Teaching Our Brains to Think
by Dave & Mary Jo Nutting

Our brains are tremendously designed control centers that do more than any computer has ever done. It should be obvious after reading this issue of Think & Believe why our brains could not have evolved through chance processes.

However, there is a significant part of our society that is trying to convince us that there is no Creator and that brains were not designed. This is having devastating effects on us and our children. Many unknowingly begin to accept this non-God bias.

The verse that keeps coming back to us time and again is Colossians 2:8 which says:
“Beware lest any man spoil you [take you captive] through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” According to this, there is a battle for our minds, but fortunately, there is something we can actively do to keep ourselves and our children from falling prey (or perhaps even rescue them from the mire).

According to Romans 1, God’s power and divine nature are clearly seen through His creation, so there is no excuse for unbelief. The evidence is all around us. However, we can be taken captive and led astray from this truth by evolutionary interpretations of the evidence (or by an unwillingness to honor God as God and give Him thanks). Taking people back to the truth of God’s Word in creation can help prevent casualties and rescue others who have already been taken captive.

We are reminded of the words of a man we met who was an atheist before hearing the creation mesage: “The evidence you presented blew my mind. I’m not sure you know it, but you are leaving a trail of blown minds all across the country.” He became a believer and a strong advocate of the creation teaching which God used to rescue him from the mire of evolution and unbelief.

II Corinthians 10:5 is a key to keep us from being taken captive. It says, “[We are] casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” That is an active faith, not a passive one. This is done through much prayer and actively teaching the truth of creation, the truth of God’s Word, and the truth of God’s character.

In Mark 12:30, Jesus says to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How can we love God with all our mind if our thinking is filtered through a world-taught, frequently anti-God, evolutionary bias? Romans 12:2 says “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Let’s break out of the world’s mold and actively teach ourselves and our children to use our marvelously-designed brains to honor, praise, and thank our great Creator God.

Mind Boggling Brain Facts
by Dr. Dan Korow

• Weighs only 2-3 pounds
• Compactly designed to fit inside the human skull
• Contains about 10 billion neurons, and 100 billion glial cells
• Has an estimated 100 trillion synapses (neuron interconnections)
• Performs 1015 computations per second
• Holds at least 1014 bits (binary digits) of information
• Potential brain capacity is estimated at 20 million books- filling a 500 mile bookshelf
• Filters irrelevant stimuli or information from important data
• Directs and controls sequential brain activity like a “Central Programming Unit”
• Recalls facts and events
• Recognizes objects and faces
• Remembers navigational routes
• Reasons, plans & solves complex problems
• Comprehends written & verbal languages
• Develops & fine tunes grammatical & pronunciation skills
• Appreciates visual beauty & the musical arts
• Intimately associated with emotional states, morals, and behaviors
• Regulates & coordinates tissue function from the cellular level leading to muscle activity
• Initiates innovative and creative activity
• Senses humor
• Integrates all the above features and yet functions as one unit!
Aren’t you glad you don’t have to think about doing all of that? If computers, which can’t do a fraction of these functions, can’t happen by accident, how could the brain be merely a product of time and chance?

The Human Brain Evolved? That's Inconceivable!
by Dr. Dan Korow

We’ve been told that the mindless process of evolution produced a thinking brain over billions of years. Yet today’s brightest scientists and their greatest technological advances are still incapable of duplicating the human brain’s awesome potential. They concede that the computer on our shoulders is still the very best one in the universe.

On June 28, 2000, IBM proudly announced their newest and most powerful super computer, “ASCI White.” They proclaimed that it performs 12.3 trillion operations per second. It has 8,192 microprocessors, and is 1000 times more powerful than their prior computer, “ASCI Blue.” It covers 9,920 square feet of floor space, spanning an equivalent of two NBA Basketball Courts, and weighs a mere 106 tons. This is pretty massive!

But how does this technological achievement compare to the mere 2 or 3 pound, compact, human brain? The Associated Press reported “[IBM’s] latest machine is intended to continue the advance toward matching and eventually surpassing the computing capacity of the human brain.”1 Did you catch that? Compared to the world’s greatest super computer, the human brain remains superior. If computers don’t happen by accident, neither can the brain!

I believe God alone should be given due credit as the Grand Designer, and Creator of all things. This self evident truth is ever present in every day routine activities.

Consider the “simple process” of reading this article. In less than a 1/5 of a second, the title word “Inconceivable” is directed from this article to our amazing eye, then to the front of the brain’s left hemisphere. Now begins the interpretation of its meaning! At the very same time, a different frontal brain region considers other potential meanings. Still within this first second, after the frontal region has applied a meaning, a back region of the left hemisphere becomes active. It’s then believed that the individual meaning of the word is harmonized within the context of the phrase, or sentence.2

Sentence reading is an even more incredibly complex process. Please never again say, “I’m just, simply reading.” Instead, give God the glory for His wise design.

The brain also enhances reading comprehension by suppressing useless stimuli from even entering into the mind. For example, background noise and the constant stimulation of clothing touching our skin is routinely ignored. Incredibly, 99% of all sensory information is rejected as insignificant and warrants no response.3 Only when important information is perceived are the impulses channeled to the appropriate regions in the brain.

Lastly, the brain is also programmed with a “rerouting format” that makes it far superior to any known computer. Science News explains, “…the brain maintains a distinct advantage over the computer—resilience. When crucial interactions between neurons falter, the brain reroutes signals in an attempt to maintain the ability to think, remember, and perceive.” In the same article, neurologist and computer scientist, James Reggia, of the University of Maryland in College Park says, “When you damage just one small part of the computer, the whole thing will collapse. The brain is very different. It is able to adjust its own circuitry.”4

It is inconceivable to praise evolution for the brain’s formation, or it’s ability to monitor, maintain, and regulate all the bodily functions. The precious gift of memory and the tremendous variety of brain
functions testifies of an all knowing, all wise, Creator and Savior. To Him alone, should we devote our hearts, and dedicate our minds.

1Big Blue Announces Big, Fast Computer, Associated Press, D. Ian Hopper, The Colorado Springs Gazette, June 29, 2000.

2Science News, Making Cerebral Sense of Words, March 11, 1995, vol.147, No. 10,
p.157

3Textbook of Medical Physiology, Guyton, 1981, pp.560-561

4Mimicking the Brain; Using computers to investigate neurological disorders, Science News, July 22, 1995, Vol.148, No. 4, p.62