As a modern society we still have gaps and contradictions that separate us from the truth.

A huge issue that has been forming human societies for thousands of years till today is the battle between Science and religion.

Since the dawn of time, kingdoms, empires and small societies placed religion on the top of their social hierarchy as a guide of maintaining their social structure, prosperity, safety and dominance in their regions.

Religion back then was not of how see religions today…it was rather a combination of social and natural sciences, technology, philosophy, history presented through myths and symbolisms and spiritual laws of the universe. This is evident in many great civilizations such as Bronze age Greece and later on, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, Sumerians, etc.

but around the 6th century BC something changed….In ancient Greece, the age of philosophy started and the birth of the natural sciences began to blossom.

Pre-Socratic Philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and others began to search the answer of how the universe was born.

Later on from 470 BC – 399 BC Socrates will place his mark on the evolution of philosophy and turn it inwards through self awareness (know thyself) which would give birth to the social sciences. Plato who was one of his students, and later on Aristotle who was the student of Plato would set the foundations of todays western world.

As human wisdom philosophized  its way through the centuries the Greeks from being focused on religion they began to explain the natural phenomena strictly from a scientific perspective….they overlogicated the divine. There was a split between science and religion and which drifted them apart as centuries went by.

After the death of Alexander the Great which marked the beginning of the hellenistic era, sciences thrived and the conditions were ripe for the industrial revolution which was hindered severely by the Roman conquest and then later on sciences were subdued by a large extend by Christianity as the western world was entering the Medieval times.

I am not against Christianity, I am a christian myself with a close relationship with the Lord, but this article is to see the big picture of what God is trying to teach us so that we can evolve in His Cosmic Plan.

Bare with me on this, it will turn out very good!

The focus on the medieval times was mainly theology and not so much on the sciences and philosophy although in the Eastern Roman Empire these two co – existed. The ERE was a greek christian medieval kingdom that emphasized a lot on education. Yes there were some conflicts here and there but everyone accepted the fact that sciences lead to the book of God.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD, slowly we begin to enter the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment Era. The sciences begin to emerge again from its ashes after 1000 years, philosophy was back in the game, and the status Quo of the Catholic Church being questioned due to strong signs of corruption led to the extreme contradiction against any religious doctrine. The paths between science and religion drifted apart more and more.

Now though as we go from the age of scientific discovery, we enter the age of scientific mastery and we learn to master the natural elements for our own purposes.

But there is something else unique happening…!

As sciences are progressing, scientists now discover that throughout the universe and nature there is a connection between religion and science. Common patterns are being found in many ways as humanity evolves.

Examples:

-Holy water: Scientific research has shown through the microscope that the atoms and molecules of the holy water glow! The blessings being made by the priests transfer divine energy into the water.

-Psychology on Manipulative people:

– Matthew 18:1-5

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

This scripture teaches us also about Psychology:

Psychologists have found that manipulative people were raised to be sneaky because their parents were too strict. Noone truly loved them, therefore they didn’t learn to love themselves and others and they feel empty looking for trivial things (money, power, sex, etc) hoping that they will find some sort of fulfilment in their lives.

Thats why the bible teaches us to love and pray for our enemies! Cause if we truly understand their position and why they act evil against us, then we feel for them, we see their position and the whole picture and we forgive much more easily and pray with more love and fervor for them. I am not suggesting that we should go close to them cause these people can hurt us in one way or the other. But we should definitely pray to the Lord to bring them close to Him. In this way we become much more aware of whats going on around us and helps us to become more loving and discerning in the situations that are in

When you are raised in a loving family who is close to God, you learn to love yourself therefore you learn to love others! But a lot of people in this world do not have the same privilege as other people do….! Their lives are hindered and held captive by wrong self beliefs, lack of emotional support, negativity, abuse, wrong environments, lack of basic needs, and this leads to other things of lack of self belief and low self confidence, and then this leads to escapism such as alcohol, sex, drugs, crime etc.

Science can help us connect with God and we can improve our lives, heal spiritually and psychologically and be delivered, and be blessed in this life and in the next.

I can go on on many other examples but I want to get to the point fast in this article.

Many scriptures in the bible can help us connect with our daily lives and also with the sciences of what they are today.

The ancient greeks had a proverb:    “Science without virtue is cunningness!”

And virtue comes from God!

Sciences are of God too! The only thing we have to remember that they are limited! No matter if we solve all the problems of the world! No matter if we heal all diseases and health problems of people they will always be limited in front of the unlimited vastness of God!

God gave the sciences to us through Ancient Greece and they became a huge part of the western world. Its a tool for us in this world just like money is and other things, they are not gods to replace Him. They tools so we can use them for the good of others!

A friend of mine once asked me:

-I have depression! Should I go to church or go to a psychoanalyst?

-I said: Do both! Fight it with all weapons! Just make sure your psychoanalyst is a good and caring person and more so if they believe in God!

Its the Godly virtue we carry and nurture that will define of how we use our knowledge and skills. If we are away from God then we will be selfish and trivial. But with the divine virtues we will only but care about the people around us and feel their pain and help for the common good.

Christianity in our times is about to come into full play ! And its a combination of two major rivalling cultures

The jewish culture and the greek culture.

The Jews spoke of God and the Greeks spoke of the things of God (science and philosophy)!

I truly believe that the future of Christianity lies in the full unification between religion and science/philosophy, only this time it will be much more broad and complete compared to the ancient religious wisdom which had everything combined in an initial form that existed before the age of philosophy , new truths shall be revealed by the Lord as the centuries goes by that will eliminate all contradictions. And mankind will realize a broader picture of God and the Universe and will finally understand its glorious role in His Divine Plan.

