I will be posting a series of brief blogs that highlight contents of chapters in my book, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction Between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man Through Neural Synaptic Networks. The blogs will march through the book contents. The first blog, “Matter and Mind,” includes excerpts from two articles by William A. Dembski entitled “Are We Spiritual Machines?” and “Conflating Matter and Mind.” I cite both articles on page xxi. They are in response to the question I raised, “But if mental activity includes a functional immaterial component, how can the immaterial mind of Man relate to physically based brain activity and to the Mind of God, who is Spirit? How might the Holy Spirit interact with the human mind, will and emotion - the soul?”
Within [a] richer world of both material and nonmaterial things, physical laws lose their status as absolutes and become subject to principles that may be quite metaphysical, (principles like intelligent agency and divine providence).
The brain is a physical system which captures intelligence . . . which is metaphysical, created by God as part of our mind, soul and “heart” before we were even placed in the womb. Our brains are interactive processors of this distinctive human gift, an incorporation of the divine Logos.
Jon Lieff, M.D.
In his article, “Searching for the Mind,” (jonlieffmd.com/blog/neuronal-networks-brain-waves) Dr. Lieff discusses neuronal networks and brain waves. I am posting a paragraph from his article that is descriptive of the synchronicity of brain waves in neural synaptic networks and its significance.
The changing dynamics of wide-ranging neuronal circuits occurs throughout the brain in milliseconds at the level of individual neurons and groups of neurons. Neurons join a circuit one moment and another the next moment. Groups of neurons fire action potentials in very specific rhythms that rapidly change. Groups of neurons produce brain waves - synchronous oscillations - that communicate information from one section of the brain to another. Synchronous brain waves couple with other frequencies to connect multiple regions.
E. Stan Lennard, M.D., Sc.D.
Part One
In the fifth chapter of my book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, I cited Mortimer Adler’s discussion of the mind’s relation to the material brain. He stated that the intellectual mind is superior to matter and cannot be reduced to it. It is an immaterial component of human nature. He said, “The intellect cannot normally function without dependence on the activity of the brain, but the brain is not the physical organ of intellectual thought.” (1) According to Adler human behavior consists of two substances, mind and physical brain, and the two interact with one another.
Neural impulses are the same in electrochemical character. They consist of action potentials transmitted across and through neural synaptic networks as spike trains with distinctive frequencies and amplitudes, as we shall see. Neural structures are histologically and anatomically similar, or even identical. Distinguishable concepts that reflect intellectual and cognitive processes cannot be embodied in matter that is so similar or identical! The power of conceptual thought must be an immaterial energy, and energy is expressed as waves. We are aware that light and sound are transmitted by waves. Likewise, waves are transmitted across synaptic clefts by quantum tunneling with specified frequencies, amplitudes and trajectories. Going further, it is now recognized that elementary particles at the atomic level, electromagnetism, gravity and the strong and weak nuclear forces are . . . waves. Even space consists of unique vibrational signatures! In this and my subsequent blog I will discuss the flow of waves within and across our brains.
One more point merits emphasis. John C. Eccles maintained that the human mind is not causally closed to nonmaterial stimuli as claimed by materialists. The neural synapse is considered to be a frontier across which information flows in both directions. (2) The billions of interconnections between neurons and trillions of synapses in neural networks constitute an information processing system. William A. Dembski has stated that matter itself is reducible to the information instantiated within its design, construction and function. It is energy that causes information to undergo such dynamic transformations. Energy is inferred from information and is called by Dembski the “causal glue.” (3) Werner Gitt stated that information is a fundamental entity on equal footing with matter and energy. It is required for the start of any controlled process whether energy or matter. Gitt identified the one prerequisite of information, that it must be in coded form. (4) Information itself is preceded by the prime source of all information, a mind. In John 1:1-3 it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”
The electrochemical activity of neural networks translates into the riches of the human mind. James Le Fanu presumed that there has to be a code within the patterns of the activity, ensuring that the firing of the visual cortex, for example, gives rise to the perception of trees and birds seen from one’s window. (5) The neural code requires an intelligence to establish the rules of syntax, meaning and purpose, human or divine. Anything with high information content must be interpreted by the intellect of a mind. It is the immaterial mind that interacts cognitively with encoded information within the spike trains of neural synaptic networks. It is a perceptual process by which linguistic neural codes are interpreted by a human mind with the unique capacity for expressing and understanding advanced language.
