Why we desperately need wisdom in this age of information
By / Apr 26

“Our world has more and more information, but less and less wisdom,” says Brett McCracken, author of the recent book, The Wisdom Pyramid. “More stimulation; less synthesis. More distraction; less stillness. More pontificating; less pondering. More opinion; less research. More speaking; less listening. More to look at; less to see. More amusements; less joy. There is more, but we are less. And we all feel it.” 

Though the age of information has created a real predicament for us, we are not called to yield to the currents of our day that are sending us downstream and away from the path of life. Instead, as Christians, we are called to swim upstream toward wisdom and toward true human flourishing. To that end, Brett McCracken has given readers a helpful tool to aid us on our journey toward a life of wisdom. He recently spent some time interacting with us on several of the ideas in the book, which you can read below. 

One of the major aspects of The Wisdom Pyramid is the likening of our information intake to that of our food intake. Your “Wisdom Pyramid” in some ways mimics the intent of the USDA’s “Food Pyramid” published in the early 90s. Why do we need a similar tool for the development of wisdom?

The same logic that gave rise to the Food Pyramid—that the composition of our physical intakes can make us either physically healthy or sick—applies as well to our spiritual health. The ideas we take in can make us spiritually healthy or spiritually sick, wise or foolish. Just as for our physical health we need to be mindful of the types of foods we are consuming, and in what proportion, we also need to be mindful of the intakes coming into our hearts, minds, and souls. The voices we listen to, the sources we look to for information, the places we spend our time — all of it shapes us, for good or for ill. I wrote the book because I’m seeing a lot of imbalanced information diets these days (including in my own life!), and it’s making us sick. 

In the book’s introduction, as you describe our “unwise age,” you write about the problem that our brains are overstimulated. What are the consequences of having a constantly overstimulated brain? How does it affect our ability to think?

There is research showing that our brains are expending so much energy doing constant triage — sorting through the glut of information encountered on any given day — that there’s increasingly little energy left to spend on deeper level thinking: reflection, synthesis, critical evaluation. Of course, these are exactly the mental skills we desperately need if we are to be wise. Our brains are being rewired by the fragmented, disconnected, hyperspeed nature of information consumption today. And the rewiring is causing us to forget how to think carefully, slowly, and in a focused way. Mentally we live most of our days online in a “mile wide, inch deep” sort of mode. Over time, that leads our brains to lose the ability to go much deeper than an inch on anything, even if we wanted to. That’s scary.

You describe how, as with eating food too fast, consuming too much information too quickly isn’t healthy for us. As it relates to developing wisdom, why does the fast intake of information not transfer to the cultivation of wisdom?

When we consume information too quickly, we rarely take sufficient time to vet the quality of that information. Is it sound? Is it biased? Is it presenting both sides of the story objectively? Is it omitting something important? Media today tends to focus on sensationalized headlines and incendiary angles, to get people to click or watch. When we consume information too quickly we are passive pawns who click on things indiscriminately and then retweet or share without thinking twice about whether we should. We are gullible and reckless. 

Wisdom often means withholding immediate commentary until sufficient context and facts are known. Wisdom is patience and restraint in a world where we’re beckoned to opine, rage, and comment on events in real time. Foolishness is what makes QAnon conspiracy theories go viral. Foolishness is what perpetuated false narratives about Jussie Smollett and Nick Sandmann (among many others) before full contexts and facts were known. Foolishness rushes to judgment and situates things too quickly, and simplistically, in partisan narratives. All of this foolishness comes about because we go too fast. Wisdom is countercultural in part because it insists on a slower, more careful pace in a relentlessly fast world. Cultivating wisdom is necessarily a patient endeavor—which makes it an increasingly hard endeavor in today’s world. 

You go on to assert in chapter 1 that the constant glut of information serves to fragment our lives by orienting our attention everywhere but the place in which we physically find ourselves. Why is this significant?

This is an incredibly damaging dynamic. The internet and social media are placeless — everywhere and nowhere, all at the same time. By sucking our attention constantly into the endless conveyor belt of controversies, headlines, injustices, diversions, and pseudo-events that populate our feeds, we can easily spend our entire lives attending to things far removed from our immediate contexts, leaving us with little energy or interest to engage the (usually more mundane) realities right in front of us.

