Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.5)

Disciplines
Science and the Brain
The method of science is to reduce, to take complex things or ideas and to analyze and break them down, then to reassemble them and relate them to other complex things and ideas. A seemingly random group of lights in the night sky is identified as a galaxy comprised of stars, planets, and so forth, which are then analyzed as to their composition using light waves and color spectra. The method of combining various elements to form a new substance is explained in an equation. Plants and animals are grouped by species and phyla. The operations of the vast cosmos are boiled down to four primary forces and the mathematics that make these understandable.

For the most part, this reducing of things and ideas to formulas and categories that can be manipulated and managed is a good thing. Many benefits have come to human beings because of the ability of science to take something like, say, a fungus, observe and analyze it, apply it to certain conditions, and use it to create penicillin and the entire field of antibiotics.

But scientists can get carried away with this love of reducing things so that they foster a kind of reductionism which is not helpful. Take for example the current conceit, widespread among neuroscientists, of insisting that the brain works like a computer.

Not so, according to Robert Epstein, a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in California. Writing in the 18 May 2016 issue of Aeon, Dr. Epstein emphatically denies that the brain is a computer, and he insists that all the emphasis currently being placed on this approach to understanding our “little grey cells” is distracting and unfruitful (“The empty brain”).

Dr. Epstein says that the brain doesn’t work anything like a computer because it doesn’t have any of the components that make a computer what it is. He explains, “computers really do operate on symbolic representations of the world. The really store and retrieve. They really process. They really are guided in everything they do, without exception, by algorithms.” On the other hand, humans, “do not – never did, never will.” So why do scientists continue to think this way?

One reason is because people tend to think in metaphors, and to many scientists, who can only think of things in materialistic terms, the computer is the best metaphor we have for trying to understand the brain. However, since the brain is not a computer, the danger with adopting such a metaphorical way of thinking about it is that we may try to make the brain behave like what we think it is, even to the point of trying to pair it with real computers, or to reduce all its functions to mere stimulus-response formulas.

Dr. Epstein reports that big money – in the billions – is being thrown at such ideas, and, as he sees it, this is a waste of resources. To think of the brain only in terms of information processing (IP) is to miss the point of the brain entirely and to reduce a vital human organ to something other than what it is. He writes, “The faulty logic of the IP metaphor is easy enough to state. It is based on a faulty syllogism – one with two reasonable premises and a faulty conclusion. Reasonable premise #1: all computers are capable of behaving intelligently. Reasonable premise #2: all computers are information processors. Faulty conclusion: all entities that are capable of behaving intelligently are information processors.”

He insists, “the idea that humans must be information processors just because computers are information processors is just plain silly.” How many other faulty conclusions are being drawn by the scientific community from perfectly reasonable premises, simply because their most basic assumptions are wrong?

The brain is a living organism containing some 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion interconnections. No computer is that sophisticated, and, while we understand perfectly well how computers work, we do not understand the brain at all, at least, not nearly to the same extent.

Dr. Epstein concludes, “We are organisms, not computers. Get over it. Let’s get on with the business of trying to understand ourselves, but without being encumbered by unnecessary intellectual baggage.” Indeed. It is refreshing to read an insider’s critique of a pet theory, and encouraging to think that the naturalistic and evolutionary model for doing science today might be susceptible, even open, to correction.

In fact, if we could ever stop trying to reduce everything to formula and categories that we think we can manage, we might recover some of the wonder, sense of mystery, and even sacramental awe with which the first scientists approached their work. We might even allow the wonders of creation to expand according to their uniquely created purpose, and point us beyond themselves, not simply to our convenient categories or formulas, but to their eternal Creator and Lord.

For reflection
1.  The brain is not a computer but a part of the human body – a body which includes a soul. As you understanding it, what is the relationship between the soul and body?

2.  Humans are spiritual beings, not machines, and not just a higher form of animal. What does that mean? Can we really expect to get the brain right – or anything else about us – if we refuse to take our spirituality into consideration? Explain.

3.  Why is it not a good idea to try to reduce human thinking – or our affections, values, and priorities – to merely material constructions, like computers or pumps?

Next steps: If the brain is not a computer, but has a spiritual aspect engaging it, what does this suggest about caring for the health of our brains? Talk with a Christian friend about this question.

T. M. Moore

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