Insight
Ever since we first acquired the capacity to reflect on our own existence and hence our own mortality human beings or at least some human beings have asked themselves what are we doing on this vermin-infested piece of rock hurtling through space at high speed? They were searching for what we now call truth - truth about the origin of the universe the functioning of the universe and our place and purpose in the universe. Of course the first human beings who acquired this capacity did not know that what they thought of as home was in fact a piece of rock never mind that it was hurtling through space at high speed. But it didnt take them very long to start working it out. In 350 BC Aristotle declared … that the earth is circular in shape and …is a sphere of no great size."2 Although Aristotle dismissed the notion that the Earth was in motion clearly there were advocates of such a theory in Aristotles time because Aristotle refers to them. He says Let us first decide the question whether the earth moves or is at rest. For as we said there are some who make it one of the stars and others who setting it at the center suppose it to be rolled and in motion about the pole as axis."3 Aristarchus of Samos (310 230 BC) a Greek mathematician and astronomer was one of those. Aristarchus put the Sun at the center of the universe with the Earth orbiting around it as well as revolving on its own axis. He accurately calculated the positions and distances of the other planets from the Sun. This was known as the heliocentric model of the universe and although rejected by the likes of Aristotle was eventually revived by Copernicus (1473 1543). Many years later the work of Johannes Kepler Galileo and Newton finally established not only that Copernicus was correct but led to a theory of planetary motion in the form of Newtons laws of motion and gravitation."4 Other early observers of nature and the universe were equally as gifted. The Greek mathematician Eratosthenes (276 BC) even measured the circumference of the Earth at 25000 miles only some 100 miles over the actual circumference of 24901 miles. And at about the time Christ was delivering his Sermon on the Mount the great Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria was saying something similar to Aristarchus: and the earths motions and revolutions worthy of notice being arranged in perfect order both as to the proportions of its numbers and the harmony of its periods."5 Now great minds like Aristotle Aristarchus and Philo are not the norm. Even by todays standards they would be regarded as exceptionally gifted. Which points to the fact that this newly acquired ability to rationalize human existence was not evenly distributed among the species. And that itself did not escape the notice of these our gifted ancestors. As Philo noted: And very beautifully after He God had called the whole race man did he distinguish between the sexes saying that they were created male and female; although all the individuals of the race had not yet assumed their distinctive form; since the extreme species are contained in the genus and are beheld as in a mirror by those who are able to discern acutely."6 That was nearly two thousand years before Darwin wrote his Origin of the Species although Philo made that observation for very different reasons. What Philo was saying is that human beings can discover or better uncover the phenomena that govern the universe and determine our nature as human beings because we are a product of those phenomena; and we uncover those phenomena through the application of another product of those self-same phenomena Philos beholding as in a mirror" our ability to somehow access the raw data in our own brains. This ability is described as insight.Insight in science
So it is not surprising to find one of the greatest scientific minds of modern times proclaiming something remarkably similar to Philo. Einstein said I am convinced that we can discover by means of purely mathematical construction the concepts AND THE LAWS … which furnish the key to the understanding of natural phenomena. Experience may suggest the appropriate mathematical concepts but they MOST CERTAINLY CANNOT BE DEDUCED from it experience … In a certain sense therefore I hold it true that PURE THOUGHT can grasp reality as the ancients dreamed."7 Martin Rees in Just Six Numbers says The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible is one of Einsteins best-known aphorisms expressing his amazement that the laws of physics which our MINDS ARE SOMEHOW ATTUNED TO UNDERSTAND apply not just here on Earth but also in the remotest galaxy."8 Likewise the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner said that it is not at all natural that laws of Nature exist MUCH LESS THAT MAN IS ABLE TO DISCOVER THEM."9 But should we be surprised that our minds are attuned to understand the laws of physics"? Steven Weinberg another Nobel Prize-winning physicist suggests not. Commenting on chemical reactions he says: we believe that atoms behave the way they do in chemical reactions because the physical PRINCIPLES that govern the electrons and electric forces inside atoms leave NO FREEDOM for the atoms to behave in any other way."10 Martin Rees makes the same point when he says that Mathematical laws underpin the fabric of our universe not just atoms but galaxies stars and people."11 However scientists also recognize that these fundamental principles or laws are accessible to the human brain and that can only be because they are programmed into the brain. Otherwise how could we know them? According to Weinberg the most successful theoretical physicists" are either like sages or magicians."12 The sage-physicist reasons in an orderly way about physical problems on the basis of fundamental ideas of the way that nature ought to be."13 Magician-physicists" on the other hand says Weinberg do not seem to be reasoning at all but … jump over all intermediate steps to a new INSIGHT about nature."14 And Martin Rees says that Einsteins theory of general relativity was a conceptual breakthrough" that arose from Einsteins DEEP INSIGHT rather than being STIMULATED by any specific experiment or observation."15 And Einstein himself said this: The only really valuable thing is intuition."16 But clearly what Einstein means by intuition" is insight"; in the sense set out by Rees and others.Philosophical insight
