I hope my title has intrigued you. I have always believed that God has many different facets, many different dimensions. This morning I think I was made aware of yet another one of God's faces- his illogical one. Perhaps this does not strike you as particularly worth noting; God is infinitely wiser than humans, of course his reasoning and ways are "illogical" (or seemingly so) to us at times. But I'm not going to write about anything terribly philosophical or profound, mostly because it boggles my mind to attempt.
I suppose in times past I have been made aware of the fact that God's ways don't always make sense to me and may seem illogical by my reasoning, but I don't think I had ever thought to actually label God as illogical. That is, not until this morning.
For whatever reason, something triggered my mind to ponder dreams this morning. This topic is one frequented by my brain and I enjoy thinking about dreams. Why? I don't know. Perhaps because I'm not a terribly logical person and dreams are not logical. Maybe because dreams are often rather silly, or perhaps just because they are an amusing way to pass time. In any case, I was thinking about dreams this morning.
Did you know that when you sleep certain parts of your brain turn off? Well, I suppose turn off is not a completely accurate phrase to describe what happens. If when we wen
t to sleep our brains shut off completely, our life span would be drastically smaller number than what it is currently. Thankfully, God anticipated this problem and engineered the brain to work accordingly (I'm very glad that God is the master engineer, and not I*). When you sleep all kinds of neurotransmitters are produced or inhibited to regulate your state of wakefulness, your vital signs, your muscle activity (or rather lack thereof), and many other things. But did you know that when you sleep there are certain areas of your brain that become inaccessible? Activity in those areas of your brain is blocked while you are asleep. One of those areas happens to be the portion of the brain where logic and reasoning take place. This is a very condensed and paraphrased explanation of why dreams are so bizarre. I apologize to those of you who have heard me explain this before, but it really fascinates me, and thus was bound to turn up on this blog page sooner or later.
So back to the illogicality of God. As I thought about dreams this morning, I began to think about the fact that God used dreams to communicate with people. The Bible gives several many accounts of when God has used dreams to communicate with people and show them the future- Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, and others. "How odd that God would use such an illogical medium of communication," I wondered to myself. And so, I have concluded that God has an illogical dimension. Not illogical because it doesn't make sense to me (good heavens, if that were the definition of illogical...) but illogical because he uses illogical means of communication sometimes.
*Just for your amusement and mine I have created a scenario as an addendum to this blog. It was a short mental picture which I have chosen to further develop.
Setting: Kristin is observing God create a living being. She often interjects her wonderings, and kindly, God explains.
God: This is the brain, this is going to make the whole thing work. It's a sort of "boss," it tells everything else how to work, what to do. It's very important. Without it, the rest of the body would stop working.
Kristin: Wow, that's awesome!
God: But it can't work all the time, it needs to rest sometimes too. So I need to make some way for it to take a break... Hmm.... Let's see...
Kristin: Can't you just make an off switch? You know, like with a light bulb?
God: I think that would be synonymous to a kill switch.
Kristin: Oh. Right. Scratch that idea.
I suppose in times past I have been made aware of the fact that God's ways don't always make sense to me and may seem illogical by my reasoning, but I don't think I had ever thought to actually label God as illogical. That is, not until this morning.
For whatever reason, something triggered my mind to ponder dreams this morning. This topic is one frequented by my brain and I enjoy thinking about dreams. Why? I don't know. Perhaps because I'm not a terribly logical person and dreams are not logical. Maybe because dreams are often rather silly, or perhaps just because they are an amusing way to pass time. In any case, I was thinking about dreams this morning.
Did you know that when you sleep certain parts of your brain turn off? Well, I suppose turn off is not a completely accurate phrase to describe what happens. If when we wen
t to sleep our brains shut off completely, our life span would be drastically smaller number than what it is currently. Thankfully, God anticipated this problem and engineered the brain to work accordingly (I'm very glad that God is the master engineer, and not I*). When you sleep all kinds of neurotransmitters are produced or inhibited to regulate your state of wakefulness, your vital signs, your muscle activity (or rather lack thereof), and many other things. But did you know that when you sleep there are certain areas of your brain that become inaccessible? Activity in those areas of your brain is blocked while you are asleep. One of those areas happens to be the portion of the brain where logic and reasoning take place. This is a very condensed and paraphrased explanation of why dreams are so bizarre. I apologize to those of you who have heard me explain this before, but it really fascinates me, and thus was bound to turn up on this blog page sooner or later.So back to the illogicality of God. As I thought about dreams this morning, I began to think about the fact that God used dreams to communicate with people. The Bible gives several many accounts of when God has used dreams to communicate with people and show them the future- Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, and others. "How odd that God would use such an illogical medium of communication," I wondered to myself. And so, I have concluded that God has an illogical dimension. Not illogical because it doesn't make sense to me (good heavens, if that were the definition of illogical...) but illogical because he uses illogical means of communication sometimes.
*Just for your amusement and mine I have created a scenario as an addendum to this blog. It was a short mental picture which I have chosen to further develop.
Setting: Kristin is observing God create a living being. She often interjects her wonderings, and kindly, God explains.
God: This is the brain, this is going to make the whole thing work. It's a sort of "boss," it tells everything else how to work, what to do. It's very important. Without it, the rest of the body would stop working.
Kristin: Wow, that's awesome!
God: But it can't work all the time, it needs to rest sometimes too. So I need to make some way for it to take a break... Hmm.... Let's see... Kristin: Can't you just make an off switch? You know, like with a light bulb?
God: I think that would be synonymous to a kill switch.
Kristin: Oh. Right. Scratch that idea.
3 comments:
By the way, I was browsing other blogs and came across a very interesting one of Dr. Ted's (Howe) on faith being an irrational (or rather, extrarational) choice. I highly recommend it. thrushsong.blogspot.com
Logic is God's tool, not His master. In our world, 2+2=4, but God could just as easily have made them equal 10. Logic is an effective means to explore our world, but, like any microscope, its of limited utility as a telescope--particularly when pointed towards God.
Paul- well said, and point taken. I suppose I should revise: God cannot be well scrutinized by logic, nor categorized by it.
My assertion of God's "illogical" dimension is merely a reflection on his use of something highly illogical as a means of communication. Thanks for your insight :) I appreciate it.
Post a Comment