The application of increasingly sophisticated technologies to the study of the human mind has generated more understanding of waves that are transmitted through the brain. Initial observation of brain waves was by electroencephalography which recorded waves transmitted across the skull with relatively poor resolution and no directional components. Human brains can now be studied by electrocorticography (ECoG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging. ECoG applies to direct studies of live neural tissues in responsive patients such as those undergoing neurosurgery for epilepsy. Multiple monitors can be placed over larger surfaces of the brain itself to study the characteristics and routes of neural transmission. In Part Two of this blog I will share what I have learned from more current neuroscience literature. There is yet a dominant perspective that the human mind is not immaterial and can be reduced to the functional activities of the physical brain. Much of the literature of neuroscience does not acknowledge the human mind with causal and cognitive power but equates the function of the brain to computation. The mind is considered to be an epiphenomenon by some. By reviewing points I make in my books in the paragraphs above I have provided an introduction that shows the merit of dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and the material brain and its neural networks. I will soon post Part Two of this blog. In the blog that follows, “Minds in Communion,” I will focus on the dualist interaction between the mind of Man and the Mind of God.
References
1. Mortimer J. Adler, Intellect: Mind over Matter (New York: Collier Books, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1990)
2. John C. Eccles, How the Self Controls Its Brain (Berlin, New York, London: Springer-Verlag, 1994)
3. William A. Dembski, Being As Communion: A Metaphysics of Information (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2014)
4. Werner Gitt, In the Beginning Was Information: A Scientist Explains the Incredible Design in Nature (Green Forest, Arizona: Master Books, 2007)
5. James Le Fanu, Why Us? How the Self Controls Its Brain (New York: Pantheon Books, 2009)
Part Two
In preparation
As I work to complete the text of “Part Two, Waves in Our Brains,” I will be regularly posting brief blogs that relate to the content of the blogs posted on and after August 1, 2020 and in my two books listed under Products. I will also post brief excerpts from articles I am referencing for “Waves in Our Brains.” By reading these blog posts and my books you will derive a deeper understanding of the message I am conveying through my website about the reality of the living Holy Spirit and how He communes with us.
E. Stan Lennard, M. D., Sc. D.
In my next blog I will explain in general terms how the cognitive mind of humans interacts with the synaptic networks of their brains. I described this complex activity in both of my books, and I show how dualist interaction applies to the process - how the immaterial mind interacts causally with the material brain and its synaptic networks.
With the passing of each year neuroscientists gain more knowledge of this incredibly complex process by applying advancing technologies, and there is so much more to learn! (It shows the awesome magnificence and power of the Mind of God in whose image the mind of Man was created!) It is important to note, however, that much of the perspective shared in their literature and books considers the brain like a computer, a data processor, or the neuroscientists reduce all the mechanisms of the mind, such as attention and will, to the Darwinian evolved physical brain, a perspective referred to as materialist reductionism. Dualist interaction is not accepted in their views. That aspects of cognition, of the mind, are immaterial is a nonstarter, much less having causal effects on synaptic networks.
But, in my ongoing research I am also witnessing an increasing number of neuroscientists, as well as philosophers of science and physicists, accepting the evidence that indeed dualist interactionism is a reality, that the material brain cannot account for the mind with its quantum mechanical features. Many even acknowledge the reality of the action of God on the mind of Man. But an understanding of this process is fleeting, and it has been the challenging focus of my apologetics research these past 20 years. It has been a most humbling experience for me as a medical scientist and Christian! So, do not expect me to give definitive answers to this issue. I will do my best to share what I have learned, finding concordance between theology and science on many levels.
My next blog will be entitled, “Waves in Our Brains,” and the blog that will follow it will address the comment in my hypothesis, “…IT IS PROPOSED THAT A NONMATERIAL ENERGY FROM THE MIND OF GOD INDUCES THE SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION OF SPECIFIED INFORMATION TO THE MIND OF MAN….” Just what is this “nonmaterial energy?” We know that energy exists in wave forms that even define the constitution of matter with varying frequencies and amplitudes, and we shall see that waves abound in the mechanisms of neural synaptic transmission. Can wave transmission explain, at least in part, how human minds interact, how the Mind of God interacts with the mind of Man?
