Two brain hemispheres

Originally posted on January 21, 2007 – by Andre Piet

As most people know, the human brain is divided into a left and a right hemisphere. Strangely enough, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. Thus, a stroke in the right hemisphere causes paralysis on the left side of the body.

In an abstract sense, this asymmetry also exists. With the right hemisphere we think “left” (i.e., associatively, emotionally), and with the left hemisphere we think “right” (i.e., logically, rationally).

The left hemisphere enables us to think in a linear, analytical, and abstract manner. The right hemisphere of the brain, on the other hand, gives us the ability to think in terms of associations and emotional values. With the left hemisphere we can, for example, calculate a sum, understand an argument, or plan a route. The right hemisphere, however, allows us to be moved by a sunset, to appreciate music, or to make connections between, say, a song and an event in our life. Such connections are not causal but associative—that is, there may be no direct cause-and-effect relationship, but the connection exists in terms of meaning.

The way the Creator has composed our brain serves as a model for how we are meant to think and study. We can dissect and analyze any given subject (left hemisphere), but only when we also place it in perspective and observe its unity with other matters (association > right hemisphere), are we using our full understanding.

When Paul speaks in Galatians 4 about Hagar and Sarah, he assumes without hesitation that in the story of these women “there is a deeper meaning” (4:24). He points to connections between the figure of Hagar, the slavery of the old covenant, and Mount Sinai. Those who think only analytically will undoubtedly raise their eyebrows when reading such a passage, because the connection escapes them—that is, the analytical, causal connection. As if that were the only meaningful kind of connection…

Since EVERYTHING is the design of one God, it is entirely logical that everything also points to Him and to His design (= Plan). In “nature and Scripture,” everything is interconnected—for the simple reason that it all originates from one Designer. Everything that exists is the expression of His creativity.

The same God who gave the promise that the tribe of Judah would be the royal tribe, like a lion, also created the constellation Leo—and it was precisely in that star sign that He placed special signs in the year of the birth of “the Lion of Judah.” And it was magi in the East who were able to make the connections—between the full moon, conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter, the constellation Virgo, and so on—and they traveled to Jerusalem. Purely associative connections, yet they drew the entirely correct conclusion: that the King of the Jews had been born!

The left and right hemispheres of the brain serve as models for, respectively, linear, analytical thinking on the one hand, and linked, associative, typological thinking on the other. Both were designed by God so that we might love Him with our whole mind—both right and left!

Delen: