Monday, 06 September 2010
I am reading the book "Brain Rules" by John Medina, a completely scientific look at brain research and how people learn. Last night I read a section of the book that completely caught me off guard, both in the phrase the author uses as well as the general concept he is intending to communicate. In speaking of brain structure, Medina uses the phrase, "...the Triune nature of the brain." He then goes on to explain that the brain appears to be designed in three components - all working together yet all one. I had never heard the word "Triune" used in any way other than in addressing the nature of God. Yet here we have a most secular and scientific author using "Triune" to describe the brain - actually ONLY the human brain. Three in one - just like the nature of God!
The three components are the brain stem, controlling basic autonomic systems (like breathing), the so-called mammalian brain, which monitors emotions (such as fear and fight responses), and the cortex or higher-level analysis component (allowing such thinking processes as language and symbolic processing).
I just had to stop reading for a moment and consider how incredible that God created man in His (Their?) own image with such great detail that even the brain is modeled after the Designer. And to think I learned this from a completely non-theological source. It did leave a smile on my face. Hope you have an awesome labor day!
