Breaking habits & Redemption

Edwin Ray Guthrie developed several theories, including that of breaking habits. In Guthrie’s theory, he believed that a habit is an act that has become associated with a large number of stimuli. Therefore when there are more stimuli available when the act is present, the habit is stronger. The example he gave was smoking. Guthrie stated that this habit could be strong because of the amount of stimuli present. The way in which he proposed this habit should be broken is through performing another act rather than eliciting the desirable act. For Guthrie, he replaced smoking with eating an apple, and therefore the new, desirable act is elicited by the stimuli rather than the old, undesirable act.

            I believe that concepts of this theory can be similar to that of the redemption process. As one becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, their old self is in the process of being transformed. Often times, old habits or old ways of doing things must be broken. I believe that one of the primary ways of doing this is through prayer. Rather than acting on the “old habit,” one replaces that with prayer for strength or courage or whatever the need may be to get through the situation. While I believe that prayer is more than a means by which to break habits, it seems to make sense viewing this theory through a purely scientific approach.