Crying—the shedding of tears—has physiological, anthropological, and psychological components. It also has a spiritual component. Read on to find out why the ability to cry is a precious gift from God.
The physiology of tears
Tears are produced by the lachrymal gland. The salt they contain acts as a lubricant; without the moisture provided by tears, our eyeballs would scrape painfully on the insides of our eyelids. (The labels of eye drop and contact lens products show that they usually contain salt.) Tears also contain a mild germicide, lysozyme, which kills bacteria and other potentially harmful microbes.
Most higher animals—those that live in an aerobic (oxygen-containing) environment—produce tears to keep their eyes moist. Constant tears are produced to lubricate the eye at all times; reflex tears arise in response to irritation or injury.
The psychology of tears
Emotional tears are stimulated by happy, sad, or other strong feelings. They eliminate a stress hormone.
While most animals cry tears of physical cause, human beings are the only creatures that cry emotional tears. Charles Darwin said that weeping is “one of the special expressions of man.” (Please see endnote.)
Interestingly, children do not cry at happy endings; the understanding of the fleeting, fragile nature of human happiness comes only with a degree of emotional maturity.
Ancient thoughts about tears
Long ago, in the Eastern part of the world, it was customary for mourners to catch their tears in bottles and place them at the tombs of their loved ones as a visual measure of their grief. Ancient Greeks buried their dead with lacrimatories, vials full of mourners’ tears.
The ancient Greek doctors thought tears originated directly from the brain.
Leonardo daVinci (1452-1519)—famous even in his own time as a master painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, scientist, and inventor—created drawings of the inner workings of the human body that are accurate down to the smallest detail. Yet in one of his drawings he shows a tube going from the tear ducts…to the heart.
These old “anatomically incorrect” depictions of the human crying mechanism, however unscientific, reveal something of the mystical nature of tears attributed to them by societies’ most educated individuals.
The Bible on tears
Consider the psalmist David’s prayer in time of distress: “I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies.” Now compare that (Psalm 6:6), with Psalm 56:8—“You…[p]ut my tears in Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?”
David believed that God was keeping track of each individual teardrop in the rivers he cried.
Scientific corroboration of the special properties of human tears
Science has discovered that each tear—just as every snowflake and every fingerprint—is unique. That is, unique in the pure sense of the word—one of a kind.
Put this discovery together with the psalmist’s thoughts. All the suffering billions of people currently populating the earth, and those already departed, multiplied by the countless tears one can cry in a lifetime…gives us a virtually infinite number of tears, each unique, each saved in a bottle, not one unnoticed by God.
That’s because when we cry, God hears. He may not give us answers; we may not even feel His presence. But there He is, collecting each of our tears in a bottle. That’s a vivid illustration of the special—yes, unique—place of humankind in the realm of living things.
Endnote
Incidentally, Charles Darwin is not the villain as traditionally portrayed in the ongoing battle between evolutionists and creationists. Most of the humanistic, Godless ideas attributed to his belief system were added by others who came later.
2007-03-06 17:31:00
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answer #1
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answered by vipin k 2
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Whenever something irritating happens to a human body, immediately a signal is communicated to the mind. The mind in turn gives guidance/action plan to react to the situation and accordingly other organs of the body take remedial action.In case of physical or emotional pain the mind guides the organs to mitigate the pain or release some sort of chemicals which can reduce the effect of the pain. By crying some harmful chemicals to the human body are released and kicked out of the body. Therefore, by crying remedial action plan to the mis-hap is completed.
2007-03-07 23:28:25
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answer #2
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answered by sb 7
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I'm not sure it's as simple as that. Sentient beings are those "endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness". The murmuring of the subconscious, however you look at it, informs our individual experiences on this planet. You've said that 'grieving' is not productive: but why must emotion be justified to some utilitarian end? It is the free expression of a free being, which should never limit itself to tools like logic and 'common sense'.
2016-03-16 06:22:23
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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Irrespective of what you do, you have and will experience stress at some time in your life. In a recent survey 89% of respondents described experiencing "high levels of stress
Stress is very expensive. Let's look at the statistics:
· Stress is recognized as the number one killer today. The American Medical Association stated that stress was the cause of 80 to 85 percent of all human illness and disease or at the very least had a detrimental effect on our health.
· Every week, 95 million Americans suffer some kind of stress related symptom for which they take medication.
· American businesses lose an estimated $200-$300 billion dollars per year to stress related productivity loss and other cost. To put this in perspective, this amount is higher than the total cost related to all strikes and the net profit from all Fortune 500 companies!
· The American Institute of Stress in Yonkers, New York, estimates that 90 percent of all visits to doctors are for stress-related disorders. In women, stress has been linked to fatigue, hair loss, bad complexion, insomnia, disruption of the menstrual cycle, low libido and lack of orgasm, among others. There's even evidence that it can increase your risk of more serious problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
· Stress speeds up your entire system and produces conditions in younger people that are more commonly associated with growing old. Virtually no part of your body can escape the ravages of stress.
· Studies show that stress can reduce the power of our immune systems. A study in the U.K. exposed 266 people to a common cold virus and then tracked who became sick. 28.6 percent of those with few signs of stress caught the cold. However, the figure jumped to 42.4 percent for those who were under high stress.
· Other studies show that women who have trouble coping with stress may be at risk of building up dangerous abdominal fat. A study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, of 42 obese women found that those with abdominal fat (apple shaped) secreted more stress hormones than those who carry extra weight on their hips (pear shaped). It is known that apple-shaped people are more at risk of heart disease.
· Stress increases heart rate and blood pressure. It changes the inner lining of our blood vessels, making our blood more likely to clot. Stress may change the way cholesterol is handled by our blood vessels and, in doing so, may increase plaque formation.
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2007-03-07 03:49:56
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answer #4
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answered by veerabhadrasarma m 7
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when you are hurt whether emotionally or physically you have to let it out of ur system and our body knows only one tears it releases the pain we carry or at least helps us recuperate better once all the poison is out of ur system u feel better, so we cry
2007-03-07 23:18:30
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answer #5
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answered by ruchika p 2
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the same reason as to why we shriek when pinched.IT HURTS.
2007-03-06 18:26:12
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answer #6
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answered by mots 3
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