I ll just close this article with a quote by Albert Einstein :

Keeping you in prayer

John Kakalas

© John Kakalas

The post Science and Religion (The gap is finally closing) appeared first on John Kakalas.

Depression happens due to a lot of stress, lack of TLC for our selves, not eating well, not sleeping well, too much work and an overwhelming number of daily chores and lack of free time.

For some people depression just happens to us that don’t have an overburdened life style, its a mental illness that it sometimes doesn’t make exceptions…

Official statistics show that 50% of the earth’s population is suffering from depression but unofficial statistics show that the numbers are much higher and climbing.

Usually depression starts like this:

At first you feel as though you are on top of the world as you up and running your daily tasks managing to get everything done…then  you start having small uncontrollable thoughts but these are not your own thoughts, its not like you sit somewhere thinking…”hhhmmm I wonder how many eggs I have in the fridge…?…or “what should I eat today?”…or “I wonder how is so and so doing?”.

These are thoughts that start to make you question your self, they have the capacity to reduce your personal energy, and you can feel that as your feelings start to get numbed, you feel a tightness in your chest which causes your mind to get cloudy and not being able to think clearly but in the beginning you are trying to hide it cause many people don’t understand what mental illness is and they relate depression with negative thinking or just being sad, so they resent it immediately simply by turning their back on you, or telling you to snap out of it. Depression is not being sad or being obsessively negative, first if all its a mental illness, its not a personal choice, these thoughts torment you no matter how much you fight them. These thoughts will try in the end and take your life if you don’t ask for help cause they are somehow synchronized with everything that you see and do  in your daily life. You don’t know if you are going to live in the next day cause these thoughts will try and convince you that you need to leave this world because you are hurting your family, your relatives and your loved ones. That is the final blow in the process of depression. These thoughts are not true!

On one hand the church says that committing suicide is a sin, and its belief is acceptable because noone has the right to take someone’s life or even their own. But what about the people who have depression and do not want to die but the mental illness convinces them to take their life by telling them that the people they care about will be much better off without them?

People with depression need help and understanding, many times they are fighting their battles alone and most of the times they are not showing it, they hide their problem behind a big smile and by being the life of the party to remove all suspicion from others and therefore removing any possible stigma of being called “crazy”. The world resents mental illness and sees it as a taboo but times have changed….its the norm around us. Before we finger point someone with mental illness we need to remember that the other three fingers are pointing at us! God’s finger is pointing at us when we judge others without trying to understand their situation and that means that the reverse countdown has started where we are going to be in a similar or other difficult situation in the future.

Let me share with you a personal story:

I was at an exclusive music festival for professional musicians in Belgium in 2010, over there I got to know two other musicians, one of them was from Holland his name was Peter (not his real name) and the other one was David (also not his real name) he was from Belgium , we hanged out alot and we jammed together a few times. We had a blast! We stayed in touch after the festival. About a year later David posts on his Facebook wall that he got in a mental institution. As soon as I saw that I contacted Peter to see if he knew anything more about what happened to David. He immediately said to me: “I dont know man…that guy is crazy…I want nothing to do with him!” I replied: “Dude! you cant just say that we dont know what he has been through…!” He repeatedly replied: “I don’t care man….I dont hang out with crazy people.” Little is to say that two years later Peter ended up with depression and he had to make major changes in his life to alleviate his mental problem.

So we should always try and understand people’s mental issues, and even if we are not able to put our selves in their shoes we should never fingerpoint at them or criticism them, if their mental illness somehow affects us in a toxic way we need to find ways to handle it or keep a certain distance but still keep these people in our prayers and help out if needed.

Here are some ways to treat your depression and overcome it:

1. Seek professional help (visit a psychiatrist or download apps such as TalkLife, Moodfit, etc)
2. Find self help groups in your area where you can discuss your issues with people who have had the same problem as you.
3. Go with the flow…these thoughts will run out soon and stopping coming in your head eventually
4. Do things that you enjoy (fitness, socializing, a long walk, call your loved ones, learn to play music, take time off work etc)
5. Start working towards your self purpose: Follow your hearts desire even if you think you are average in it, try also to solve problems with your true calling. When you start helping solve people’s problems with your passion or at least work towards doing that, you ll start feeling better and better as time goes by.
6.    This is the most important, its very therapeutic and it doesn’t cost money at all! : Do acts of kindness where ever you go, help others, give value to others in any way you can think of. You don’t need to spend money on this, just smile when you can, say a kind honest word to someone, give a hug, say hello, understand someone’s needs by putting your self in their shoes, pray for someone in a difficult situation or in need, give positive and constructive feedback. People will remember you for your kindness and they ‘ll start giving back, but the spiritual and emotional wealth that you will gain out of this will be immense, you will start feeling gradually better, your endorphins, and also dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin will start kicking in and you will feel rich inside. But make no mistake, don’t help others at your expense! Remember that you need to show TLC to your self first. If you are not sure if someone wants your best interest seek help from someone you trust (friend, relative), or don’t take the chance if you are not sure.
7. Last and most important seek God and participate in church activities, spend time with the Lord in order to alleviate the stress and allow His grace to heal you! Give your worries to Him and He will listen, watch what He does for you when you truly give yourself to Him! The best way to do this is to find a priest that understands your problem and isnt going to drag you away from the psychotherapist and your healing process. Sciences are of God too!

I speak from a personal experience by sharing all this information with you and I hope that this will help you overcome your challenges, feel free to comment or email me if this article has helped you.

Keeping you in prayer

John Kakalas

@John Kakalas

The post How to treat and overcome depression appeared first on John Kakalas.