You take aim in chapter 2 at the popular phrase “redeeming the time,” saying that “instead of being content with silence in the “in between” moments of life,” we can’t help but “do something, anything, to maximize the time” (40-41). How might this phrase “redeeming the time,” and our practice of it, be misguided? What do we gain by trading the constant hum of information for silence?

The impulse to “redeem the time” is understandable, especially for Christians who have a clear mission and want to make every moment matter. There’s so much to do, so much to know, so many books to read! The glut of content (much of it excellent) makes it even harder to resist the “optimize every moment” mindset. We have to remember, though, that rest is God’s idea. He created the Sabbath. He also created humans with limits; he created us to need sleep. No human can be “always on,” even if we live in an always-on world. I’ve found in my own life that some of my most fruitful and creative stretches come out of a time when I prioritized rest. Some of my best ideas come when I’m just still and not doing. I’m convinced that silence and empty, unmediated space in our lives is absolutely essential for our wisdom. It helps us slow down and think more carefully. It helps replenish our overtaxed brains and our overwhelmed senses. 

Can you discuss the correlation between living in a technological society and the growing tendency to “reject the truth of the body,” as you say? How can we resist this tendency?

The more we live our lives in the ethereal, abstract, disembodied spaces of the internet, the more detached we can get from physical, embodied reality (of which our own bodies are just one part). The more we live in the “virtual” reality of online life (where there are few limits on the identity you want to present to the world), the less we feel constrained by actual reality, not least the reality and accompanying limits of our given physical bodies. This is why, for example, something like transgenderism has risen to prominence in the internet age. There are other factors that have contributed to it, but the idea that one’s “gender identity” can be something wholly detached from biology—gender as a “reality” as easily constructed and changeable as a Facebook profile picture—is an idea that can gain unique traction in a virtual world of avatars and digitally performed/manipulated identity.

Wisdom is countercultural in part because it insists on a slower, more careful pace in a relentlessly fast world.

How do we resist the distorting effects of the digital age? How can we guard against the ways our own concept of self can be shaped in a virtual world? Part of it is making sure we spend enough time in the offline world. Go outside more! Exercise. Get your hands in the dirt. Do things that make you aware of your body—what it can do and what it can’t do. This is part of why I included nature as a key component of wisdom in The Wisdom Pyramid. All sorts of foolishness arises when we distance ourselves from God’s creation and forget that we, too, are creatures God made. But there is wisdom to be found if we’re aware, attuned, and grateful for creation’s rhythms, order, and design.

In the book, you mention your dad often. How did his habit of consistently reading the Bible affect you as a kid?

Habits of wisdom are first and foremost picked up by observing them in others. You can be told Bible reading is important, but it becomes more believable and real when you see it in practice. This was the case for me, growing up with a dad who I often saw reading, studying, and treasuring the Bible. I have such clear memories of him sitting in his chair with a big old Bible, stuffed with church bulletins and Scripture memory cards, with a fountain pen and highlighter. It signaled something in my young mind and soul about the importance of the Bible. I hope my own sons have similar memories of me.

In chapter 5, you say that “Our inflated focus on global awareness depletes our capacity for local action” (96). Can you expound on this? To what extent should we prioritize local action over global awareness?

Neil Postman described this in terms of a severing of the connection between information and action. For most of human history, the only information one had access to was actionable information, and so there was a connection between what filled our brains and what our bodies did. But after the telegraph and then even more so with subsequent innovations in mass communication (especially the internet), suddenly we were exposed to huge amounts of information from far away places—information which we consumed but could not really act on. In the social media era this is now the majority of information that fills our brains—information that is inactionable aside from awareness and maybe some social media commentary. No wonder we are so angsty and mad all the time. No wonder our mental health has never been worse. Our brains and souls were never meant to bear the burden of so much information that has little real-world application in our lives. Constant awareness without recourse to tangible action leaves us feeling impotent and frustrated.

You argue that books are a “massively important source of empathy.” In what ways do books help cultivate empathy in us? Why is this important?

