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Music, Our Brain, and God

8/22/2014

7 Comments

 
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Please take a moment to read this thought-provoking article on music and neuroscience from National Geographic magazine.

This discussion was prompted by our recent concert at Broadway from "Two and a Half Tenors." Here's what Pastor Rob wrote to initiate this discussion...

  The music concert by Two and a Half Tenors Sunday night was a huge success on many levels: a packed house, great show with a variety on numbers, our sound system at its best, and a free will offering that, combined with our great sponsors, meant that we came out exactly $3 ahead! But there was one other aspect that made it such a special evening of music: it wonderfully demonstrated that we are made in the image and likeness of our Creator God.

     Imago dei is the Latin phrase used by theologians to indicate that human beings bear the mark of our Creator. We are who we are because of who God is. The Bible describes heaven as a place where harpists play and singers join their voices (Rev. 14:2-3, Ps. 40:3). Worship that is pleasing to God involves music (Ps. 100:1-2) and music is an integral part of spiritual growth (Col. 3:16). We are musical because God is musical. In fact, there is so much music referenced in the Bible that as Genesis described God “speaking” the world into existence, C.S. Lewis imagined his Christ-like Aslan in The Magician’s Nephew creating the world by singing it into existence.

     There are rules, patterns, and pleasing harmonies in music that transcend human construct. Animal brains do not react to music the way human brains do, and neuroscientists continue to be baffled by why music affects us the way it does. Chris Robinson summed up the mysterious heavenly quality of music when he reminded me that music is best expressed when it flows through us rather than from us. We are musical because God is musical and we bear the image of God. Thank you Two and a Half Tenors for the reminder.


7 Comments
Pastor Rob
8/22/2014 05:23:40 am

What in the article prompts you to think about how music is a gift of our Creator God? What statements in the article indicate that scientists struggles with WHY music affects us? We may know about chemical reactions in our brain, but what does that tell us, or not, about the impact of music upon us?

Reply
Jake
8/28/2014 02:27:34 am

The article states - "Music moves people of all cultures, in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with other animals. Nobody really understands why listening to music — which, unlike sex or food, has no intrinsic value — can trigger such profoundly rewarding experiences."

First of all, "intrinsic" means "belonging naturally to", or "essential". Every human culture throughout time values music of some form, so clearly music is essential to and belongs naturally to human beings. Second, the questions posed in this article reside outside of science's ability to answer. These questions of "why" we are moved by music are not answered by brain chemistry analysis. If God exists and we are made in the image of God, then we are musical because our Creator is musical. Where science stops theology can fill in.

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Cindy S
8/28/2014 04:04:26 am

I believe that God is amused when we work so hard scientifically to explain something that is unexplainable. God is reality, but God exists shrouded in mystery, which is how our Creator set it up.

Reply
Pastor Rob
8/28/2014 04:09:23 am

Well stated! God also created us with a striving mind, so it is intrinsic to our nature that we strive to discover answers. And there is the tension. We strive to answer what lies in mystery. Or, perhaps the answer is clear outside of science. We think, we create, we seek, and we make music because we bear the image of our Creator.

Reply
Pastor Rob
8/28/2014 05:22:29 am

Well said. God also created us to be inquisitive, to seek, and to engage our mind. There is the tension. We seek, discover, and create (in ways that animals also are not), and we are moved by beauty in music because we are made in the image of the creative, existing, and mysterious Creator.

Reply
Cary
8/30/2014 02:57:55 am

God is Creator and therefore creative. As we are made in the image of God, not God but bearing the reflection of God, we are therefore creative. We sing, compose, build, paint, imagine, sculpt, and invent as a reflection of our Creator. Animals, although valuable, are not made in the image of God and therefore do not create.

Reply
Pastor Rob
9/19/2014 11:45:17 am

Your comments made me think of two stories related to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). This group is named such that everyone probably thinks they should be a member. After all, we all want animals treated ethically. The problem is, PETA equates humans and animals. Cases in point: "Holocaust on Your Plate" was a campaign that equated the Nazi gas chambers with BBQ chickens. To PETA there is no difference between the murder of innocent humans and the killing of chickens. Then in Orange County, CA, a truck filled with fresh live fish to be delivered to market overturned. All the tanks broke and the fish died. PETA petitioned Orange County to erect a roadside memorial sign commemorating the fish lives lost. PETA made similar efforts when trucks crashes elsewhere killed pigs and cows. The Bible commands us to care of creation, which includes treating animals ethically. But PETA is simply ethically confused.

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