Evolution Of Thoughts (Part 2)

It is the spiritual component in our belief and faith that created room for such positive thinking in the boundaries of religion; even we can feel this ongoing conflict within our faith, between spiritual thinking and its conventional thinking. In fact, it worked as a process, though many times after so many scientific inventions, they may appear us weird and unscientific, all of those practices and thinking were the part of an ongoing developmental process of science. For a person in the 15^th century, most of those things what science proved wrong in later times were right. Similarly, for a person living in the first decade of last century (only a hundred years back), the present-day internet is like a miracle. So, what we consider prevalent today will be a miracle a few decades and centuries back. All the scientific achievements have their developmental roots in the hypothesis and theories of yesterday. Many of them proved wrong, and many of them proved right, but it is that thinking and thought process which makes critical thinking possible. What we tested right today is the result of a method of our thinking, and it is very natural that all the products of a process cannot be right, but to get the right and useful results it is the process which is most important.

Our brain keeps on developing in the process of natural evolution. This incredible 1.2 to 1.4 kg (around three pounds) organ, with more than 100 billion nerves and trillions of synapses (communicating connections between nerves) receive signals from our five senses sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. It processes them to make meaning for us and can store them in our memory. It controls body movements, organs, thoughts, memory, emotions and reactions. It has three major areas brain stem, cerebellum, and cerebrum. The brain stem is the most primitive part of our brain; it controls the most necessary physiological functions which are required to survive like respiration, heart, hunger, sleep, etc. are controlled by this area. The cerebellum controls little higher tasks like coordinating movements, posture and maintaining balance. The cerebrum is uppermost part of the brain, and it makes interpretation and analysis of inputs those are given by our five senses. Higher and most sophisticated and intellectual functions like learning, speech, excellent control of movements, emotions, and control on the lower areas of the brain are the primary functions of the cerebrum.

It is just like newer layers for gradually higher intellectual functions are making gradual layers on the brainstem, the higher the intellectual quality of function higher the position of its control. So, the most complex and intelligent tasks are governed by more upper layers, it occurs during evolution, with the growing need for sophisticated thinking and intellectual capacities, it keeps on growing in layers of higher control centers. It is the most simplistic and easily understandable description of the complex mechanism of our brain and its functioning.

Ability to think critically is the most amazing function of our brain. It becomes possible due to biological evolution. Critical thinking goes one step ahead to the abstract thinking which made the modern era of science and technology possible; it resulted in the development of society, the concept of humanity and human values, religion and religious thinking and conceptual understanding of nature and different natural processes in the form of modern science.

Dr. Mahesh Bhatt