I am posting a new third part of the blog, “Waves in Our Brains,” previously posted in two parts. My research continues, and I find it important to supplement what I shared in that two-part blog in relation to the hypothesis I recorded in my first book, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man through Neural Synaptic Networks. I will continue to expand on this third part in subsequent blogs, drawing from both neuroscientific literature and applicable Scripture.
The Hypothesis
The Mind of the personal God interacts with the immaterial mind of Man by the atoning grace of God through the living Jesus Christ in our time. His Holy Spirit indwells a receptive, repentant human spirit with the power to interact with the chemical neural synaptic network of the cerebral cortex, the predominate site for cognition. Synaptic transmission is stochastic, and it proposed that a nonmaterial energy from the Mind of God induces the synaptic transmission of specified information to the mind of Man by quantum tunneling across presynaptic vesicular grids and synaptic clefts. Information specified in variable expressions is transmitted with a statistically small probability and is distributed through synaptic networks as encoded spike trains of action potentials, a mechanism without violation of the energy conservation law. The human mind has the unique capacity to interpret meaning and purpose within the linguistic neural codes developed through lifelong learning and archived in memory.
Expansion of The Hypothesis
Drawing upon the blog posts composed from my more recent studies, the content of my books and from books by Stephen C. Meyer and William A. Dembski, I am expanding on the hypothesis presented above.
Stephen Meyer discusses a universal wave function that is resident in the Mind of God (Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind behind the Universe). It existed before the beginning of time, space, energy and matter and consisted of all possible wave forms of position and momentum, amplitude, frequency and shape in a vast probability distribution. By God’s design He selected specific wave forms from all the possible presentations of the universal wave function to actualize His goals for the design, structure, fine tuning, meaning and purpose of the universe as well as for sustaining it over time. It is the process by which He selected wave forms to transmit specified information content for the creation of human life, including the immaterial, cognitive mind of human beings and its interaction with the physical human brain. It is an outcome that provides for personal communion between mankind and with God.
It is the selection of outcomes derived from the universal wave function that defines specification, the process by which information generated via the Mind of God has been actualized within His creations by His will and design. The outcomes chosen have small probabilities, or put another way, are improbable considering the infinite options God has had from within the universal wave function. A nondeterministic universe as given by quantum mechanics is informationally open, and in previous blog posts and in my books we have seen how quantum mechanics applies to the dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the material synaptic networks of the physical human brain. To quote William A. Dembski, “Such a universe will produce . . . random events [from which are chosen by a mind’s intent] patterns [Italics added] of events that stand out against the backdrop of randomness (as a signal stands out from noise). Such patterns . . . could reasonably be interpreted as constituting novel information inputted from outside the system. Accordingly, in a nondeterministic universe, divine action could impart information into matter without violating any physical laws by which matter operates.” Dembski goes further, stating, “Nondeterminism means that God can substantively affect the structure and dynamics of the physical world by imparting information . . . a nondeterministic universe can be informationally porous and thus open to action by a deity able to impart information without imparting material [Italics added] energy. Quantum mechanics, when interpreted as a fundamentally probabilistic theory, offers such a picture of the universe, allowing God free play at the quantum level” (Being as Communion: A Metaphysics of Information, Ashgate, 2014 and my books). As discussed in “Waves in Our Brains” the most recent research in neuroscience is identifying how waves are transmitted via quantum tunneling through the synaptic networks of the human brain in the form of linguistic neural codes, or patterns. The waves emanate from the immaterial, cognitive mind of humans and from the Mind of God. By causal interaction with the networks of the brain outcomes result with meaning and purpose.
In his book Meyer cited these comments made by Dembski: “Systems, sequences, or events that exhibit two characteristics at the same time – extreme improbability and a special kind of pattern called a ‘specification” – indicate prior intelligent activity. According to Dembski, extremely improbable events that also exhibit ‘an independently recognizable pattern’ or set of functional requirements, what he calls ‘specification,’ invariably result from intelligent causes, not chance or physicochemical laws.” Meyer states that “our uniform experience affirms that specified or functional information . . . always arises from an intelligent source, from a mind [that is immaterial].” And we now understand that the ultimate Source of all information instantiated into the universe and all within it is the immaterial Mind of God, who is Spirit. (John 4:24)
Meyer stated that “In using language the human mind routinely ‘finds’ or generates highly improbable linguistic sequences to convey a preconceived idea. In the process of thought [or cognition], functional objectives precede and constrain the selection of words, sounds, and symbols to generate functional (and meaningful) sequences from a vast ensemble of meaningless alternatives. . . . Intelligent agents can select functional goals before the goals are physically instantiated. . . . They can then actualize those goals in accord with a preconceived design plan or set of functional requirements.” The linguistic patterns are then transmitted by wave forms into neural codes within spike trains of action potentials interpreted by the cognitive mind of humans and archived in memory.
Meyer provided evidence of “the causal adequacy of intelligent agency as a cause of the kind of specified digital information [and fine tuning] needed to produce life [and I would add dualist interaction between mind and brain] . . . including the unique causal adequacy of a transcendent and intelligent agent as the best explanation.”
In his concluding remarks, Meyer stated, “Since theism holds that a benevolent God possessing a rational intellect created our minds, we have good reason to expect the basic reliability of our belief-forming cognitive equipment. Since most versions of theism hold that the same benevolent and rational God who created our minds created them in God’s image and also created a rationally ordered universe, we have good reason to think we can understand and perceive the order built into that universe. . . . Our beautiful, expanding, and finely tuned universe and the exquisite, integrated, and informational complexity of living organisms bear witness to the reality of a transcendent intelligence – a personal God.” And we can have confidence in what neuroscientists are learning about the orderly interaction between the human mind and the synaptic networks of the brain via the application of good, unprejudiced scientific methodology unconstrained by methodological naturalism and materialism. The comments I have shared given by Stephen Meyer and William Dembski provide a foundation for accepting the validity of dualist interactionism between that which is immaterial and material, the mind and the brain.