Hi Randy,
Yes, it’s hard to believe that Canada’s second largest mainline Christian church has decided it’s okay to have a minister who’s an avowed atheist – not an agnostic minister (because there are probably quite a few ministers who are struggling with their faith) but a person who’s published some fairly successful books about why we don’t need God!
I also want to thank you for posting the Justin Barrett clip. I watched the whole thing and found it riveting. At about the 25:00 mark, he introduced his thesis, and that’s when I ended up on the edge of my seat. His thesis revolves around a theory of the brain that’s often called Dual Process Theory. I’ve posted about this theory several times on BioLogos in the context of how we can better understand our relationships with God, ourselves, and each other.
Basically, Dual Process Theory posits the existence of two parallel but equally important processing systems in the human brain. Some researchers call them System 1 and System 2. Barrett uses the designations of Fast and Slow. My theory is that Jesus called them the Heart and the Mind.
A bit of background from my own journey . . . back in early 2005, I was desperate to understand the theodicy question. By that time, I understood with my entire being what Divine Love feels like, but I couldn’t get my mind on the same page as my heart. What’s with all the suffering?, my mind kept saying.
The conversation with Jesus (with whom I have a strong communication link) went something like this:
“You know Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?” he said.
“You mean the pyramid?” I said.
“Yes. So what you need to know is that the human brain has two different networks,” he said, “with one devoted to the soul’s needs and one devoted to the body’s biological needs. You can call one the Soul Circuitry and the other the Darwinian circuitry. To see how they intersect, with the experience of self-actualization at the heart of it all, take Maslow’s pyramid, break it apart, and make it into a cross. Put physiological needs and safety needs on the X axis. Put belonging & love and self-esteem on the Y axis. Then draw a circle in the middle, which is the target zone. The goal of the journey is to try to stay in the target zone by balancing your needs as best you can. The target zone isn’t a tiny little point of perfection. It’s more like a ‘do the best you can’ kind of zone.”
“But this diagram looks like a Celtic cross,” I said.
He just laughed.
Several years later, I stumbled across an article that introduced readers to the Dual Process Theory, and I immediately saw that it was almost identical to the Celtic cross model Jesus had told me about, except for the part about the target zone (or Christ Zone, as he called it) in the middle.
The bottom line, from a theodicy point of view, is that we sometimes have to work very hard to preserve the balance of body, mind, heart, and soul, and when we’re not able to sustain that balance (for reasons ranging from the genetic to the social to the economic), our brains can end up choosing dysfunctional coping mechanisms that cause no end of suffering and “evil.” To get out of the problems we create for ourselves and feel a lasting sense of peace, healing, and reconnection with God – to experience what Jesus called redemption – we need to accept the need for this balance and ask for God’s help in maintaining it. His “Celtic Cross” model is the path to feeling God’s love and God’s presence in our daily lives.
Once you start working with the Christ Zone model, it becomes clear that Jesus not only knew about it, but lived it, taught it, and died for it.
As Dr. Barrett points out in the video, the evidence for how our brains actually work is consistent with a theistic – and specifically Christian – belief system. He also had some other great points, but I think this post is long enough.
God bless,
Jen