One thing I hear frequently from Christians is the idea they have that God wants (Insert thingy here). Usually people come up with this after praying, or say that God speaks to them in a quiet voice. I wanted to write a note to suggest to those people that they should perhaps consider that the voice comes from another source.

My daughter once suggested to me that perhaps this is our dreaming world, and that when we dream, that is reality. I’ve heard this to suggest things like astral projection and the like are real things as well.

I wanted to offer this other point of view as a way to “test” the “reality” of both of these claims.

Let’s take as premise that our brains are devices that process information for our bodies. Our lives are spent gathering new information that is processed by our brains.

Our brains are capable of taking that information and re-arranging it in all sorts of ways, but there is only so far you can process information. For example, you might pick up clues from body language and such that Harry is cheating on Sally, but in order to figure out that it’s with Jane Smith from Cleveland, you must have some knowledge of Jane. You can’t divine out of thin air that bit of information.

So, as test, think back over your life throughout those answers to your prayers. Have you ever received a NEW bit of information from God? A single one? Or, rather, has it always been information that if you thought really hard, you could have come up with on your own?

My answer to my daughter’s case was: Have you ever received a single new bit of information in your dreams? How about when you were awake? It was simple to point out to her that in fact, like every one else, her dreams were her body’s way of working out information relationships for things that she ALREADY KNEW. Thus, her dreams can’t be any form of reality.

In any case, food for thought…