This question will be coming to you soon: “When a brain surgeon sticks an electric probe in your angular gyrus (within the inferior parietal lobe) you will have an out-of-body experience…soooo…is that God?, or just a probe in your head?” Put another way, “if ‘God experiences’ can be duplicated neurologically, where does that leave God?” Smart kids are already asking something like this (probably in the form of “How do you know God isn’t just something we invented in our heads?”) All kids will eventually get around to it. So what are you going to say youth worker, parent, pastor, mentor, teacher?
This is one simple example of why Christians need to be learning about what is coming out of the brain sciences these days.
Brain researchers are defining what it means to be human in magnificent and insightful ways. Christians run the risk of appearing to be pre-Copernican Neanderthals (Copernicus was the monk who said the earth revolves around the sun-not the other way around…it didn’t go well for him with the religious leaders of the day…even if he was right.) living in ignorance of how the sciences are changing our perceptions of ourselves and everything around us. Unless we engage brain science discoveries we’ll either end up appearing foolish, or the inevitable backlash against these new insights will make Christians look ignorant…as well as foolish.
If Christians found Copernicus or Darwin (many Christians still live in denial of his work) hard to fathom, swallow, or engage; brain studies bring it to a whole new level. For whereas Copernicus changed our understanding of our place in the solar system, and Darwin changed our understanding of how (not why) we came to be, brain studies could change our very definition of ourselves. In the past this has been the realm of philosophers, theologians, and religious doctrine. It could be superseded by researchers and the machines that are looking into our brains while they are working.
I’ve outlined the danger of not engaging these insights, but the upside of engaging them represents a truly incredible opportunity. In this blog I’ll be writing weekly about the upside. Christians can learn at the molecular level how God makes and sustains us, AND we can enter a conversation that often reaffirms the wisdom of Christian Scripture, tradition and practices.
What will not go away is the ongoing research and the implications of the research for human growth, development, learning, spiritual formation and community. Stay tuned!
I applaud you for raising this topic, Paul. It’s always frustrating to me when people assume that Christian faith and science are somehow antithetical to each other. Fundamentalists may reject evolution, for example, and in numbers sufficient (and sufficiently vocal) to get the media to believe that this is the majority (or — heaven forbid — even monolithic) view among Christians! But many of us Christians are perfectly content to live in a world that’s 4.5-4.6 billion years old, where species evolve and yes, the world isn’t flat. Why can’t natural selection be a part of God’s divine creative plan, after all? I marvel and am awed at nature at work — and God’s power at work in it. God’s activity of creating continues — eternal, immeasurable, uncontainable by human dimensions or ideology!
Brain science is yet one more amazing frontier of discovery — revealing far more questions and greater complexity than any yearned-for answers that fit neatly in someone’s simplistic notions of what creation must look like.
A great topic, Paul, for thinking Christian people — I look forward to your thoughts in future entries!
By: Dick Wehrs on September 19, 2011
at 8:11 pm
Thanks for your comments Dick!
By: Paul Hill on September 22, 2011
at 11:03 pm
Awesome stuff! Keep it comin’ Paul. Grateful for it all.
By: Pr. Jack Diehl + on September 20, 2011
at 3:38 am
Thanks Jack, good to hear from you. The pictures of the construction are awesome.
By: Thoughts From Paul Hill on September 20, 2011
at 6:25 pm
I look forward to following this discussion.
By: Michael Buller on September 20, 2011
at 4:17 pm
Thanks Michael, more to come! I love this brain stuff.
By: Thoughts From Paul Hill on September 20, 2011
at 6:25 pm
I find that the more we learn the more we learn what we don’t know. I am in awe of how complex and yet at times how simple the human body is, which leads to awe for the detailed work of our creator. I look forward to your upcoming posts!
By: Claire Meyer on September 21, 2011
at 6:32 pm
Thanks for your comments, I appreciate the affirmation.On
By: Thoughts From Paul Hill on September 21, 2011
at 8:48 pm
I just finished a book called “Life in the Frontal Lobe” by Katrina Firlik. She is a neurosurgeon. She has some great stories about the brain, research, humanity, the mind, and life in the OR. (Interestingly, in one part of the book she talks about growing up Lutheran but does not claim to be part of any denomination currently.)
It’s a good read for anyone who wants to learn more about the physiology of the amazing brain!
By: Dawn Rundman on September 29, 2011
at 8:23 pm