Nuggets from An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith by Dave Hunt - Brain and Mind

David exulted, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm:139:14I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
See All...). Materialism has trivialized man. Materialistic science has denied the nonphysical spirit and soul of man and turned him into a stimulous-response mechanism. It alleges that man’s thoughts, ambitions, likes, dislikes, even his sense of right and wrong and the experience of love and compassion, can all be explained in terms of electrical and chemical impulses in his brain and nervous system. Such folly was the basis for Sigmund Freud’s theories and is still behind the treatment of mental disorders with drugs.

Yes, the brain may be like a computer, but no computer can think on its own. Someone must tell it what to do. What folly to imagine that thoughts originate in the brain. If so, as we earlier pointed out, we would be prisoners of our brains, helplessly dragged along as its chemical/electrical processes determined our thoughts and even our morals and emotions. In fact, thought is initiated by the soul and spirit, which use the brain to operate the body and to interface with this physical world of sensual experiences in which our bodies function.

There are more cells in the brain than stars in the universe, and these cells make up hundreds of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses in perfect balance. Moreover, the mysterious link between the spirit of man, made in God’s image, and his brain and body is forever beyond the grasp of science. Yet that connection is being tampered with by drugs in order to adjust man’s behavior – behavior that was meant to reflect God’s perfect purity but instead reflects man’s rebellion and sin as a child of Satan: “Ye are of your father, the devil” (John:8:44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
See All...). There are no chemical solutions to spiritual problems. Yet millions take drugs such as Prozac, Effexor, Valium, Ritalin, Zoloft, Paxil, and so on, to deal with spiritual problems.

The Bible declares that man’s inner turmoil, insecurity, lust, anger, conflict with himself and others, and any other “emotional problems” that beset him are spiritual at their root (2 Corinthians:7:1Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
See All...; Galatians:5:16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
See All...; Colossians:1:21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
See All...). They result from man’s rebellion against God and the wrenching separation from God which that rebellion effected in the depths of his being. Therefore, the solution to man’s emotional and spiritual problems is reconciliation to God. Tragically, that solution is being set aside in favor of correcting a “chemical imbalance” in the brain with drugs.

There is no doubt much that can go wrong with the brain as a physical instrument, such as nutritional deficiency or various traumas. However, even secular psychiatrists admit that the brain is far too complex to be precisely “adjusted” with drugs.

The awesome implications of tampering with the brain are not generally recognized by those relying upon chemical solutions. Nor are Christian psychologists acknowledging the even more serious consequences of tampering with the brain’s response to the soul and spirit of man, so “fearfully and wonderfully” made in the image of God.

A word of caution: We are not advocating that anyone now taking medication should stop abruptly. Psychiatric drugs can be addictive, and to stop suddenly could have serious consequences. Any change in medication should be only under the supervision of a physician. We are simply pointing out that no one really knows how drugs work or the full range of their effects. Many drugs prescribed by physicians for years have only later been found to have such devastating effects that they have been removed from the market.