When you read a book you are literally practicing the wisdom of James 1:19: “be quick to listen, slow to speak.” You are giving your silent attention to another person’s voice, perspective, and experience. You are humble and teachable (which is not to say gullible or uncritical). To read another’s perspective in a book — whether a nonfiction argument or a fiction narrative — you are walking in another’s shoes. And walking in another’s shoes can’t help but cultivate in us empathy. A book is far better than a tweet for helping us understand where someone is coming from. That’s why reading books by authors on the “other side” or various arguments, or even reading books by a hostile opponent, can be good for us. Even if we still vehemently disagree with their arguments and perspectives, reading their book helps us see that they are human whose passions and perspectives are shaped by a story — just as yours are.

What are some of the books, both Christian and non-Christian, that you would recommend to readers as they seek to grow in wisdom?

That’s a question I could answer in a thousand ways. So I’ll just mention five that have shaped me personally: C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory; Marilynne Robinson, Gilead; J.I. Packer, Knowing God; Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death; and John Stott, The Cross of Christ.

In contrast to what some would say, you state that “the internet and social media desperately need people of light to stay rather than leave” (154). How would you encourage Christians who do stay to both guard themselves against the woes of the internet and social media and to function as people of light as they engage?

Any mission field holds the risk that the missionary entering it will be changed more by the culture than the culture is changed by them. This is certainly true of the “mission field” of the internet and social media. If we spend all our time online, even with good intentions of being a winsome Christian presence there, it will likely shape us in profound and disturbing ways. So the first thing I’d say to Christians seeking to be light in the darkness of the internet is that we simply can’t spend all day, every day, online. It will suck us dry. We’ll get sick. 

Healthy presence online, I’m convinced, is only possible if we are visitors but not permanent residents online. The people posting the worst, most vile things on social media are often the ones who never live offline. Their entire diet is made up of the junk food of social media, so of course they are sick and spreading sickness in what they post. For Christians to be spreaders of health and wisdom online, we need to be healthy and wise—and we’ll only be healthy and wise if we’re drawing nourishment in other places than just the internet. This is ultimately what I hope readers take away from The Wisdom Pyramid. We can’t give what we don’t have. And so if we are to be a faithful, life-giving presence online, we need to start with our own health and our own habits.

How recreational marijuana use affects the brain
By / Dec 9

One of the well-known reasons people smoke marijuana is to get high and experience the reportedly pleasurable intoxication and euphoria initiated by THC. The hallucinogenic effects are even said to have positive benefits for one’s development as a person, as Motley Crüe sang in their 1994 ode to pot titled Smoke the Sky, “But through time we’ve smoked the sky . . . Compliments the senses, opens up the mind.” But is smoking marijuana a harmless way to expand the mind? Hardly. Marijuana doesn’t open the mind: Evidence indicates marijuana use can damage the brain. 

Why does marijuana affect the brain, and why does it get people high? Marijuana interacts with the reward circuit, a group of structures in the brain that are activated by rewarding or reinforcing stimuli. The reward pathway of the brain is connected to areas of the brain that control behavior and memory. The active component in marijuana that gets someone high is THC, and the brain responds to THC by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine which causes feelings of pleasure.  Smoking pot to trigger the reward circuit can be devastating to one’s life and walk with the Lord and, over time, an addiction can develop. 

All thoughts and pleasures have a biological component. God has created the reward circuit for a purpose. Because we enjoy pleasurable experiences, we are more likely to repeat actions that activate our reward system.1Matthew S. Stanford, The Biology of Sin: Grace, Hope, and Healing for Those Feeling Trapped (Downers Grove, IL: Biblica Books, InterVarsity Press, 2010), 86.  But Christians are called to live holy lives and exercise wise management of life’s pleasures; just because an experience is pleasurable does not necessarily mean it is good. In our fallen condition, we can abuse God’s good gifts—like the reward circuit—for immoral and unholy purposes. 

