prescribing medications, alter your emotions quite drastically, and the natural, chemical processes in our bodies can do the same.

However, God did create us with emotions. We are created in His image, and His emotion is as ours was before the fall, pure! I believe I have, from time to time, experiences that pure emotion when what I was feeling was motivated by the Spirit of God. Think of when God gives you a compassion for another person, and you know the compassion is from God and you experience that feeling of compassion that is pure.

As to the animal issue, I am not sure if their having or not having emotions is even significant. They do not have a spirit. They are not spiritual beings, but rather created, living things. Perhaps they have emotion, perhaps they only have complex instincts. I am not sure that science can say one way or the other. It is not provable. But the word of God makes the distinction that only man was given an eternal spirit. We are like animals in that our fleshly body was created with the same structures as that of animals, blood, cells, flesh, etc. But the biochemical structure of our bodies is as far as the similarity goes. The real me is a spirit, and that is something no animal possesses.

I mentioned how my emotions have been on a wild ride in the past week...Maybe you all deserve an explanation.

Jesus tells us that if any offend one of these little ones, it were better if a millstone be hung on his neck and dropped in the middle of the sea...

OK, my husband and I had first hand knowledge to a possible child abuse case - in this case the victim was an adult, living in a foster situation. And we were proved to be right. The fallout of it was what we feared would happen, and it did.

Why did we not intervene? We tried... Now I have to deal with sadness, anger, frustration. Yet the outcome may work to bring about restoration... In reality, the solution to this situation is what we had been suggesting...

Sometimes I think ignorance would be bliss...but Christianity is one that confronts evil, sin and that means there will be war. Paul tells us we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and rulers of darkness...and war ain't no fun.

Perhaps there is one thing I should clarify...the abuse I am talking about is not physical nor sexual but emotional done via verbal. It was awful... And how is one to get help to fix this? Even for those who witnessed it? The perpetrators are religious folks...there you go...

QUOTE:
"If you were to ask me what I believe harmed me the most? I would say the words!"

No doubt.. When you are told you are not much by an authority figure you will believe it and act like it. So it was with this lady. I had to work hard to get her to believe otherwise. But I was not done with her...I could see the devastating effects this abuse was having on her, the bad choices she made because of it.

QUOTE:
"May He also show the foster parents their error and grant them true repentance."

I hope so. There are many people praying for this situation. This girl has been so damaged emotionally it will take nothing less then a miracle to make her whole...

Appreciate your testimony, Amrkelly.

ginnyrose