From: Don Winterstein (dfwinterstein@msn.com)
Date: Mon Aug 18 2003 - 03:17:19 EDT
Sam Olsen wrote:
"If you or I develop Alzheimer's disease, some of our brain cells
such as those in the Hippocampus which are crucial for memory, will die.
Will you be able to have spiritual experiences and pray when areas in your
temporal lobe and orientation association areas (implicated in spiritual
experiences) do not function normally?"
Because I have known several people with that terrible disease, this is not an abstract question. For those who interact with the patient there are nagging questions: How much humanity has already died, and how much remains? What kind of person are we dealing with, and what does that person still know but perhaps can't articulate?
With such illness I can't imagine that I'd be able to have the kind of spiritual experience that I now am able to have, because that kind of experience seems to depend strongly on being alert and highly aware. That is, to become optimally spiritual seems to require something close to optimal mental and even physical health. Illnesses of much less consequence than Alzheimer's can impair this ability, as do all kinds of mundane intrusions in life. God is able to overcome such liabilities by forcibly engulfing the soul but rarely (in my experience) does so. I suspect he did so more than once for the apostle Paul.
But having these spiritual experiences is not essential to being a Christian. For a time after I first had such experience I thought it was essential (see Acts 8:14-17). Now I see it as a special gift. The New Testament puts a lot of emphasis on making contributions to the community but little emphasis on privately experiencing God. Alzheimer's victims can't do much if any of either. But it is more important for God to know us that for us to know him (I Cor. 13:12), and God will continue to know us if we become victims.
So, with Alzheimer's--no, I think I'd not be able to know God as I can know him now, unless God were to force the knowledge. But I'd attribute that more to an inability to become spiritual than to a defect in a particular part of the brain. That is, there are many things besides brain defects that can keep me from conscious interaction with God. The fact that God could overcome my handicap (I believe) and make me spiritual despite the defect leads me to conclude that the brain defect would not be the deciding factor.
Don
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