Science and Salvation
I drove my teachers crazy asking why in elementary school. I remember learning some mathematical formula and being put in time out, most likely because my teacher needed it more than me. I kept asking why. Memorizing a formula wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to know why. Why do we need to hunt for X or add negative numbers to positive. When I understood math I loved it. Understanding the mathematical connection to science makes my mouth water. Understanding the web like connection all of creation has to each other or to itself is mind boggling. I tell my students the greatest artist ever is God and all of creation is His canvas. Made in His image we have the desire to create, discover, and just as little girl me understood, to ask why.
This is why I want to understand what we do on a neurological level. Why do I have anxiety or ADD? Why are we compelled to do what we do? How does our brain process both its desires and our commands? I recently read about the connection between the Prefrontal Cortex and the Amygdala, two parts of the brain. Before I get into what I mean regarding their relationship, I want to make clear, I personally do not believe we are at the will of neurological synapsis. It may be a “chicken or the egg” scenario. Is a person’s brain hard wired to over flow with cortisol or is that a result of circumstance and habit forming? Are two people even the same in that? How does each individual person’s balance of neurotransmitters impact who they are and what they do?
A unique and odd factoid about me is that I can feel my heart beat all of the time. I can ignore it most of the time. Unfortunately my heart’s arrhythmia and continual self re-regulation to keep the chambers beating in proper order is, well, distracting, and very annoying. Every heart does it. Mine does it more than the average and unlike most, I feel it. It feels like a panic attack. It feels like anxiety. To help me gain control and a sense of calm over the relationship between me and this important organ is to understand it. Science. Understanding my human psychy, my biology, the chemicals, hormones, nerves, molecules and all of science gives me a sense of joy and peace. I firmly believe this is a gift from God.
“Michael Faraday, James Joule, Lord nd James Clerk Maxwell, for example, were all devout Christian believers. in the 20th Century, the Astronomer Arthur Eddington, Charles Towns and William Phillips, Nobel laureates in physics, and Francis Collins, the director of the Human Genome Project, have publicly affirmed their belief in God. Collins has expressed the spiritual wonder of scientific research in these words: ‘When something new is revealed about the human genome, I experience a feeling of awe at the realization that humanity now knows something only God knew before'” (cslewis.org)
In college, a friend invited me to a bonfire. At this gathering, I met a person who was a proclaimed atheist and studied in the psychology department at Arizona State University. She loved research as do I. We shared the love of studying human behavior and an insatiable desire to unlock the human psyche. The big difference however is that while she found every discovery as proof that God does not exist, I found every discovery as further proof of the artistry and magnificence of the Greatest Artist and Scientist known to man; God.
Thus, that is it. I feel the closest to God when I am discovering and creating. Science is a beautiful gift from God, a treasure hunt, an adventure into intricate awesome wonder. My next blog post will be all about the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and understanding how to train these two brain parts to interact and work together in a way that is productive and harmonious. I love this because I love that God created us just as amazing and beautiful and intricate as the stars in the universe and the coral in the sea. All of it. All of science and math, and art and life combined is our playground.