Philosophers have a lamentable lack of insight. The exception is Immanuel Kant. However Kants insight did not relate to the origin and functioning of the universe and life or even to human behavior. Instead it related to the phenomenon of insight itself. He says this: The moral law although it gives no view yet gives us a fact absolutely inexplicable from any data of the sensible world and the whole compass of our theoretical use of reason a fact which points to a pure world of the understanding nay even defines it positively and enables us to know something of it namely a law.17 What Kant was saying is that there is a universal moral law" which we can somehow access but which is not based on our experience from assimilating and interpreting our environment through our physical senses. It is called the Categorical Imperative". It is essentially insight. However he could not identify what it was or where it came from. He ascribed a more metaphysical aspect to it even mystical. Ironically the solution to Kants inability to identify what his moral law" was and where it came from was inadvertently provided by Nietzsche when he mocked Kant for having discovered a moral faculty in man."18 The origin of Kants moral law" is what I have called in previous articles the neurological moral network. Sir Robert Winston calls it a morality module". So it is not some metaphysical or mystical ability but a physical structure in the human brain. That is the moral faculty".Religious insight revelation
Leon J Wood in his book The Prophets of Israel argues that prophesy is not based on or derived from ecstatic experience. The three Hebrew terms used for Prophets in the Old Testament all refer to someone who sees" hence a seer". As Wood says the fundamental thought signified by the words for Prophets) concerns INSIGHT regarding Gods will."19 Wood cites verses such as Isaiah 30: 9 & 10: this is a rebellious people lying children children that will not hear the LAW of the Lord: Which say to the seers; see not; and to the prophets Prophesy not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophesy deceits." The Psalmist says Be still and know that I am God."20 Deuteronomy explains why some people can have insight regarding Gods will. It says that the words written in the book of the law" are not hidden" from us nor are they in heaven" nor beyond the sea"; instead the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it."21 And Jesus put it this way: Neither shall they say Lo here! or lo there! for behold the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU."22 Regarding the Gentiles the apostle Paul says this: For the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law … which shows the work of the law written in their hearts their consciences also bear witness to the law."23Where did this moral faculty" come from?
But how did this information get into the brain? In order to answer that question we need to look back to the origins of the universe itself. The one thing most scientists (or at least physicists) now agree upon is that the functioning of the universe is governed by Principles which were set in motion at its very creation. Those Principles govern everything from the behavior of sub-atomic particles to the DNA which makes up the human organism and thus the human brain. From the scientific perspective Martin Rees says that it is the fundamental principles or properties of fundamental particles themselves their sizes and masses how many different kinds there are and the forces linking them together" that dictate how everything in the universe functions from planets and stars to chemical reactions and human beings. And this is all a result of an expanding universe WHOSE PROPERTIES WERE IMPRINTED INTO IT AT THE TIME OF THE INITIAL BIG BANG."24 Rees refers to the chemistry of our everyday world" which emerged from the time" when these properties were IMPRINTED" into the universe by the initial Big Bang." So the mathematical laws" which Rees says underpin the fabric of our universe" including people" were imprinted" by that event and at the time of that event. Weinberg goes even further when he considers the effect particles have on DNA. Although he says that DNA is too complex to be explained with current quantum mechanical equations he maintains that with a sufficiently sophisticated computer scientists could explain all the workings of DNA by solving the equations of quantum mechanics for electrons and the nuclei of a few common elements whose properties are explained in turn by the standard model. So again we find ourselves at the same point of convergence of our arrows of explanation."25 The Scriptures also bring together these two concepts of the beginning" and certain Principles that dictate how the universe came about. Proverbs says The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens."26 The LORD possessed me wisdom in the beginning of his way before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was."27 If we simply substitute the word Principles or properties" or even mathematical laws" for the words wisdom" and understanding" we find that Rees and Proverbs are saying essentially the same thing. Isaiah even links the creation of the universe to numbers: Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by NUMBER."28 Coincidentally and quite ironically Martin Rees called his book Just Six Numbers". Rees says that six crucial numbers are a recipe for the universe" and that if any of them did not have the precise value they do possess then there would be no stars and no life."29 So scientists and the Prophets agree on the seminal moment which not only set the universe and life in motion but also determined the laws" or Principles that would dictate how it all works. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.30 The only real difference between scientists and the Prophets is that scientists dont see their principles in relation to the human organism whereas the Prophets see their principles in terms of what they would claim is their true function the creation of a living organism capable of moral judgment. We should be careful however not to confuse seeing with subjective opinions.Insight Explained
