Thought and Mind

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Our brain is an awesome machine. We pay lip service to how important it is, but do we really appreciate that the way it is now, is a product of 1 million, 3 billion, or 13.4 billion years of evolution (the varying timeframes a factor of perspective – the human brain, life on earth, or time as we know it.)? Finely tuned mechanisms that enable the organism to move and function at speeds faster that the average response time to a stimulus, gives us the ability to extrapolate data, project it into the future, and literally think ahead.

It makes one question the notion of sentience, of whether we are truly aware. In point of fact, we cannot even conceive infinity, or the nature of infinity. Gaps in our knowledge, so easily exploited by pseudo-sciences such as creationism or intelligent design, stem from the brain’s inability to process a form of thought that supersedes probability, and cause-effect linear timelines. To deal with a concept like infinity, our thoughts currently seek refuge in ‘why’ and other trite nonsense. Scientists grapple manfully with the structure of the universe, shredding it into so-called ‘multiverses’, twisting it into toroids, or folding it in on itself. All the while we seem to be missing the answers. Our brains might not yet be able to deal with these concepts with the existing thought processes. Our rationalisms and basic thought structures seem to adopt the predominantly western thought processes.

Dogma, blind adherence to faith, and a misplaced sense of privilege have led to a dilution of Hinduism (I shall forgo the term ‘eastern mysticism’ here as it is too vague and altogether inaccurate). But here, and in elements of the Sermon on the Mount, one can see a point of view that is Human-centric, recognizing in our make-up a limitation, and paradoxically, the essence of Human genius. In my world-view, I see the specific Gods as detail, substance to flesh out ideas which reverberate with the cosmos. I think Spirit, or Atman, a term that plays on a perceived intelligence behind thoughts. And I say these reading only translations of the original texts.

But in all that, we must be aware that above all, our brains are machines, and thoughts, spawned from the brain are not signs of intelligence