E. Stan Lennard, M.D., Sc.D.
In my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, I cited Christoph Lameter who stated in his doctoral dissertation, “God can effectively communicate with humans by direct stimulation of neurons in the human brain generating images and memories. God is able to communicate with humans in a direct way.” (1) In his book, Being As Communion, William A. Dembski presented a scheme adapted from Claude Shannon that serves as a template for information transmission between the Mind of God and the mind of Man by means of the indwelling of the human spirit by the personal Holy Spirit. (2) I am presenting the scheme in this blog as a foundation for subsequent blogs that will address how this interaction may occur drawing from current studies from the neurosciences. In this scheme the identification of the Sender, or Information Source, is the Mind of God, and the Recipient, or Receiver, is the mind of Man. God intended it as an intimate, personal communion of love.
Information Source (Mind of God) generates a
Message (the Word – specified information, the Word also being Jesus Christ) that is given to a
Transmitter (Holy Spirit) that directs a
Signal with meaning and purpose to the
Receiver (mind of Man) in the form of
Spike patterns of action potentials transmitted through the
Destination, the neural synaptic networks as
Linguistic codes in various manifestations (dreams, visions, perceived words, intuition, discernment) interpreted by the
Receiver, or recipient, the immaterial, cognitive mind of Man
Noise in the communication channel reflects the distorting or blocking effects by evil, sin or focus on self on the
Message of the Information Source
Effective error correction of the distorted or blocked Message is provided by the
Word, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ through the Bible and through the conscience given by the Transmitter, the indwelling Holy Spirit, who gives discernment of God’s general revelation
It is my hope that the evidence presented in my two books that is derived from Scripture, neuroscience, quantum mechanics and information theory for dualist interaction between the Holy Spirit and the soul of Man through the human spirit and neural synaptic networks is compelling. In subsequent blogs I will explain how the interaction may occur drawing upon concordance between science and theology..
References
1. Christoph Lameter, Divine Action in the Framework of Scientific Knowledge: from Quantum Behavior to Divine Action, A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the School of Theology at Fuller Seminary in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Apologetics and Philosophy, Newark, CA. (October 20, 2000)
2. William A. Dembski, Being As Communion: A Metaphysics of Information (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2014)
Alvin Plantinga stated in his book, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), “Perhaps He is also very much a hands on God, constantly active in history, leading, guiding, persuading and redeeming His people, blessing them with ‘the Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit’ (Calvin) or ‘the Internal Instigation of the Holy Spirit’ (Aquinas) and conferring upon them the gift of faith.” I cited Christoph Lameter in my book, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction Between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man Through Neural Synaptic Networks, who stated, “God can effectively communicate with humans by direct stimulation of neurons in the human brain generating images and memories. God is able to communicate with humans in a direct way. May this be an explanation for the working of the Holy Spirit? Visions and other religious experiences could be understood through this process.”
I wish to share an experience my friend, Michael Lienau, had as a young cinematographer who was trapped extremely close to Mount St. Helens for four days just after its second eruption. He and his companions were considered dead until they were discovered by a search team. I direct you to the link, https://www.globalnetproductions.com/new-page-1 which shows the great power and destruction caused by the eruption with many lives lost. Michael describes a life transforming experience he had during that critical time which is featured in a documentary in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the eruption. I share it with you in the link, https://gna.news/content/volcano-survivors-dramatic-escape .
Yes, the Holy Spirit is alive and active in our time by the grace of God through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ!
