Counseling News from the Week of September 18, 2026
Explanation: Although I scan the Internet primarily for counseling articles, in the process I run across quotes and interesting facts that I sometimes include in these first two sections. If you’re just interested in the counseling articles, you can skip these first two sections and go directly to the section called Counseling Articles.
Interesting Quotes
“Man cannot create the current of events. He can only float with it and steer.”
Otto von Bismarck
"Life’s short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there is no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands, and buts."
Amy Winehouse
“Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it does not matter.”
Roger Scruton
Fascinating Facts: I’m not including anything in this section to leave room for counseling-related articles.
Counseling Articles
Can Science Prove God Exists?
Although this is not a counseling article, many young people and some of your clients may struggle with whether science and rational arguments best support idea that the universe has always existed or whether it was created at a certain point in time, and if so, who or what created it? And secondly, does the evidence suggest an creator who intelligently designed this creation or is intelligent design pseudoscience?
I think these two questions are so important and may be so important to at least some of your clients, that I am making a thorough outline of the points in this 51-minute interview. I would encourage you to copy this first and second article and keep it on your computer to use with 8clients to whom you believe it would help.
In this 51-minute interview, created on May 4, 2026, Dr. Stephen Meyer discusses with Shabbos Kestenbaum, a traditional Jew, the question of whether science can prove God exists and whether the premise of intelligent design is based on science or is pseudoscience. I have tried to summarize the major points from this 51-minute interview below, so you do not have to listen to it all yourself.
Stephen Meyers gives several rational arguments about why he believes it is more reasonable to believe that God exists, that God is an incredible computer programmer, an outstanding engineer, and an extraordinarily gifted artist, and that He intelligently designed the universe and life rather than the universe and life came into being through naturalistic processes. In the first microseconds following the creation of the universe He set in motion several intricate processes which, if they were off by just a miniscule factor, would prevent life from ever developing. This fact in itself indicates that God has an intelligence that far exceeds our own.
Some of the rational reasons he cites for believing in intelligent design include:
- 1. Early atheistic scientists asserted that the universe had always existed: therefore there was no need for a Creator. Einstein had realized that, if there was not some pressure pushing outward on planetary bodies, they would eventually collapse into the center. Since this was not happening he hypothesized an outward force that was preventing this from happening. Atheistic scientists who wanted to affirm that the universe was eternal agreed with this.
- 2. However, a French and Russian scientist started questioning Einstein’s theory, and research from the Hubble telescope in the 1920s revealing the red shift began a cascade of gradually accumulating evidence that showed that the universe was expanding and had a beginning.
- 3. This is now accepted by most scientists. It appears that all time, matter, and energy appeared out of nothing approximately 13.8 billion years ago, and then life began to appear shortly after that. Einstein eventually conceded that the hypothetical force he concocted to create the theory of a “steady state universe” was the greatest blunder of his life. Other scientists have said that based on the astronomical information we now have, that the beginning of the universe is very consistent with what we learn from the opening chapters in Genesis and the rest of the Bible.
- 4. Precise fine-tuning: there seem to be a few hundred variables that have to be precisely tuned in order for life to exist, and the possibility that all these variable found this order by chance is so mathematically implausible that even if one posits an almost infinite number of multiverses, it seems unlikely that all these variables could exist in any or been created in one of these universes. And there is no scientific evidences for any universe except our own. This theory of multiverses was concocted to explain how all these precisely fine-tuned variables could exist in ours. And even if one did find a universe that had all these precisely fine-tuned variables, the creation of that universe would have had to be precisely fine-tuned, so this just pushes the argument back one step further.
- 5. The Cambrian explosion: During the Cambrian period there was a rapid expansion of genuses and species that is not explainable through naturalistic Darwinian processes.
- 6. The existence of highly complex organisms early in the earth’s history.Darwin hypothesized that organisms developed gradually over millions of years through minor genetic changes. But we see that early in world history there were complex organisms. These organisms could not function unless every organ had been fully developed and functioned. Also to contradict the Darwinian hypothesis, most genetic mutations result in organisms that cannot survive and reproduce, rather than organisms that are more effective in living.
- 7. DNA:The discovery of DNA and RNA by Watson and Crick showed that life is formed when proteins are assembled by DNA and RNA in precise sequences, and if any of these sequences are slightly off, the organ or organism will not function or reproduce. The DNA has been likened to a highly sophisticated computer program more sophisticated than anything humans have yet developed.
- 8. Every theory must have some explanation of how everything began. Theism posits a self-existent being (or a pre-existent mind) who created the material universe. Naturalism says that energy and matter have always existed. The question is which of those two theories is better supported by the data. Theists would say that based on the information in many of the point above the data supports theism and an intelligent designer rather than naturalism.
- 9. One controversy between those who believe in intelligent design is the difference between those who believe that God causes every single action that happens versus those who believe that God created general laws of nature and then lets those general laws determine everything that happens. Meyers takes a middle position: he believes God created general laws, but then occasionally he intervenes (e.g. when He answers prayer and produces an unexpected healing) and operates outside the normal processes of nature.
- 10. Meyers concludes that science cannot absolutely prove or absolutely disprove that God exists, but he believes that science gives us enough proof that we can conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that God exists.
- Click here to watch the full documentary
This Documentary Helps Christians Answer ‘Why’ They Believe
This is a second non-counseling article that I recommend you download to your computer to use when you have a client whom you believe might benefit from it.
