Creation and the Human Mind

CEM Online ^ | Dr. Carl Edward Baugh & various

[Cedar]

I. PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE HUMAN MIND...

"...The conscious brain wherein reside reason, judgment, and memory...plus all other parts of brain, occupy the space of a quart container and weigh a total of about three pounds. Though the three pounds represent a mere 2 percent of the body weight.., the quartful of brain is so metabolically active that it uses 20 percent of the oxygen we take in through our lungs...Of the total of about 50,000 to 100,000 genes in Homo sapiens, some 30,000 code for one or another aspect of the brain.''5

"...The brain is different and immeasurably more complicated than anything else in the known universe." 6

The physical brain is comprised of over 100 billion cells, each with over 50,000 neuron connections to other brain cells.7 This structure receives over 100 million separate signals from the total human body every second, and if we learned something new each of these seconds, it would take 3 million years to exhaust the capacity of the brain. 8

II. CAPABILITIES OF THE HUMAN MIND...

The brain allows the finger to feel vibrations of 8/1000 of an inch... Allows the eye to see 10 million different colors...9 Directs:

(1) Central Nervous System

(2) Peripheral Nervous System

(3) Autonomic Nervous System

The brain supports its own optimal blood flow with the designed mechanism called the "Circle of Willis" at its base. 10

Phenomenal brain function is illustrated in the idiot savant syndrome (damage to the left hemisphere during fetal development results in greater development in the right hemisphere). With these individuals who are mentally retarded, incredible mental feats have been observed:

Jedediah Buxton lived in the 1700's and, as an adult, had a mental age of 10. When asked haw many 1/8ths of an inch existed in an area 23,145,789 yards by 5,642,732 yards by 54,965 yards, he gave the correct 28-digit number, then volunteered to give it backward.

"K" as an adult has a mental age of 11 and a working vecabulary of 58 words. Yet, he can give you the name and population of every US city over 5,000 in population, every county seat in the nation, distances of every town from Chicago to New York, and a list of over 2,000 hotels (with names, locations, and number of rooms).

Leslie Lemke is blind and mentally retarded. Yet, he can play any musical rendition after one hearing, and can play it flawlessly the rest of his life. This includes classical works especially. He once played every note of a 45-minute orchestral rendition after a single exposure.

III. THE MIND'S INFLUENCE ON THE REST OF THE HUMAN BODY...

"We do know that thoughts determine moods, and moods reflect changes in both hormonal activity and immune function."11 "The body heals itself." 12 "The brain controls the immune system the same way it controls behavioral activities.''13 "Scientists discover the links between the brain and your health." 14

IV. THE MIND'S RESPONSE TO THE CREATOR...

"The uniquely human 'consciousness' - variously defined as language, introspection, self-awareness, and abstract thinking eludes scientific measurement.[emphasis added]." 15 "People can actually reason, anticipate consequences and devise plans - all without knowing they are doing so.'' 16 We respond because we want to respond!

1 Psalm 139:14

2 Job 38:36

3 Hebrews 8:10

4 Sherwm B. Nuland, The Wisdom of the Body (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997) p. 327

5 Ibid., p. 328

6 Richard M. Restak, The Brain: The Last Frontier, 1979, p. 390

7 The Brain, Our Universe Within, PBS Video

8 Wonders of God's Creation, Moody Video Series

9 Paul A. Bartz, Letting God Create Your Day (Minneapolis: Bible Science Association, 1993), Vol. 4, p. 197

10 M.E. Clark, "Safety Mechanism for the Cerebral Circulation," Paley Watches in the Blood Stream

11 David S. Sobel, MD and Robert Ornstein, PhD, The Healthy Mind Healthy Body, (New York: Time Life Medical, 1996), p. 41

12 Sherry Baker, "Internal Medicine," Omni, January 1991, p. 77

13 Rob Wechsler, "A New Prescription: Mind Over Malady," Discover, Feb., 1987, p. 50

14 Newsweek, November 1988, p. 88

15 Joel L. Swerdlow, "Miracles of the Brain," National Geographic, June 1995, p. 133

16 Joseph Weiss, "Unconscious Mental Functioning," Scientific American, Mar. 1990, p.103

[qam1]

If that is true, why is mental capicity demonstrably linked to biological tissue damage? Why is even moral behavior linked to the same tissue? I remember reading about a fellow who had a railroad spike driven through his skull, who afterwards could not stop himself from cussing or grabbing women inappropriately.

Good point, I knew someone in a car accident who had a head injury with some damage and he is just not the same person he was before. If we are something "mystical" instead of just chemical reactions why would the accident effect his sole.

Plus how does a sole get drunk or have a bad acid trip?

[Melas]

Good point, I knew someone in a car accident who had a head injury with some damage and he is just not the same person he was before. If we are something "mystical" instead of just chemical reactions why would the accident effect his sole.

Plus how does a sole get drunk or have a bad acid trip?

Exactly! Or if the mind is a reflection of the soul, then why do strokes often times remove inhibitions and alter moral behavior?

[Ichneumon]

The only thing neuroscience can prove is that the brain functions and its functioning effects the mind.

And that the mind is dependent upon the brain, and that the activity of the mind is measurable in the brain, etc.

Bodily health effects the mind.

Only to the extent that it affects the brain.

Perception, which is infinitely manipulable, effects the mind.

Only to the extent taht it affects the brain.

What science has verified but won't own up to is that the mind is capable of effecting brain function.

What have you been smoking? Science "owns up to" that just fine. It's a tautology, since the mind *is* brain function.

