Jerry Sandusky, Pedophilia, and Bad Consequences

Jerry Sandusky was a talented assistant football coach of Pennsylvania State University. In 1986 and 1999, Jerry Sandusky received the Assistant Coach of the Year award. Nevertheless, on 5 November 2011, Jerry Sandusky was arrested and had a variety of charges leveled against him regarding acts of pedophilia.

Why would a successful assistant football coach ruin his reputation and legacy, not to mention his family life by committing acts of pedophilia? Is pedophilia due to a malfunctioning brain? If so, can urges of pedophilia be controlled?

First off, let's define pedophilia. Psychiatrists define pedophilia as having recurrent and intense sexual urges toward children by an adult. The adult either acts on these urges and fantasies, or suffers great emotional distress by not acting on them.

Why do some people become pedophiles while others don't? Researchers have found that pedophiles tend to have less white brain matter and lower IQs compared to normal people. These findings suggest that the brains of pedophiles may not be functioning optimally.

This makes sense. Most normal people understand that bad behaviors have bad consequences and are able to process the bad consequences in their brains, thus avoiding bad behaviors. But if pedophiles have significantly less white brain matter and lower IQs compared to normal people, pedophiles may not be able to clearly imagine the consequences of their actions, thus leading them to engage in bad behaviors.

If this is true, what can be done? How can pedophilia be cured? I believe that pedophilia can be cured. Why I say this is because acts of pedophilia come from thoughts of pedophilia. Yes, pedophilia has its origin in thoughts. If you don't think it, you won't do it.

If a person has a tendency toward pedophilia, they can cure themselves by doing the following:

1) Do not watch any pornography involving adults having sex with children. I believe that the habitual viewing of child pornography is the single most cause of pedophilia. This is probably where it all begins.

2) If you have urges or fantasies regarding pedophilia, each and every time, you must begin praying to your Higher Power, acknowledging that these thoughts are evil, and asking your Higher Power to take these thoughts away. If you do this each and every time you have an urge or fantasy, your thoughts of pedophilia will grow weaker and weaker, eventually fading away. This is called mental conditioning.

3) Meditate at least once a day on the horrible consequences of engaging in acts of pedophilia. Meditate on the shame and humiliation this will cause you and your family, once society finds out and they inevitably will. Meditate on the legal consequences such as going to prison for a very long time and being abused by the other prisoners. Meditate on the psychological damage that you're inflicting on children. Though your brain may be damaged, you can acutely make it aware of the consequences of pedophilia, if you meditate in this manner once daily.

Any pedophile who does the above mental exercises can cure himself of pedophilia. Besides the mental exercises, pedophiles need to seek professional help (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists, pastors, etc.).

Years of playing football may have damaged the brain of Jerry Sandusky, rendering him unable to mentally process the bad consequences that are inevitably connected to bad behaviors. But Jerry Sandusky could have sought professional help to stave off his urges of pedophilia. Since he chose not to seek help, Jerry Sandusky will probably spend the rest of his life in prison.

Prayer Thoughts, The Placebo Effect, and The Law Of Attraction

What exactly is prayer? How does it work? Does it work at all?

There have been studies done on prayer to determine its effectiveness. But the problem with testing prayer lies in defining the parameters of it clearly enough to provide consistency. Given the lack of defined prayer parameters, the results of prayer have been mixed when tested in the laboratory.

What exactly is prayer? I think prayer is simply the communication of a person to a Higher Power. And this communication is usually in the form of praise, petition, or gratitude. In conducting studies, researchers should focus on examining the petition prayers, since these prayers are more goal-directed than the other prayers, allowing these prayers to be easier to test.

How does prayer work? The workings of prayer can be explained psychologically (e.g., the relationship among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and environments), biologically (e.g., the placebo effect), or metaphysically (e.g., the law of attraction).

In the area of psychology, researchers have proven that there is a strong relationship among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and environments. Modern psychotherapy is based on this premise.

Modern psychotherapy attempts to change a person's thoughts about a problem, thereby changing the person's feelings about the problem, thereby changing the person's behaviors regarding the problem, finally causing the person's situation to change.

Since prayer changes the thoughts of the person praying, this psychological explanation can explain how prayer works.

In the area of biology, researchers have observed the phenomenon called the placebo effect. The placebo effect tends to occur if a person receives a drug or some other treatment, and believes that this drug or treatment is going to have a positive effect, even though the drug or treatment is actually useless.

The reason why the person feels better after taking the useless drug is due to chemical/hormonal changes that occur within his body from merely believing that he's better. Therefore, a so-called "pain-relieving" pill will actually relieve his headache, a so-called "anti-anxiety" pill will actually calm him down, and a so-called "stimulant" pill will actually give him more energy.

Since people who pray tend to believe that prayers produce positive results, this biological explanation can explain how prayer works.

In the area of metaphysics, practitioners have spoken much about the law of attraction. The law of attraction states that like attracts like. In other words, if you consistently think positive thoughts, positive events will be attracted to you like a magnet. And if you consistently think negative thoughts, negative events will be attracted to you like a magnet.

What causes this sort of magnetism? According to the law of attraction, every thought vibrates on a particular frequency. And if you think a particular thought long enough, it's going to attract outside events that vibrate on the same frequency as the thought that you're thinking.

Since prayer involves consistently thinking particular thoughts, this metaphysical explanation can explain how prayer works.

So you see, prayer can be explained scientifically and theoretically. This article explained what prayer is and how it may work scientifically and theoretically. Since prayer has strong scientific and theoretical backing, it most likely works and it most likely works well.

In this article, I'm not denying the intervention of God or angelic beings. I do believe in God. And I believe that He does intervene in this reality. Nevertheless, discussions of God and angelic beings go beyond science and theory.

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).