But how is it that a number of individuals are able to see" certain laws" or gain some special insight" into the functioning of physical laws? What process takes place that enables them to apparently transcend what we understand of the functioning of the human brain? And what exactly do they see"? And where do they see" it? In his excellent book Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic Acquired and Sudden Savant Darold A. Treffert asks this question: How much does the actual knowledge of the prodigious savant or at least the software templates or scaffolding for the rules of music art and mathematics or even other areas of expertise come factory installed in all of us?"31 Savants display quite extraordinary abilities. As Treffert notes some mathematical savants seem to see their answers as if projected on to a screen."32 They dont appear to make mental calculations. Answers to complicated mathematical calculations simply appear to them automatically.The human calculator" Scott Flansburg
But this ability is not unique to savants. Scott Flansburg for example known as the human calculator has similar prodigious mathematical abilities yet doesnt seem to display any other savant-like characteristics. In Stan Lees Superhumans television program Scott Flansburgs abilities were tested at Santiago State University where he demonstrated that he could perform complicated mathematical calculations faster than mathematics students using calculators. Scott said that he simply knew the answers to the questions. Scott was then subjected to a real-time brain scan (an fMRI) while he was doing his calculations. The presenter of the program was also subjected to a brain scan while performing similar calculations so that their respective scans could be compared for differences in brain activity. The neuroscientist conducting the scan Dr David Hubbard anticipated that an area known as Brodmans Area 44 would be enlarged in Scotts brain and would be active during his scan. However once the scans were done Area 44 was in fact active in the presenters brain but not in Scotts brain. Instead an area near the motor cortex was active. This area is behind the right eye and according to Dr Hubbard it controls movement. This part of the brain appears to be programmed with the raw data required by the brain to make almost instant calculations which enable the human body to perform everyday functions like walking running or driving a car. As Rees notes the classical laws of physics Newtons laws are apparently hard-wired into animals like monkeys which enables them to swing through the trees.33 Likewise humans must be hard-wired with those laws which enable us to perform our everyday tasks. Even the simplest activity like jumping off a wall must necessarily require the brain to make a multitude on instant calculations taking into account distance weight of the body and the effect of gravity so as to ensure that the body has the tolerances to safely withstand the impact of the jump. In most of us however these calculations making use of the raw data that is hard-wired into the brain is done subconsciously. In people like Scott Flansburg it seems that the raw data is consciously activated when they are presented with complicated calculations. However the raw data is not something we learn. It is necessary in order for the human organism to function. And it was necessary for the creation of the human organism in the first place.Knowing things we never learned
Treffert recognizes this and examines how human beings particularly savants can know things we never learned."34 This knowledge cannot come from experience because savants who are born with the condition mostly exhibit these extraordinary abilities at an early age long before they could have had the opportunity to learn them.35 Even babies have inbuilt data giving them specialized innate abilities."36 That must stand to reason because every human being is born with powerful instincts that are necessary for our survival. And those instincts can only be the product of the laws that determine how the human organism functions. Our very instincts require the raw data of the laws of physics and mathematics in order to perform even the most menial tasks. Treffert quotes Michael Gazzaniga as saying that as soon as the brain is built it starts to express what it knows what it comes with from the factory."37 Treffert compares the innate knowledge of the human brain to software in a computer: In a similar manner I think we all have considerable brain software and indeed specific knowledge which was factory installed genetically but remains dormant and silent unless we access it."38 An important point to note however is that savants tend to see things in different ways. Some see numbers in answer to mathematical calculations others pictures others see music and others can recall the fine detail of complex structures or even entire cities after only a very brief look at such things. And common to most savants is also a prodigious memory. We should now recall our journey through Genesis. What we saw there was an account of the construction of the human organism from the basic building blocks of the universe and the laws that determine how those building blocks can be put together. Life was shown to be a manifestation of the fundamental laws of physics and in being a manifestation of those laws the human brain is programmed not only by those laws but with those laws. The human brain has an innate knowledge and understanding of the material and laws which created it. That is what Einstein found so remarkable when he noted that The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." Or as Rees says our MINDS ARE SOMEHOW ATTUNED TO UNDERSTAND" the laws of physics.39 So the human brain is not only a manifestation of the laws of physics; the laws of physics are also manifest in the human brain. The savant demonstrates that the human brain must be programmed with all the mathematical raw data of the subatomic particles molecules and chemical calculations that were responsible for creating it and are needed to make it function. And integral to those laws are mathematical laws. The variety of savants and the different ways they appear to see this raw data is itself fascinating and revealing.Daniel Tammet Brainman"