[Eastbound]

"It is interesting. But is the mind a creation of the brain? If so what lives on after death? If mind is simply the biological functioning of the brain what is there to perceive the experience of heaven, hell or what have you?

Good question. I've always pictured that the physical body is the manifestation of the energy body, with the mind/brain as the interfacing devices between the two. The energy body is invisible and has identity, memory and consciousness apart from the physical body and does not depend on the physical body for survival, though the physical body depends on the energy body for survival, except when factoring in life-support systems. A car/driver kind of a thing.

Difficult to understand, unless you've had a valid out-of-body experience, after which you don't need an explanation.

FWIW, and IMO, the brain processes data inputted from peripheral devices (senses) as well as from memory. The processing includes interrupts for making decisions and choices and/or applying/supplying the information to other processing steps leading to task completion. The realm of time, space and matter, the quantum universe, is the realm of the physical body. Linear time allows events to be separated by distance in order for them to be selected, experienced discretely, examined, understood, judged for their value, and archived in permanent memory.

Life is an eternal series of sub-routines. Sometimes we return to our mainline programming, but not often. It's difficult to feel breezes or smell the roses as an energy body, so we try to keep the bodies together as long as we can ;>

[Matchett-PI]

"No. I prefer to know reality by experience rather than hold to beliefs."

Do you believe others besides yourself have a mind? How do you know that they aren't just pre-programmed robots?

Explain.

[TigersEye]

It's a tautology, since the mind *is* brain function.

You can beleive in fairies if you want to. You can't prove what you are saying.

[TigersEye]

Difficult to understand, unless you've had a valid out-of-body experience, after which you don't need an explanation.

Exactly! For those who haven't ... I guess juggling scientific theories is as good a belief system as any to cling to. Kind of depressing though since theories have to be changed more than a baby on prunes.

[Cedar]

I got the article from this website:

www.creationevidence.org

(sorry I don't know how to make it a clickable link)

[TigersEye]

The realm of time, space and matter, the quantum universe, is the realm of the physical body. Linear time allows events to be separated by distance in order for them to be selected, experienced discretely, examined, understood, judged for their value, and archived in permanent memory. Life is an eternal series of sub-routines. Sometimes we return to our mainline programming, but not often. It's difficult to feel breezes or smell the roses as an energy body, so we try to keep the bodies together as long as we can

Now there's a sensible analysis. The brain no doubt is highly involved in the phenomena of 'mind' but brain only accounts for the most base or gross levels of mind. I have no doubt that most of what the brain does in terms of mind does not survive death of the body but then most of what does survive is rarely noticed while mind is attached to a body-with-brain IMO.

[Cedar]

I can't explain all the associated problems that come with physical damage to the brain, but this I know: everyone's spirit will leave their physical body at death, and they will either spend the rest of eternity with the Lord in joy and peace, or without Him in torment.

[Ichneumon]

The brain no doubt is highly involved in the phenomena of 'mind' but brain only accounts for the most base or gross levels of mind. I have no doubt that most of what the brain does in terms of mind does not survive death of the body but then most of what does survive is rarely noticed while mind is attached to a body-with-brain IMO.

"You can beleive in fairies if you want to. You can't prove what you are saying."

[Ichneumon]

You can't prove what you are saying.

Sure I can.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Phenomenal brain function is illustrated in the idiot savant syndrome (damage to the left hemisphere during fetal development results in greater development in the right hemisphere). With these individuals who are mentally retarded, incredible mental feats have been observed:

Its been years, but I remember reading a report from a psychiatrist who had been able to become an idiot savant after a lengthy period of rigorous training.

[TigersEye]

It's a tautology, since the mind *is* brain function.

You can't prove what you are saying.

Sure I can.

How?

[TigersEye]

Do you believe others besides yourself have a mind?

What I believe is irrelevant. Beliefs, as juxtaposed to knowledge, are in the realm of theories. They are, by definition, unprovable. Unfortunately knowledge is also unprovable but it can be shared. It is not easy to share knowledge though because it can't be given. You can point someone towards it but it won't be theirs until they experience it directly and no one can create that in another.

How do you know that they aren't just pre-programmed robots? Explain.

I don't. I don't know that they aren't products of my own mind either. I also don't know that others aren't projections of some other mind. My perceived experience of 'others', and in fact all phenomena, is so conditioned by the assumptions acquired from countless other experiences that the thought process has become hopelessly prejudiced and therefore unreliable as a means of knowing reality. Knowing comes through direct experience (not thinking [which is limited to logic and rationalizations which are formed upon assumptions] and not through emotions which are similarly conditioned) and I have not directly experienced the mind of any other. At least not in a manner that removes all doubts.

[Junior]

Brain damage has been shown to alter personality and thought processes.

[William Terrell]

. . .but all in all, the idea that reality springs from belief is so easily disproved I'm amazed sentient beings still cling to it.

Actually the biggest part of your reality is your personal experience of objects and events. This is completely determined by your beliefs. In addition, whole segments of knowledge and perception of physical existence can be edited out of your reality by your beliefs.

This is not a theory. It's observable in its more dramatic form in feminists and socialists. Scam artists and confidence men depend on it.

[TigersEye]

Are personality or thought processes all there is to mind?
Even the severely brain damaged have awareness.
I can't prove that awareness exists after death and you can't prove that it doesn't. It's a stalemate.

[js1138]

and if we learned something new each of these seconds, it would take 3 million years to exhaust the capacity of the brain.

Apparently the authors are three million and one years old. LOL. Talking about the "capacity" of the brain is so 1950.

[js1138]

Vitalism has been dead in biology for nearly a century now.

But not dead on FR.