In listening to all the news reports about the shootings in Arizona last weekend, my mind has thought about all the incidents over the past few years where there has been damage done to the brain of those who have been injured, and their recovery, or lack of it. We really know very little about the brain, in comparison to what we know about the other parts of the human anatomy.
To anyone who has studied physiology, (when I was coming through high school it was Biology, I think) the human body is a virtually unbelievable organism. If you were to try to duplicate the functions of the liver, it is doubtful that a fully computerized four-story laboratory could accomplish the myriad of chemical and enzymatic processes with anywhere near the precision of the four pound liver.
And if you would study the central nervous system, you would discover that in the brain there are over 14 billion units (cells), all multiply interconnected, which process all the incoming data from our senses of vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, and send messages to the appropriate body organs and limbs, with perhaps millions of interactions occurring every minute. This one pound organ that resides within the human skull makes the Internet system appear like a simple tinker toy by comparison.
And at the base of the brain there is a gland no larger than a thumbnail, which constantly analyzes the chemical composition of the blood, especially the various hormones and mineral levels, and regulates it with an uncanny precision by sending messages to the appropriate glands and organs.
This refers only to the brain itself; we know very little about the actual function of the human mind, which although intimately associated with the brain, is not accessible to examination via a microscope. Any person with intelligence can only stand in awe at this and other marvelous works in nature, and indeed come to a reverence for God. And the realization of what God has provided for us would lead to the love of God.
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