A famous savant is Daniel Tammet. In a documentary about him called Brainman40 he explained how he sees certain things: Im seeing things in my head; like little sparks flying off and its not until the very last minute that those sparks tell me what on earth they mean." And when Tammet was giving answers to complicated mathematical calculations he was seen to be drawing shapes with his fingers. When asked what he was doing he said that he was seeing the numbers." But he went on to say Im seeing pictures shapes and patterns almost like a square; like the texture of water drops ripples almost … like something reflective; its something you can look through almost metallic like a half-cloud a bit like a flash." According to Treffert Tammet sees individual numbers which have a unique color form and texture."41 Treffert records the varied abilities of many of the savants he has encountered in his work over the years and common to each is the ability to see or know things that they have never learned. But also a common feature is that those things they see or know all appear to relate in some manner or other to the fundamental laws of mathematics and physics. And some of those with these gifts attribute their gifts to God.42 And from our analysis so far that may not be an inaccurate claim. But it should not surprise us that the human brain is programmed with the raw mathematical data that underpins the laws of physics. As we have already seen if it were not we could not walk or see or jump or do anything else that requires any kind of calculation of distance or space. We do not first learn all the complicated mathematical formulae required to make the calculations necessary to carry out even the most basic of human activities. If we had to do that it is certain that no individual would ever acquire those basic capabilities. What we do learn is how to make use of the raw data in the brain in conjunction with our physical senses in order to achieve those capabilities and mostly we do so unconsciously. And the more we practice the better we get at making those connections. From what science knows to date about the brain most of this raw data is stored in the right hemisphere of the brain and that is also where savants show most cerebral activity when they demonstrate their amazing abilities. Savants appear to have direct access to some of this raw data whereas the rest of us mostly use it subconsciously and in conjunction with other parts of the brain most notably the left hemisphere.Genetic memory?
Treffert believes that genetic memory" may be responsible for this raw data being carried in the DNA through generations. It is a theory called epigenetics. This theory proposes that environmental circumstances make small chemical changes to our DNA which enables information to be passed through generations. This information acts as a kind of additional layer of DNA without actually altering the fundamental structure of our genetic make-up. The theory may well prove to apply in certain circumstances but it seems rather unlikely when it comes to the basic mathematical raw data that savants appear to so readily access. If it did then that would mean that we all had particularly incredible mathematicians and physicists in our distant past. If we have inherited any mathematical information or more especially information regarding the laws of physics it will have been of a relatively primitive incomplete and rather defective variety. It is far more plausible that human DNA programs the human brain with the raw data of the laws of physics mathematics and chemistry because our DNA knows that it is needed in order to make the human organism function. And this knowledge would appear itself to be a product or manifestation of the fundamental laws of physics. In that respect we should recall the delayed-choice experiments we considered in Part V of this series. We saw then that a subatomic particle somehow knew whether a detector was off or on and adjusted its state accordingly between wave-like or particle-like respectively. However to know whether it had to adopt a particle-like state the detector had to be on. In other words the particle had to be aware of some future condition or environment in order to adapt accordingly. As we have seen the words And God said …" in Genesis Chapter 1 appear to correspond to the communication of the future environment the particles will encounter and that enables them to adjust accordingly to prepare for that environment. And by a series of repeated interactions over the billions of years this process is said to have played out a human organism was created which was itself programmed with the very laws that created it. This explanation does not rule out epigenetics though. Epigenetics may well apply to the transmission of certain information through generations but it cannot apply to the transmission of the knowledge of the fundamental mathematical principles that underpin the laws of physics. It is far more likely that the laws of physics facilitate epigenetics than the other way round. Nevertheless what the savant shows is that the human brain is programmed with certain raw data relating to fundamental mathematical principles.What do they see?
