My Thoughts on Robin Williams' Suicide

I like many others are still taking in the news of the death of Robin Williams.  He was a great actor and a genius in comedy.  His ability to improvise in any situation was admirable and very rare.  This type of acting is second nature, not taught.  

Robin Williams brought many laughs and tears to all of us who watched his movies and programs.  However, the question remains: How can someone who seemed so jovial be so depressed?  There are no simple answers to this question. Perhaps the fact that he always seemed to have a need to make a joke of something was his way of masking the inner pain he had.  

We may never know what was going on in this man's mind.  He suffered from alcoholism, drug abuse and had a heart surgery.  These factors can weigh in on the stability of one's brain. Alcohol and drugs are known to alter how the way the brain works.  Many philosophers describe the brain as the hardware while the mind is the software.  If this is true, then if the hard drive is damaged, then the software cannot operate in its total capacity. This was probably why Mr. Williams took his own life.  He brain and mind were just not working right together.  It is obvious that he had no real reason to "opt out."  He loved his family, especially his three children.  He seemed to love his career and according to his neighbors, was a very humble man.  That being said, it was most likely his altered state of mind that caused him to see reality differently bringing him to committing suicide.

His children should not feel like they weren't important enough for him to stay.  I've read that one of his kids wrote something to that effect.  Again, drugs, alcohol and biological issues does alter the way the human brain and mind work.  There is no way around this.  Drugs and alcohol rewires the brain.  They make you perceive things differently than others who don't use those substances. Growing up in New York City, I saw alcohol and drugs all around me.  Some in my own family have abused those substances and are suffering the effects now.  As a kid, I vowed never to imitate what I saw around me.  Instead, I relied on books, music, video games, sports and especially family and good friends in order to keep me focused.  I cannot stress enough the harm drugs and alcohol abuse does to the user and those around him.  It pains me to see on social networks photos of people at clubs or even house party holding up red plastic cups or liquor bottles as if it were something to be proud of; an accomplishment.  Some even take pictures holding weed in their mouth or blowing smoke as if it were "cool."  This mentality has to stop.  These things are not cool.  They are not things to be proud of.  These things can kill you one way or another.

Drugs and alcohol distort the flow of neurotransmitters in the brain.  They create false connections in the reward center of the brain linking the use of them seems as a "good."  When deprived of them, the brain goes into a chaotic mode of withdrawal.  This extremely alters a person's psychology and can cause all kinds of illnesses in the body as well.  These are testament to the power these substances have over the human brain and why they are dangerous.  Again, there is nothing "cool" about being "high" or drunk.  There is nothing "cool" about being "out of your mind," so to speak.

Mr. Williams obviously was going through this chaotic mode in his brain.  I can't even imagine what the man was going through as he struggled with his brain's attempt to cope with the rewiring done from his substance abuse.  This man was so funny.  He could make those British soldiers guarding Buckingham palace crack a smile.  The fact that these substances triggered depression in him that was so strong that he committed suicide should be a loud message to all of us.  If this can effect a funny man like Robin Williams to the point of forcing him to end it all, then imagine what it can do to anyone else.

It pains me to hear some Christians say that he is in hell for taking his life.  While killing is a mortal sin, suicide is different and must be looked at carefully.  A person who commits suicide just for the heck of it obviously was in his/her right mind and fits the criteria for mortal sin.  However, if a person is not in his/her right state of mind, then it is this chaotic mode of the brain that is killing the person, not the person himself.  Williams was not himself.  He was not thinking rationally.  We must not judge whether or not he went to hell or not.  The catechism puts it well:

Suicide 

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of. 

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God. 

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives. 

Source:  http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a5.htm

If you are reading this now and are thinking about suicide or have thought about it, please reconsider.  You are needed in this world.  You exist for a reason.  You were not a mistake nor a creation of chance.  There is no one in the world like you and there will never be one like you. You are unique and have a lot to offer to this world.  If you are feeling depressed, hopeless as if there is nothing more to do than to end it all because you feel you are losing the battle, then reflect on this: You are winning the battle!  The fact that you are there thinking further delaying suicide shows that you are winning and capable of defeating depression or whatever it is that is making you feel hopeless.

