Brain on Pause

The greatest computer ever made

Must be the human brain,

Created to exercise intensely

It undergoes excessive strain.

It is fully functional

And can last for a hundred years,

Tucked away in a hard case

It responds to all our cares.

It is composed of hardware

And runs plenty software too,

There are limitless applications

That will change with one’s view.

Try comparing its size

With the tremendous work it does

And straightaway

One’s mind will begin to buzz.

Here is some interesting information

I actually think it is fun:

The first fully functional computer

Weighed almost fifty tons.

The only feet it had

Was its humongous size

Which amounted to 1800 square feet

Yes, I note your surprise.

A whopping 18 000 vacuum tubes

Yet it could not self-programme,

Yes and you guessed correctly

It had no operating RAM.

There are differences in opinion

Concerning the very first

But in such an argument

We need not become immersed.

Just to make the point though

And to make it very plain

No manmade computer

Even comes close to the brain.

  

This is another reason

For my personal conviction,

There must be a supreme designer

Behind its creation.

If you are not a supporter

Of the first Genesis clause

I dare say my friend

Your brain must be on pause.

It is amazing how we think

Or put another way don’t think at all

And attribute all of this to evolution

My friend I am appalled.

I agree there’s been evolution

But not at the genesis,

Someone set it in train

Or I have missed my guess.

We can go back to the first computer

And agree that it evolved

But regarding its origin

This has been clearly resolved.

A human brain was responsible

Everyone would agree,

Thank God for the human brain

Since at least that we can see.

Yet the same brain that we use

To come to such a conclusion

We put it on pause

As we reject its creation.

“It’s not scientific,” we say

“For it falls short of the mark.

The only possible way it could happen

Is through an evolutionary  start.”

Brain on pause I suggest my friend

Brain on pause indeed,

Just like when we’re thrown off line

Having lost out Internet feed.

Hastily shut off your computer

And then reboot again,

No not your laptop my friend

I mean your forgotten brain.

To believe what you can’t believe

However hard you try

Is to believe that you are a bird

And that you can fly.

To believe that you are a bird

Does not make you one

So time to take the brain off pause

And switch its computer back on.

In the beginning God!

That is the first Genesis clause,

If you haven’t accepted this my friend

Then your brain is still on pause.

Stewart Russell © June 2018

The Mind

 

I wonder about the mind

What and where is it?

I know it’s a reality

Just from my daily habit.

It is something; that’s a fact,

To it we often refer,

Every human being uses it

I am sure on that we concur.

But where is it located?

Does anyone know?

Is there a part of the anatomy

At which it will clearly show?

Let this mind be in you

Says Philippians 2 and verse 5

But where within you

Does one’s mind survive?

Consider medical science

And its surgical procedures;

How oft have they entered a brain

But no mind there discovered?

Oft one may have said,

“I’ve a lot on my mind.”

Shouldn’t that add weight to a person?

But only a fool would so opine.

So what really is the mind?

And where is it located?

These are difficult questions to answer

Even among the most opinionated.

A simple yet compelling answer

Might very well be,

It’s part of man’s incorporeal

The corporeal being his anatomy.

Here the Psalmist praises his Maker

I refer to Psalm 139 verse 14:

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made,”

Shows God’s intelligence is supreme.

  

Perhaps when God breathed into man

Into him he breathed a mind,

A facility with which to think

And to God his thoughts incline.

It’s like the personal computer

With its advanced technology:

There are hard ware and software

That ensures its capability.

We know the hardware well:

The physical components put together

But if these were all to the computer

Not one single piece would matter.

What makes the computer run

Are programmes and apps we upload,

These essentially are its mind

That helps to achieve its goal.

Somewhat like cyberspace

That behaves like a universal mind

There we hide our written treasures

Where only we can find. 

Similarly the brain cavity and tissue

Comprise our hardware capacity

But the mind that’s somewhere in us

Is our software capability

There we store our thoughts

For retrieval in the time of need

Some we keep securely locked away

And upon them daily feed.

So that when we think of the mind

Don’t think of the what and where

Rather, think of its essential purpose

To contemplate why we are here.

Think on these things the Bible says

Things honest, true and lovely,

Set your affections on things above

Should be the mind’s foremost priority.

Stewart Russell © October 2017