Is This Your Brain on God? :NPR (Quoting from Part 2: The God Spot)
During epileptic seizures, sufferers often claim to hear the voice of angels or of God. Some epileptologists believe that many of the great religious figures, such as Moses and St. Paul, had epilepsy. Now neurologists believe they've found the sweet spot for spiritual experience -- in the temporal lobe. Some scientists say the temporal lobe, which is associated with emotion and memory, is the seat of spirituality. It's also where epileptic activity takes place.
How does the capacity for reasoning, present in us all, produce such varied perceptions and conclusions? One would assume, with all that we share in common as human beings, that our individuality and deep moral/spiritual convictions emanate from choices arrived at via personal experience, culture and learning, combined with the exercise of our own wills.
How do you genetically explain a reasoned faith? ...one that is born of observation, investigation and objectivity? ...one where weird manifestations, visions and superstitious propensities are just not present? (Oh, and no epilepsy, either)
Does the distinction between the commonality inherent to all human existence and the individuality we exude with its multitudinous configurations depend entirely on the human genome?
People of faith have a "God spot" while faithless people do not?
Determinism? Biologically pre-programmed? Even assuming that, the staggering complexity of the human genome...
Genome (...the full DNA sequence of an organism) "the human genome contains approximately three billion chemical base pairs"...points more to a Creator than to a theory of an upward-stumbling process of natural selection.
Maybe we all really come from God as created in his image, but some of us have been hampered because we were born with a "skeptic spot" that hinders us from reasoning properly about Him. For some, anything that puts God in doubt gives them a buzz from their cranked up skeptic spot.
Even if there really is a God spot, then I will refuse to accept its existence until they show me where their skeptic spot is. Can't have one without the other...
Also, if they can find my God spot, then I want them to show me my peanut butter spot, my hot sauce in my oatmeal spot, and my Robert Johnson blues spot. Why do I crave these things? Please tell me that I do not have a blog spot, too. (no wait, I do)
I find it demeaning that some in the scientific community apparently pretend to diminish my capacity to reason and make personal decisions on moral grounds... that I cannot help myself for believing in God... I was born with a God-spot.
If it's true, then they should be kind and patient toward me. Maybe they need to revisit a recent musical treatise on the subject by one of their philosophical contemporaries: "Born This Way", by Lady Gaga. Hey, if they are right, then she is, too.
In spite of them, I still feel like an individual with the capacity to think for myself. I do not feel like a Neanderthal because I accept the Bible as God's Word. In fact, the way God constantly forces me to see myself as what I really am, makes me think that I have never been more of an objective reasoner than I am now with an open Bible before me.
Sure... that also means that the people I listen to earn the right to be listened to. Just because someone raises their voice, thumps a pulpit and turns purple in the process does not mean that they have my attention more than do others. I never wanted to be a mindless follower. Jesus never wanted mindless followers.
True Christians have responded to the call of Jesus Christ... something pure and clear and unadulterated that exists outside of our respective genomes.
“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” (Joh 10:25-27 AV)
Saving faith in Jesus Christ is not about genetics; it is about God's election. Now there is a mystery worth unraveling!
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Hello, Brother!
ReplyDeleteCatching up on some back blogs. Thanks for this perspective. A friend of mine has been challenging me to consider why I can make up my mind about what I believe. He feels that to believe something is to set up your mind in concrete and close your eyes. We have had some great discussions where I showed him that the relationship is like love, just because you are committed does not me that you have shut up your mind or set it in concrete. He is concerned that people continue to learn, grow and change as they find more truth. He feels that the essence of life is a convergence of truth. I have been able to chanllenge him that faith is also dynamic, it is a process of learning and discovery. But, we do have a starting point from which we proceed. He seems to genuinely seek. Please remember L___.
Grace to you!
Hey... great hearing from you again!! Wish I could sit in and listen to those discussions... Praying... Un abrazote!!
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