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Posted:

3rd November, 2008

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I think, therefore He is

René Descartes's famous dictum "I think, therefore I am" reputedly expressed the philosopher's belief that the process of thought proves existence. Even to doubt one's existence, which requires thinking, proves the thinker is . Let's leave such philosophizing aside and pursue a more profitable line of reasoning about the miraculous phenomenon of human cognitive processes (for dictionary eaters), or thinking (for the rest of us). While humanists believe thinking has arisen as a natural consequence of a massive primordial explosion, those whose brains have not been starved of life-giving oxygen by the anaconda-like squeeze of evolution theory recognize a simple, obvious truth - cognitive processes can only have arisen by the direct action of the Ultimate Thinker. We think, therefore He is.

You've gotta be nuts to contend that the dazzlingly complex brain with its capacity to perceive the world around, grapple with knotty mathematical problems, analyze concepts, accept or reject moral standards, and plan for the future developed its magical qualities through a protracted process of tiny incremental improvements wrought by a theoretical, God-like "law" of natural selection that seizes on and saves the gooduns' out of zillions of hypothesized random genetic twitches. Perhaps that statement says all that needs to be said. However, I think we can profit from thinking a little more about thinking.

Absolutely nothing in the physical world can be ultimately explained without recourse to an infinitely intelligent and powerful Creator. Even those wonderful natural processes, such as weathering of rock, that change the constitution or arrangement of matter - usually in endless cycles - could not possibly have arisen spontaneously. Thought, though, towers head and shoulders over all other natural phenomena for its power to testify to divine wisdom. Of all "things" belonging to the material realm, thought alone cannot be measured by any instruments. The dimensions of tiny atoms can be gauged, the sizes of distant galaxies can be measured, temperatures can be quantified, colors can be analyzed, and the exact hardness of solids and the viscosity of liquids can be determined. Even "disorder" (entropy) can be precisely appraised. But no machine can measure the size or any other "value" of thoughts. You don't have small thoughts, big thoughts, long thoughts, hot or cold thoughts. Machines that detect brain waves are merely probing brain activity, not the process of thinking itself. Something about thought transcends the natural order; it's of a fundamentally

different nature than nature.

Though the brain continues to give up some of its untold numbers of brilliant secrets to clever researchers it will undoubtedly keep many of them locked away for the entirety of human history. It's just too complex a beast for mere mortals to ever get a complete grip on. And yet, when you think about thinking, you are virtually forced to conclude that no amount of brilliant circuitry made up of nerve nodes of utterly staggering design can possibly account for thought itself. Certainly, thought in the material realm cannot occur without an infrastructure of neural circuits and nerve cells. But that alone is insufficient to make thinking possible. Stop and think. The best-designed computers can accomplish nothing without information (software) being fed in from without. The primitive "thinking" done by computers is made possible by the creative work of intelligent humans. How could anybody possibly imagine that a human brain is capable of originating thought of and by itself? Even animal instinct, it would seem, must be programmed into animal brains. How much more the capacity for consciousness and creative thought? Discard all notions that mutations and natural selection could ever give rise to even the most primitive of abstract thought. Yet we think. How? Scripture gives us a tantalizing hint:

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? (1 Cor. 2:11).

I don't pretend to understand this saying at any but its most elementary level; just as a computer needs software designed by intelligent people to function so too the brain's hardware requires another component - "the spirit of the man" - to churn out the seemingly endless supply of ideas and thoughts - trivial and lofty - human beings are capable of. The hardware of the human brain cannot be explained without a designer; how much less can the unmeasurable quality of thought be thus explained? Are we willing to accept the [still very hard to understand] explanation provided by Scripture? Note what Job says:

But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding (32:8).

Unbelievable. Yet billions times more believable than the absurd "natural explanations" of God-deniers. When you think, you are proving you are; more importantly, you are testifying that He is.

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