SNOWFLAKE
Moreover, each one of us is like a snow flake.  No two snowflakes are alike.  Each snowflake is

unique with its own pattern and symmetry.  A snowflake begins in the clouds as condensation. It falls and begins to crystallize due to the cold weather.

As these crystallized droplets of water fall, some of the water evaporates and creates the flake's pattern based on how its molecules are formed. Each flake is unique because each falls into a different path with different atmospheric conditions effecting it.

Once it reaches the ground, these flakes collect and create a beautiful scenery worthy of a postcard.  The scene of snow on trees, bushes, mountains with its appearance as crystals sparkling is breathtaking.  When it's time, the snowflakes melt, evaporate and return to the sky from whence they came.  You and I are like these snowflakes.  God sends us down to Earth. We have our own unique patterns due to our molecules and DNA.  Each path we're on alters us a bit making us unique flakes.  Once we are on Earth, we decorate this world and give this world meaning and beauty.  Then when it is time, God calls us back to Himself up above.

You are special, you are unique!  Please don't deprive our world of your unique presence and existence.  You exist because you are important and God wanted you here.  There will never be anyone else like you ever again.  You are irreplaceable so continue to bless this world with your presence.  Seek out the help of family, friends, priests and psychologists.  There is always hope!

Eternal rest grant to Robin Williams o' Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.  May through the mercy of God, may he rest in peace.  Amen


O captain my captain, rest in peace!        

HO41

If humanity did not have enough sexually transmitted diseases, now they have another one to worry about.  The gonorrhea strand HO41 is spreading around and has been nick named the "super sex bug."  This strand is extremely resistant to antibiotics currently available.  It can kill those infected within a week via septic shock.

Experts believe this strand is worse than HIV and will become an epidemic considering the mentality today in regards to licentiousness.  Sex is no longer seen in popular culture as something worth waiting for with the one you love and marry.  It is now a pastime.  It is no wonder why this new strand appeared.  Perhaps nature is trying to keep humanity in check?

"Safe sex" does not work, nor does this hedonistic mentality that is being indoctrinated into our youth.      




Source:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100685883

Atheism - a crime against Humanity

Atheism is growing in popularity due to the social media.  Facebook, Myspace, Twitter et. al, provide an atmosphere where people can voice questions and comments they normally would not direct to clergy of any particular faith.

In my life working in the Church, I seldom see anyone approach a priest or deacon and question God's existence.  However, while surfing the net, I see thousands upon thousands of blogs, twitter accounts, facebook profiles all voicing all kinds of questions and comments regarding God.

Why is this?

The internet provides a sense of anonymity among its users.  One can be anyone online.  With so many screen names to choose from, one can simply pick one and do whatever - granted TOS rules allow them.

Because of this, atheists have taken the internet as their temple, so to speak.  In it they gather and pat each other on the virtual shoulder in an attempt to get support they normally would not get in real life.

Now back to why atheism is a crime against humanity.

When I write that atheism is a crime against humanity, I do not necessarily mean that it is some entity that abuses humanity in ways similar to Nazism and the like.  What I mean is that it robs humanity of humanity.

Human beings are distinct creatures on earth.  They are aware of themselves, can think, express themselves via language and other means and feel emotions.  Human beings can also think in abstract ways.  Their brains can think beyond the physical parameters of this universe.

As children, we went through many stages of development.  Piaget gave us certain terms that define these stages.  Infants begin to use their sensorimotor intelligence which allows for them to combine their sensory input with their motor skills in order to make sense of the world.  They assimilate this information and compare it with what they already have processed.  Those ideas are accommodated or adapted to old ideas or even replace them to make new ones.

