What the Bleep Do We Know?

As I stated in a previous post, I got a kick out of watching this documentary which dealt with both quantum mechanics and brain function.

One of the interesting tidbits given by a neurologist (doctor who studies and works on the brain) was that the eye sees over two million pieces of information at one time, yet we can only focus on 2000 of those pieces.  (The terminology I am using here might not be exact, but the gist is the same.)  This means that we literally take in 1,998,000 more pieces of information in than we can handle at any given moment.  This also means we miss a whole lot more than we are often willing to admit.

It's little wonder we can't really come up with a coherent picture of events that happened.  It's little wonder we have trouble remembering the details of events.

For instance, I am notorious about forgetting things people tell me on Sunday morning before or after worship.  Just the other Sunday, a member of the choir informed me they would like to sing an introductory piece before we began worship.  I had just finished teaching Sunday School and my brain was still processing a few things, nature was calling, I was entering my pre-worship routine and noticing one of my kids running toward me.  Long and short of it, when the appropriate time for the choir to sing arrived, I skipped right over it.  My brain didn't alert me until I had a few moments to gather myself while another person was reading the lessons.  With everything going on, it took several moments of quiet and reflection until my brain actually processed the choir members' request.

Now, I'm not trying to excuse myself.  I didn't focus like I should, however, it's not surprising given how our brains work. 

For my money, this should make us quite humble as we enter into any sort of argument or debate about things.  We miss way too much of what our eyes actually see (not to mention that sometimes our brain only sees that which confirms our own viewpoints--that's another post, though).  There really is a whole world out there that we are missing.

Gives a kind of fresh insight as to why Jesus called His followers do be humble, does it not?