By comparing the abilities of the savant to see such raw data to the insight experienced by certain scientists and the Prophets it is clear that some scientists and the Prophets also see certain raw data. However the raw data such scientists and the Prophets see is in a relatively more unified form than the savant. The savant sees the bricks while the magician" scientists and Prophets see the house and how it was built (at least in part) and in the case of the Prophets why it was built. And like savants great minds in science also see in different ways. Einstein preferred to think in pictures". As he said I rarely think in words at all.43 Benjamin Franklin on the other hand learned to think in words …"44 The explanation given by Srivinasa Ramanujan (1887 1920) one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century for his incredible mathematical abilities is not dissimilar to that of Tammet. Ramanujan was born in Madras India and had no formal mathematical training. Yet he produced complicated equations some of which were already known to Western mathematicians while others were original. Even today some of his equations in the lost notebooks of Ramanujan" remain unsolved. Ramanujan said that his abilities were attributable to the family goddess called Mahalakshmi. After dreaming of drops of blood representing her male counterpart Narasimha Ramanujan said that he had visions in which scrolls appeared to him containing complex equations. Clearly he saw these equations with such clarity that he could transcribe them and also understand what they meant. However he made a remarkable statement regarding how he understood the equations he would see. He said that an equation for me has no meaning unless it represents a thought of God."45 It appears that Ramanujan like a savant was tapping into the mathematical raw data in his brain. And that raw data was revealed to him in a form reminiscent of the Prophets in dreams and visions which he attributed to God as being a representation of a thought of God."The human mind as an image of the universal mind
That statement by Ramanujan is not dissimilar to Philos explanation of man having been made in the image of God." Philo said this: the resemblance is spoken of with reference to the most important part of the soul namely the mind: for the mind which exists in each individual has been created after the likeness of that one mind which is in the universe as its primitive model being in some sort the God of that body which carries it about and bears its image within it."46 The Gospel of Thomas records Jesus saying this: the kingdom of God is inside of you and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves then you will become known and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father."47 That is much the same as the Gospel of Luke: Neither shall they say Lo here! or lo there! for behold the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU."48 These statements attributed to Jesus are essentially the same as what Philo said about the human mind: that one mind which exists in each individual has been created after the likeness of that one mind which is in the universe." As we have seen according to Genesis the laws that govern the universe are Gods laws which express Gods will. The laws of physics could thus be said to reveal the one mind which is in the universe." The savant appears able to see certain aspects of that one mind" with stark clarity. But the way that Daniel Tammet and Srivinasa Ramanujan for example say they see what they see shows that the raw data of the one mind" manifests itself in many different ways numbers as colors or shapes equations on scrolls in visions dreams sparks ripples of water or drops of blood. The words used to describe the experiences of the Prophets are not much different to Tammet and Ramanujan. The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel saw visions49 Jeremiah saw words50 while Daniel as well as having dreams and visions of his own could see the meaning in what others saw because he had understanding in all dreams and visions.51Conclusion
Insight is something that appears to happen to many different people in many different ways. But its origin is the same the mathematical raw data that is imprinted into the human brain. It has led to important scientific discoveries and it has given us religion and philosophy. But what Genesis shows is that some three thousand years ago an instance of insight occurred that transcended anything that has happened since. An instance of insight into the very foundations of the universe and life. And an instance of insight that revealed humanitys moral origins moral purpose and moral destiny. The Prophet/s of Genesis saw the moral dimension of the laws that govern the universe. They saw what the Scriptures would come to call The Law which is the Ten Commandments; what Philo called the heads and principles of all particular laws."52And the mission of subsequent Prophets was to urge the people to conform their lives to the Law."53 More importantly however they recognized that the laws that govern the universe and are imprinted into our minds speak to us of a Supreme Lawmaker. That is what we will address in the next article. ----------------------------------------------------------- This article is based on the book A Final Theory of God by Joseph BH McMillan.