Renewal Of The Mind

Along with Chinese philosophy, I am taking philosophy of mind this semester.  We get to focus on the mind/body problem and argue about whether or not physical happenings in the brain can adequately account for our thoughts and emotions and such.  If there the mind is a separate, nonphysical entity from the brain, how do the two work together?  Fun stuff, right?  Well, at least some of it is anyways.


Some of the stuff that I actually think is fun is learning about the psychological stuff we get to learn about.  A video about neuron communication that we were required to watch this weekend got me thinking about Romans 12:2 where Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  I think most of us would think of the mind as it's used here in terms of the non-physical stuff such as thoughts and emotions, and I think that's what Paul meant, too.


The video got me thinking, though.  It discussed that communication patterns are formed both by nature and nurture.  The synapses, the parts in between the neurons that carry the chemical messages from neuron to neuron, can actually change because of learned behaviors.  The example that was given was of a mouse being afraid of a cat.  By nature, the synapses will relay a message that produces fear.  However, when a mouse encounters cats and learns to associate certain stimuli with the approaching of a cat, the synapses change in a way that allows for those stimuli to produce the same fear message and allow the mouse to react sooner.


Could it be that there is also a physical renewal of our minds when our minds as in our thoughts and emotions are renewed?  It seems plausible.  Perhaps as we focus on all that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy and as we obey God with the help of the Holy Spirit our minds are also physically being restored as our synapses and neuron communication structures are being transformed.  We do know that various factors can alter brain pathways.  And God does care about our bodies.  How cool would it be if it does mean both?