Garbage In, Garbage Out

By Published on December 11, 2017

The craziness of our modern world continues with senseless violence, sexual perversion and predation, gender confusion, mind-less amusement, pervasive “fake” news, irrational and illogical politics, and self-gratifying lifestyles.

One of the primary factors contributing to this increased perversion and idiocy is the GIGO factor. (GIGO stands for “garbage in, garbage out.” The term originated in the field of computer science where flawed, or nonsense input data produces nonsense output or “garbage.”)

Today GIGO is the universally accepted warning for the behavior of any system or process, including the human thought process.

Just as with a computer, what goes into the mind determines what comes out in words, actions and attitudes.

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Stated another way, what you see you will be. What you look at longingly and lustfully, you will become like. Also, what you hear constantly, whether healthy or harmful, you will heed eventually. There is an incredible, transformational power in what we set our eyes, ears, mind and heart on.

A Culture Full of Garbage

In commenting on the ongoing avalanche of sexual harassment incidents, Matt Walsh opines,

It may be time to consider why we have so many perverts, where they come from, and what sorts of things might be contributing to their perverseness. To that end, might I point to the fact that we spend four billion hours a year watching porn?

Sorry. Let me correct myself. I’ve just understated the problem. We dedicated well over four and a half billion hours to watching porn on one porn site in 2016. Since 2015, human beings have spent one million years watching porn.

Walsh continues,

Porn is obviously America’s favorite pastime. According to surveys, almost 80% of American men between the ages of 18 and 30 admit to watching porn regularly. Nearly 70% of men between 31 and 49 admit to it. Remember, too, this is just what people will admit to doing.

Millenials spend 39.7 hours weekly listening to music. One can only wonder how much is “garbage”?

Worldwide, 135 minutes are spent daily on social media. Teens spend up to 9 hours daily on social media.

In their lifetime, Americans, on average will spend 7 years and 8 months of their lives watching television.

Several years ago, The American Psychiatric Association stated that by age 18, a U.S. youth will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. Is it any wonder that over 1000 studies, including one by the Surgeon General as far back as 1972 have shown a connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in children? In light of this reality what do you think will be the consequences of the avalanche of images that glorify drug use, gang activity, sexual aggression, gambling, etc? People become like what they set their minds, hearts and eyes on.

GIGO!

Matt Walsh concludes his blog, “We are A Nation Of Porn Addicts. Why Are We Surprised By The Perverts In Our Midst”:

I’m not making excuses for anyone. What I’m saying is that this current wave is nothing compared to what’s on the horizon. The first step in becoming a sex predator is to see sex as an entirely selfish exercise. The next is to deny the humanity and dignity of the other person involved. The final stage is to develop a fetish for the weird and the depraved. Our porn-addled culture moves people through all three stages rapidly and at a very young age. Our society is now like a conveyor belt where narcissistic degenerates are assembled by the truckload each day.

Zig Ziglar rightly declares, “If you dump garbage in, garbage will come out. The person who dumps garbage into your mind will do you considerably more harm than the one who dumps garbage on your floor.”

Zig went on to say,

From the neck down, very few people are worth more than $100 a week. From the neck up, there is no limit to what an individual is worth. So what do we do? We feed our stomachs, the $100 part below our necks, every day. How often do we feed our minds, the part that has no limit to its value, earning and happiness potential? Most of us feed it accidentally and occasionally, if it’s convenient or we don’t have anything else to do.

Renewing Your Mind

We are told in Romans 12:2, to constantly renew our minds. Renewing our minds means learning to think God’s thoughts after Him. In so doing, we will be able to recognize what comes from the kingdom of light or heaven and what comes from the kingdom of darkness or hell, and will consistently bring our thinking into agreement with the kingdom of heaven.

This “renewing of” our minds is nothing short of a “mental revolution,” taking our “normal” (selfish, self centered) human way of seeing life and giving us a point of view we could not have without God’s Spirit changing our way of thinking.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:23 that we are to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” What in the world does that mean? “The spirit of your mind.” John Piper explains:

It means at least this: the human mind is not a sophisticated computer managing data, which it then faithfully presents to the heart for appropriate emotional responses.

The mind has a “spirit.” In other words, our mind has what we call a “mindset.” It doesn’t just have a view, it has a viewpoint. It doesn’t just have the power to perceive and detect; it also has a posture, a demeanor, a bearing, an attitude, a bent.

In other words, mind renewal is a deep spiritual change in how the mind assesses things and values things. The renewal Paul is calling for is profound, and deeper than any mere mental effort can achieve.

Remember, the GIGO Factor is always operative in our lives!

Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” — Philippians 4:8

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