E. Stan Lennard, M.D., Sc.D.
My friend and former colleague, Ken Samples, posted an article on the Reasons To Believe website entitled, “What Happens to Those Who Never Hear the Gospel?” He identified the traditional Christian view as Exclusivism which asserts that the unevangelized are lost because they have sinned in Adam. However, he goes on to state that they will be judged by the general revelation God has given to all human beings. (1)
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)
A question has been asked by countless generations, can the revelation of God in His creation prepare one for salvation in Jesus Christ? Is there no hope for people across the world in all of history who never heard the Gospel? After all, it was Jesus who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Let us examine this important question in the context of the covenant made by God with Abram and by the blessing of Abram by the Canaanite king and high priest of Salem, Melchizedek. He knew Yahweh, the God of Abram, by His general revelation. General revelation prepares one to receive the Gospel through the eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek, Jesus Christ. (2)
Abram of Ur was given a promise by Yahweh 4000 years ago if he would obey His command to leave his people and country and go to a foreign land. (Genesis 12:1) He would be blessed by his obedience, and all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him since in his lineage was to be Jesus Christ the Messiah. (Genesis 12:3) Upon his arrival in Canaan Abram entered Salem and encountered the king who reigned over it, Melchizedek. He was the king of righteousness, the priest of El Elyon, the God most high. El Elyon was the Canaanite name for Yahweh. Melchizedek saw that Abram worshipped Yahweh/El Elyon and blessed him. Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he had recovered in the rescue operation of Lot from Kedorlaomer and his allied kings. (Genesis 14:18-20) In this ancient culture the blessing by Melchizedek identified him as the greater of the two, and the lesser represented by Abram was obligated to give gifts to the greater. As was the custom in that time Melchizedek was also the high priest of Salem. When King David conquered Salem in later years he became its priest – as was Melchizedek before him – and renamed it Jerusalem. King David prophesied that the Messiah who was in the lineage of the House of David would be an eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4) “in which membership is . . . not restricted to one particular lineage.” (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:1-22) (3) The priestly tribe of Levi that was descended from Abram (renamed Abraham) was not to be a permanent priesthood. The prophecy by David foretold the change in the priesthood order that was to come with the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. (4)
And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 7:15-17) . . . and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:19)
It is unknown how Melchizedek received his knowledge of Yahweh, whom he called El Elyon. (5) God has the power to interact with people who have no access to the knowledge of Jesus Christ or of His special revelation in the Bible. (Romans 1:20) In Acts 10:34-35 Peter said, “I now realize how true it is that God . . . accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right” as led by their conscience, itself a manifestation of God’s general revelation. General revelation is older and has influenced 100 percent of mankind in all of history. (Psalm 19) The Belgic Confession of 1566 makes the following statement:
We know Him (God) by . . . the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: His eternal power and His diversity, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20.
“. . . the Messiah who came among men in fulfillment of every spiritual reality foreshadowed by the Levitical priestly system was also at the same time ‘a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’ (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:4-10; 6:20; 7:15-22) Christ . . . is Lord of both general and special revelation . . . The true light (Jesus Christ) that gives light to every man (through general revelation) was coming into the world (to shine upon men in special revelation).” (John 1:9) (6)
The redeeming grace of God has been revealed to mankind in His dual revelation, giving all people hope for salvation through Jesus Christ the Messiah, eternal priest in the order of Melchizedek.
References
1. Kenneth R. Samples, “What Happens to Those Who Never Hear the Gospel?” Reflections, June 9, 2020 https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/reflections/read/reflections/2020/06/09/what-happens-to-those-who-never-hear-the-gospel
2. Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1984), 30.