Many Christians believe their faith is true, but don’t know how to justify why their faith is true in the face of arguments given by atheists. So if you have clients who have doubts about the validity of their faith, or don’t know how to support their faith, or whose children may be exposed to atheistic teachers in school and be confused by some of their arguments this film, Universe Designed, is available through Amazon to rent for $5.00.
Click here to read the full article
What Relationship Experts Will Never Tell You About Compatibility
Here is a relatively in-depth article that includes several important insights into compatibility, some of which you may not have been aware of.
Click here to read the full article
When a Teen Violates Your Trust
When a teen breaks a parent’s trust it’s normal to feel angry. Mark Gregston has some excellent advice about what parents can do beforehand to set up a relationship that decreases the chances teens will violate their trust, but then some also excellent advice about what to do when that does occur.
Click here to read the full article
How A.D.H.D. Changes as You Age
This is from the New York Times, so you may or may not be able to read it. The content is too complex to summarize totally, but a synopsis is that for some people with ADHD symptoms may decrease in adulthood (especially for those with milder symptoms), for some they stay the same, and for some they may wax and wane during adulthood. The article starts out with the story of a middle-aged mother who discovered the reason for her difficulties while growing up after learning her children had ADHD and then recognizing the same symptoms in herself (a not uncommon happening).
Click here to read the full article
Is my spouse attracted to me?
This is a summary and discussion of the answers of both husbands and wives to questions about their attraction to their spouses, the frequency and quality of their sex lives, and the amount of temptation they have toward other people outside their marriage.
Click here to read the full article
My Christian husband messaged his mistress from our bed. This is how I recovered
This is from the Telegraph, a British newspaper, so you won’t be able to read it without a subscription. Jen Hatmaker is a Christian author and influencer with 1½ million followers. Six years ago she woke up at 2:30 a.m., to hear her husband tell his girlfriend in a drunken voice that he couldn’t live without her.
That morning more details about the affair came out (she previously had no inkling that it was occurring), which Jen talks about in her 14th book, Awake. He had been having an affair for some time, had spent considerable money on her, and had met her several times at the family’s vacation home. So that day her husband, an ex-pastor and the father of their five children moved out and they eventually divorced. Their children and Jen have apparently made peace and have a semi-amicable relationship with the new wife. The book Awake describes the process she has gone through to recover from this incident.
I’m including this in case you have a client who might benefit from reading her book. When there has been infidelity I don’t think divorce is the only option, although it is a biblical option. But if there is confession and repentance, attempting to rebuild the marriage is also a biblical option.
Click here to read the full article
Motherhood in the Trenches: What Do We Owe Postpartum Women?
The recent focus on Lindsay Clancy has emphasized the struggles some post-partum women experience. Besides the interrupted sleep, the struggles caused by fluctuating hormones, the exhaustion that many experience, there may be also the pressure from feminists who believe that women should be working outside the home, and attachment theorists, who believe women should spend every available moment bonding with their child.
This author, who has six children, shares some of the counsel and things she has learned about navigating post-partum challenges. Some women revel in motherhood, as she did with her first four children, but then some difficulties developed with the birth of her fifth child, and she draws from her experience with her fifth and sixth children in ways that may be helpful to other mothers.
Click here to read the full article
Can a Happy Marriage Protect Against Heart Disease?
Heart disease is a major killer of men. And the research is clear: a happy marriage reduces the chances of cardiac mortality by 30 to 60%. Taking statins is also important for married and unmarried men, but they seem to help happily married men more.
However, marriage itself is not protective. Men in marriages they rated as unhappy had worse outcomes than happily married men.
Click here to read the full article
https://ifstudies.org/blog/can-a-happy-marriage-protect-against-heart-disease
How Fatherhood Transforms Men: An Interview with Darby Saxbe
Darby Saxbe has invested considerable time examining how fatherhood transforms men, including doing brain scans on men following the birth of their children. She has written a book, Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and how it Shapes Men’s Lives. Based on her brain scans and interviews with men on four continents, she has concluded that “fatherhood transforms men almost as much as motherhood transforms women, and that our science, our workplaces, and our culture need to be updated in light of this reality.”
Saxbe realized that fatherhood has been historically understudied, but the research that was out there showed that when fathers are more involved in raising their children, it improves their children’s lives in a number of dimensions. Interesting field of research, and one that could have importat implications for the future of parenting.
Click here to read the full article
Intrusive Thoughts in Bipolar Disorder: How to Stop the Loop
Many types of clients struggle with intrusive thoughts, but these may be even more prevalent in the lives of bipolar patients. These strategies may be helpful for such clients.
Click here to read the full article
How Your Brain Heals Itself
I’m not sure if you can access this article if you’re not a member of AARP, but if there’s a one-time way to do it, I’d encourage it.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about neuroplasticity. The brain is constantly growing new neurons and connections, but this article is primarily about functional neuroplasticity, where parts of the brain take over functions previously handled by other parts, as when there is physical trauma to the brain or a stroke which damages certain parts of the brain.
We used to think that patients with brain damage could only recover some functions in the first few months after a trauma or stroke, but now it appears that neuroplasticity can allow functions to recover over longer periods of time. For example, people who have totally lost the ability to speak are regaining the ability, and people who lost the ability to read are again reading books. Much of this is due to new medical advances, but some is occurring with therapy advances.
Click here to read the full article
Have a wonderful week!
Henry Virkler