Taking Every Thought Captive - A minute of margin

"If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't." -Lyall Watson

“The brain — pride and joy of the nervous system — is staggering in its abilities and complexity. ‘In man is a three-pound brain, which, as far as we know, is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe.’ Thus wrote scientist and author Isaac Asimov. In so stating, he was giving God a compliment, even though he remained an avowed atheist up to the end.

The basic cell of the brain is called the neuron, of which there are ten billion to one hundred billion. In addition to long extensions called axons, each neuron has ten thousand tiny branching fibers and filamentous projections called dendrites. Each neuron is thus in contact with ten thousand other neurons, for a total of one hundred trillion neurological interconnections.

If you were to stretch out all the neurons and dendritic connections in the brain and lay them end to end, they would extend one hundred thousand miles and circle the earth at the equator four times.

One way to visualize these dendritic connections is as light switches, either in the off or on position. The brain holds 10.14 bits of information and thus has a storage capacity one thousand times that of a Cray-2 supercomputer. Unlike the parts of a computer, however, nerve cells are highly individual. No two cells are exactly the same, nor do they respond to the same incoming information in the same way. Each neuron us unique in all the universe.

The brain is capable of firing at ten thousand million computations a second. The capacity of the brain is such that it can hold the information equivalent to twenty-five million books, capable of filling a bookshelf five hundred miles long. In contrast, the Library of Congress has eighteen million volumes.

The brain can be the conduit of distress or a channel of blessing. Overloading our synapses with excessive multi-tasking will leave us besieged by anxiety. If we live in an emotional gutter and perseverate on problems and pain, then we will be battered by our thoughts. If, on the other hand, we yield our spirit to the Spirit of God, our surrendered thoughts can lead us to green pastures and still waters where He restores our souls.”

If you are a fast talker, at least think slowly. - Cretian Proverb

from A MINUTE OF MARGIN by Richard Swenson MD published by NavPress.