We thenbegin to use emotions and apply them in appropriate settings by means of self-regulation.  As we advance in age, we begin to "experiment."  By means of preoperational thought, we go through the static reasoning, irreversibility, conservation and animism stages.  In static reasoning, we reason that nothing changes around us.  In the irreversibility stage, we reason that nothing can be undone.  Conservation is the idea that a substance amount remains the same even if its appearance alters.  Animism is the belief that all things are alive in nature, including inert objects.

Play during these years is extremely important.  Archaeologists have found toys dating thousands of years which shows that playing with toys has been a part of human development since man has walked this Earth.  During play, children can use their imagination.  This, alongside animism, helps the child's cognitive abilities expand.  Without this kind of play, children will not develop creativity and abstract thought.  They will solely rely on physicalism as their platform to form thoughts and ideas.  Abstract art, music, even geometry would not be possible since neither exist in the physical realm.

This is where atheism would be a crime against humanity in the developmental sense.  Atheists do not believe in God or the supernatural.  They do not allow themselves the ability to process ideas that are not relative with the physical realm.  Atheism would foster a world based on static reasoning and conservation.

Atheists like to pride themselves in being "rational" and "logical."  They measure all things against "reason" and "logic" in order for it to be truthful and valid for assimilation.  In a sense, they imitate Star Trek's Spock, or his Vulcan race which applies and lives by logical premises.  In the Star Trek series, we see how Spock despite his intelligence, always struggles to understand even the simplest of things.  Star Trek always presents the human being as the real smart one despite having "human qualities" that may appear inferior to other intergalactic species.

Logic and reason are fine.  They serve us well.  The key word is 'serve.'  These concepts exist to benefit us, not the other way around.  We do not exist to be logical or rational in a sense.  To be human is to sometimes do the opposite of what logic and reason tells us.  This is how we experience "thrills."  This is how we learn.  In a world that is stoic in nature, we would not have amusement parks, music, dancing and other forms of entertainment.  We would find those "illogical."  Any such attempt to try these activities would go against one or more logical premises.

Concepts such as emotions, affection and love would not fit in a logical world.  They cannot be measured empirically and are based on introspection so they must be disposed of.  It is no wonder why Spock's race stresses the purging of all emotion.  Emotion is seen as irrational and illogical.  The Vulcans in the series often mock human being's for possessing this "inferior" trait that, according to them, makes them unfit.

Atheism is on the road to this absurdity and repression of humanity.  In a world where atheists would dictate rules and scripts for society, we would see the mental state of individuals plummet.  People will be repressed and will go mad without the ability to use imagination and abstract thought.  Ironically, the Vulcans at a certain age go mad due to repressed emotion and "Vulcan nature."

The vision that atheism and humanism have for the human being is not a good one.  It is one deprived of humanity.  It is a pseudo version of human nature that is destructive.

VMAT2 shows that we are hard wired to seek God and the supernatural.  Our brains are wired to think beyond this universe and into the unknown.  Philosophy, religion, music, art, even physics and mathematics would not exist if we suppress this part of our mind to look beyond the physical.

Atheism would be a crime against humanity.  It will destroy the human race completely, or leave it incapacitated biologically and psychologically speaking.  


   

Canadian Coldness

Stephen Woodworth’s pro-life motion was struck down in Canada 91 - 103.  Woodworth attempted to have Canada revise its criminal code section 223 which states that a human being becomes human only when born.

It is hard to believe that law makers do not know what a human being is.  Science tells us that a human being begins to exist at conception.  The only way to create a human being is via conception.  What will it take these people to realize the truth of human biology?  

From Conception to even post-death, the human body possesses the same DNA.  One does not become human being at birth.  One is already a human since conception.  It is there that the genes take form creating the genotype and phenotype that will guide our development throughout life.

If science does not convince politicians the truth and reality of when a human being begins to exist, then we are all in trouble.  It is scary to think that Pro-Abortion rhetoric can trump the voice of science.  

 

Source:  http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/woodworths-motion-312-defeated-91-to-203