God Does Not Have a Brain: time and the thought process of the Almighty
“Your thoughts are very deep!”
-Psalm 92:5b
“God doesn’t have a brain, and he has never missed it.”
-Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
If you are interrogated about any major decision (should I marry this person?) or minor decision (should I add cherry tomatoes to this salad?), it is probably pretty easy for you to tell someone your thought process: how, why, and when did you come to that decision? Human decision making is wrapped up in our experience of time: our thoughts take on a progression, and so we can often easily take people through that exact process. If asked, we can respond with a course of thoughts: “I saw the salad lacked color, and that it needed a pop of flavor, and I noticed I had cherry tomatoes in the fridge, so I just threw them in there.” Notice the sequence? That happens in your brain all the time, both consciously and unconsciously.
Does God think like this? Does the Creator of heaven and earth take things into consideration, sort them out, and then deliver on his decision-making? Does God think like we think? Just as automatic as our sequential thinking is our assumption that God’s brain is just like ours. That is, if he has one.
