November 23, 2008
Steve Collins
In Psalm 139:14, David wrote that our bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” David penned that observation based on his human observation of our bodies and minds in action. Through such discoveries as DNA research and organic molecular chemistry, modern science has learned that our bodies are incredibly more complex and wonderful in their operations than David could possibly have imagined.
A reader sent the link below which details recent a remarkable new scientific discovery of a neural activity mode in the human brain which was previously unknown to science. Daniel 12:4 prophesied that as we neared the end of our age, knowledge would be “increased.” This has literally come to pass as amazing technological breakthroughs have come rapidly in the last few decades! Daniel’s prophecy actually predicts an exponential increase in mankind’s knowledge in the latter days. The Hebrew word for “increase” (“rabah”) is the same word used in Genesis 7:17 to describe how the waters “increased” exponentially on the earth in the global Flood of Noah’s time. The waters that flooded the entire planet for a time represented an exponential increase in the amount of water, so we should understand the “increase” of mankind’s knowledge in the latter days would also indicate an exponential increase in knowledge levels. This prophecy has been literally fulfilled. [Those who wish more detailed examinations of the many biblical prophecies about the latter days which have been literally fulfilled in our modern world are referred to the article at this website entitled “Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?”]
The link below details a sophisticated, but newly-discovered, “default” mode of the brain which functions at a high level when it is not occupied with some cognitive task. Such functions as daydreaming, introspection, etc. are proposed as tasks for this “default” brain mode. Since our brains are organic computers, a computer analogy might be appropriate in understanding this new “active” default mode of the brain at rest. Even as computers can do self-diagnostic programs, run antivirus scans, update software programs, etc., our brains apparently can do the same thing…without our cognitive minds doing the work. It seems this “default” activity in the brain remains in “stand-by” mode while the brain is actively involved with normal cognitive functions and then it switches on when the mind is “at rest” from such cognitive functions. This discovery is deemed so seminal in importance that it is likened to the discovery of a “new continent” in geographical studies.
This newly-discovered brain mode involves far more than “daydreaming.” I suggest that this previously-unknown neural network may also be involved in such things as imaging, meditation, etc. The Bible may also have a possible answer. I Corinthians 2:10-12 relates that all humans have a “spirit of man” that is in them. This human spirit is the invisible part of our being which can relate to spiritual concepts and realities. This same passage states that the Spirit of God, when given to a human, can enable humans to understand things about Divine and spiritual matters which the “spirit of man” cannot possible understand or grasp by itself. Genesis 1:26-27 quotes the Divine Elohim as saying that they were making mankind “in our image” (“Elohim” is a plural word and Moses chose that word when he wrote the Torah), so mankind was pre-wired to relate to the spiritual realities of the Elohim (“God”) and the Divine realm, but it is only the Spirit of God which enables mankind to make sense of spiritual realities. II Corinthians 2:14 adds that unless the Spirit of God is added to a human spirit, Divine and spiritual realities are “foolishness” to humans who have only the normal “spirit of man” in their brains.
Perhaps the new neural network discovered in the brain not only performs “default” activities necessary to normal brain functioning, but perhaps it also is part of the neural circuitry which can respond to the Spirit of God and higher spiritual concepts. What is for certain is that this new brain discovery confirms that the human brain/body is far more complex than scientists have previously realized. Each new discovery of the stunningly-complex mechanisms within the human body affirms that it is “fearfully and wonderfully made” by a Divine Creator who designed and engineered every minute aspect of not only our bodies, but those of every living creature that exists. Each new discovery should convince us that there is an all-Wise, all-powerful Divine Creator who made us, but the evolutionists and knee-jerk God-rejecting mindset of modern academia cannot accept this simple and obvious truth. David also noted in Psalm 14:1 that only “fools” deny the existence of a Creator God. Paul wrote in I Timothy 6:20 that the truth would be denied by the “oppositions of science falsely so called,” and in Romans 1:18-28 that people would someday “hold back” the obvious truth about a Divine Creator because they did not want “to retain God in their knowledge.” We live in an age where Daniel’s and Paul’s predictions have both come to pass.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026811.500-the-secret-life-of-the-brain.html