3. Ibid.
4. Xenos Christian Fellowship, “Old Testament Teachings,” http://www.xenos.org/teachings/ot/genesis/gary/gen14-1.htm.
5. Richardson, 30.
6. Ibid, 156-57.
E. Stan Lennard, M.D., Sc.D.
What is music to Man? It is a manifold beauty that richly communicates information that has structure, meaning, purpose and plan as elaborate as any advanced science, technology or philosophy. (1) Its purpose is given action through creative expression (2) and has rules of order that assign specificity to complexity. (3) In Man music stimulates special interactive networks through synaptic transmission of neural codes. The codes ascribe patterns of melody and theme to assemblies of frequencies, tempos, rhythms and harmonies. This is by a process of creative choice of human intelligence. (4) It is a language expressed only by Man and links Man’s physical being with the soul and spirit. (5)
Music expresses the character of God with the precision of science. (6) God has given us music with the aim to glorify Him, encourage counsel, warns, corrects, comforts and teaches truth. It describes His preeminence as the only true God and His eternal reign as Sovereign Lord and King. Music flows from a life that is filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit. It gives expression to the Gospel and is identified with Jesus Christ. It is the only art that has a place in heaven and will endure for eternity. (7)
William A. Dembski relates that certain Church Fathers as Gregory of Nazianzus have compared God’s created universe to a musical instrument. “But what if the universe is like a musical instrument?…Then it is entirely appropriate for God to interact with the universe by introducing design (or in his analogy, by skillfully playing a musical instrument). So long as there are consummate pianists and composers, player-pianos will always remain inferior to real pianos. The incompleteness of the real piano taken by itself is therefore irrelevant here. Musical instruments require a musician to complete them. Thus, if the universe is more like a musical instrument, it is appropriate for a designer to interact with it in ways that affect its physical state. On this view, for the designer to refuse to interact with the world is to withhold gifts.” (8)
When we sing or play music on instruments we are giving witness to our Creator and Savior and King who indwells us and has given us reasons to believe in Him through music.
References
1. Fred I. Dretske, Knowledge and the Flow of Information (Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1999), 1-82; Werner Gitt, “Information, Science and Biology,” Technical Journal 10, no. 2 (August 1996), 181-187; John R. Pierce, An Introduction to Information Theory, 2nd revised ed. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1980), 107-124.
2. Gitt, Ibid, 181-187.
3. William A. Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2004), 134-138.
4. W. Maxwell Cowan and Eric R. Kandel Synapses (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 1-87; Rodney Douglas and Kwan Martin, The Synaptic Organization of the Brain, ed. Gordon M. Shepherd (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 459-509; Idan Segev and Michael London, Dendrites, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 205-230; Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code, eds. Fred Rieke, David Warland, Rob de Ruyter van Steveninck, and William Bialek (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1999), 103-187; Nelson Spruston, Greg Stuart, and Michael Hausser, Dendrites, eds. Greg Stuart, Nelson Spruston, and Michael Hausser, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 231-270.
5. Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man (New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc., 1977), 21-68.
6. Steve Camp, “The Character of Christian Music,” Part Three, http://www.bargenquast.com/steph/theses/theses.html.
7. Ibid,
8. William A. Dembski, No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002), 328.
E. Stan Lennard, M.D., Sc.D.
To those of you who are visiting my website I wish to provide a background for my twenty years of apologetics research that has resulted in this website and blogs. I was born in Central Texas to Christian parents and was raised in the church with a Christian extended family. I was taught the basics of Christianity but without an understanding of the Holy Spirit. Though the Apostle's Creed was recited at each church service I received no specific instruction about Him. (This is a shared experience with many church goers, as I have learned!) I progressed through my formal education focusing on the sciences as I prepared for my medical career which spanned for just over 30 years. During this time I still thirsted to know about the Holy Spirit. I came to know much about the medical and natural sciences but had no depth of knowledge of theology, why and what I believed.
In 1987 I heard a presentation by Dr. Hugh Ross. The ministry he founded in 1986 has a profound message giving people reasons to believe in the truth of Christianity and in Jesus Christ. The ministry’s mission is to show that science and faith are allies, integrating science and faith respectfully and with integrity. The name of the ministry is appropriately Reasons To Believe. I maintained an association with the ministry for 25 years, working in a number of capacities. Through its vast resources I deepened my knowledge of Christianity and have come to know what and why I believe as a Christian.
In 1986 I met the woman who is my wife, a woman with a Christian heritage and experience with teaching about the Holy Spirit. I loved my conversations with her, and I began to quench my thirst for knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Through RTB I became a certified apologist, taught for eleven years in the online educational program of the ministry and began research into the dual interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit, soul and the neural synaptic networks of the brain. My research required me to obtain a working knowledge of quantum mechanics and information theory that apply to the means of interaction between the immaterial Mind of God and mind of Man and the material human brain. My research has resulted in four articles and two books. I am eager to share what I have learned about the Holy Spirit with readers, friends and family. I know I am saved by the grace and love of God through His Son, Jesus Christ who restored the direct, personal, loving communion between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul. I now have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit and desire the same for you.