To know our not to know

A few months ago I was watching a Ted talk about the brain.  The presenter showed live on the screen a brain being scanned and how different parts would light up according to the activity that was being performed.  It was amazing to see a brain in action until the presenter said something that struck me and took me out of the presentation and in to my own thoughts.  He said to the person whose brain was being scanned, "you can control your brain."  Maybe for someone who is very knowledgeable on the topic, this is not a big deal, but it was, and is, for me.  Not in a bad sense, but in the awe sense.  What part of us control the brain?  Isn't the brain the center of control of our being?

There must be a scientific explanation that makes sense, but the fact is that obviously there is more then what we, after all the advancements, have come to discover and comprehend.  Another presenter on the same topic acknowledged that there is not yet a sound explanation on how our conscience works within the hardware of our brain.  Yet, we use our brain without even trying to understand how it works.

Obviously, life is full of mysteries that generate the context in which we live in.  One of them is the constant conflict that we face between what we understand is good, and what we understand is bad.  And beyond that, the pressures we need to resist in order to maintain our professional, ethical, moral or spiritual ground.  Regardless of our religious affiliation or philosophy of life, we agree that stealing is bad, and helping is good.  Where this sense of good and bad comes from?  And not only that, but why they seem to be in constant conflict?, both, with in each of us as well as in the constant social tensions that we experience too very often.

Jesus assured us that this tension exist when he said: "the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it" (Matthew 11:12, NLT).  Yes, it is true. the good news of salvation too many times finds itself within the context of conflict.  History has witness even violence and wars, but the conflict has been seen also in legislative contentions, and social unrest.  Why?  Why are we, as society, so prone to conflict?  Why do we historically react negatively to the offer of God?  In deed, it is a mystery.