When You Start Hating, You Stop Thinking

When Leonardo da Vinci was working on his wonderful painting of “The Last Supper,” he painted the face of a man he hated as Judas. But when he came to paint the face of Jesus he tried again and again and failed. It was only when he painted out the face of the man he hated and put another in its place that he had a clear picture of the Lord’s countenance. His hatred, you see, had created a “dead spot” between him and the work he was doing. His hatred of the man had to be put right before even his marvelous ability would produce one of the greatest works of all time.

Today, let’s address an issue that’s all around us. It’s thick in the atmosphere. It’s called hate. If we don’t recognize this current hate climate change, we will become like it.

Honestly, I’m going to hate writing this article on hate. I like my articles positive and hopeful. But this one is helpful. You would think no one would want negative, divisive stuff all the time. But media ratings show us a different picture. These days hate, conflict, strife, and war sells more than love, truth, unity and peace. Hate increases media profits. Hate destroys relationships, people, countries and understanding. Hate creates an us-them, win-lose, and right-wrong adversarial climate. Hate is the conquest of the hyphen, dividing and subtracting rather than multiplying and adding.

As hate increases, love decreases. Jesus revealed a future time when people’s love will grow cold and hate would grow hot. “At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.”

Notice the progression. People who used to be different but get along separate and betray one another. That produces hate. Then there will be false voices who mislead, pouring fuel on the fire of hate, making good things bad things and vice versa. Then comes lawlessness, where the end justifies the means. Where you hate who is not for you. Then real love for most is far and away.

Did you know actual physical changes in our brain occur when hate is activated? Here’s an article written by Esther Inglis-Arkell of The Daily Explainer in November 10, 2014. It’s entitled, “Here's What Your Brain Is Doing When You Really, Really Hate Someone.”

“Scientists have spotted the parts of the brain that light up when we actively hate someone. In 2008, two scientists decided to launch a study to investigate whether the emotion of hatred was rooted in some consistent biology. They asked subjects to stare first at the picture of a person the subjects had neutral feelings toward, and then at the picture of someone they hated. The subjects did this while hooked up to an MRI, allowing the researchers to see which parts of the brain were activated and deactivated. Doctors Zeki and Romaya were gratified to find that everyone in the study hated individuals the same way.

The parts of the brain activated, the medial frontal gyrus, the right putamen, the medial insula, and the premotor cortex, have come to be known as the "hate circuit." The premotor cortex is one part of the brain that springs into action when people have feelings of aggression. When we hate, at least part of us is preparing for a physical attack. The frontal gyrus deals with self-awareness and is involved in go/no go decisions. The putamen gets engaged when people are in love, but it also activates when people feel contempt or disgust. The putamen also lights up when a person is planning aggressive acts.

Hate is characterized not just by areas of brain activity but by areas of brain inactivity. The superior frontal gyrus is correlated with self-awareness and laughter, so it's not surprising that it's repressed when a person hates. The section that is deactivated is near a section of the brain which, when repressed, seems to increase obsessive-compulsive behavior. When we hate, we fail to laugh, and we may get a bit obsessive.” In other words, when you start hating, you stop thinking logically.

Here’s some dark rewards of hate. If you hate, you will be like Leonardo da Vinci painting the person’s face you hate on everything and everyone you see. You’ll become obsessive. You’ll lose perspective. Your insight will disappear. No amount of logic will change you. Hating is like burning your own house down to kill a rat. Hating is the tail wagging the dog. You become what you focus on.

Author C.S. Lewis enlightens us further. “I remember Christian teachers telling me I must hate a bad man’s actions but not the man. I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: How could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this to all my life – namely, myself.”

You see, hating is self-punishment in disguise. Let’s build a bridge over the troubled waters of hate and get over it!

Ed Delph May 8, 2019 CCC