Marijuana’s effects on the brain

Regular marijuana use has very detrimental effects on the brains of young people, and much of the damage is not reversible. Keep in mind that the human brain continues to develop into the mid-20s. In 2017, 6.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 were current users of marijuana. This means that approximately 1.6 million adolescents used marijuana in the past month.2Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. SMA 18-5068, NSDUH Series H-53),” https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHFFR2017/NSDUHFFR2017.htm#illicit1. This is concerning because multiple studies using neuroimaging suggest that regular cannabis use during adolescence may lead to structural changes such as altered cortical gray matter development and reduced white matter mylenation.3Robert L. Page, II, et al, “Medical Marijuana, Recreational Cannabis, and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association,” Circulation 142 (August 5, 2020): e14. And the effects of cannabis on the teenage brain continue after a period of abstinence; adolescent cannabis users still showed subtle neuropsychological deficits compared to nonuser after one month’s abstinence. Furthermore, earlier onset of cannabis use was also associated with decreased processing speed and executive function three years later.4A.D. Meruelo, N. Castro, C.I. Cota, and S.F. Tapert, “Cannabis and Alcohol Use, and the Developing Brain,” Behavioral Brain Research 325 (May 15, 2017): 4.  In 2017, the Canadian Psychiatric Association noted that regular cannabis use in youth “can affect aspects of cognition, including attention, memory, processing speed, visuospatial functioning, and overall intelligence.”5Phil Tibbo, Candice Crocker, et al, “Implications of Cannabis Legalization on Youth and Young Adults: A Position Statement Developed by the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s Research Committee and Approved by the CPA’s Board of Directors on February 17, 2017,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 63.1 (2018): 66.  What this means is that young people who smoke pot are damaging their ability to think clearly and make good decisions. 

Marijuana negatively affects the adult brain too, but the person who starts smoking pot at age 30 doesn’t appear to do as much damage to his brain as someone who starts smoking pot at age 15. This doesn’t mean there are no detrimental consequences for adults who smoke marijuana. One European study from 2019 found that people who used cannabis daily had an increased odds of psychotic disorder compared with never users, and the risk rose to nearly five-times increased odds for daily use of high-potency cannabis.6Marta Di Forti, et al, “The Contribution of Cannabis use to Variation in the Incidence of Psychotic Disorder Across Europe (EU-GEI): A Multicentre Case-Control Study,” Lancet Psychiatry 6 (2019): 427 – 436. The risk for psychotic disorders increases with frequency of use, potency of the marijuana product, and as the age at first use decreases.

The path to addiction

Related to marijuana’s negative effects on the brain is the possibility of addiction. One piece of urban legend about marijuana is that it doesn’t affect the brain in the same way as harder drugs, so you shouldn’t be as worried about addiction to marijuana as to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or other illicit drugs. To be clear, the effects of cocaine and heroin addiction are more severe than marijuana. But marijuana affects the reward circuit similarly to other common drugs of abuse. It is very likely that repeated exposures to marijuana results in neuroadaptations, not only to the reward circuit, but also to downstream targets that are critically involved in the development of drug addiction.7Erik B. Oleson and Joseph F. Cheer, “A Brain on Cannabinoids: The Role of Dopamine Release in Reward-Seeking,” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives In Medicine 2.8 (August 2012): 10. This means the effects of marijuana on the brain are more complex and far-reaching than most people think. 

Approximately 9% of those who experiment with marijuana will become addicted. But the percentage of those who become addicted is much higher for those who start using during adolescence, with one in six teenagers who use pot eventually becoming addicted. Additionally, 25% – 50% of those who smoke marijuana daily will reach clinical criteria for addiction.8Nora D. Volkow, Ruben D. Baier, Wilson M. Compton, and Susan R.B. Weiss, “Adverse Effects of Marijuana Use,” New England Journal of Medicine 370.23 (June 5, 2014): 1, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/pdf/nihms762992.pdf.  It should also be emphasized that the DSM V lists Cannabis Use Disorder as one of its diagnoses. 

A Christian should be a good steward of the brain God has given each of us, and a Christian’s life should be consumed by doing the Lord’s will, not being obsessed with the next high. 

Romans 13:12 says, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” One way we lay aside the deeds of darkness is by not smoking pot. Marijuana negatively affects the brain, and the damage done to adolescent brains is often irreversible. People do become addicted to marijuana, and Christians should not place ourselves in the position of becoming drug addicts. No one who experiments with drugs or alcohol believes he or she will experience the destructive effects of addiction. 

That’s because addiction doesn’t happen overnight, but experimentation and recreational use slowly increase until addiction becomes an all-encompassing way of life. A Christian should be a good steward of the brain God has given each of us, and a Christian’s life should be consumed by doing the Lord’s will, not being obsessed with the next high. 

  • 1
    Matthew S. Stanford, The Biology of Sin: Grace, Hope, and Healing for Those Feeling Trapped (Downers Grove, IL: Biblica Books, InterVarsity Press, 2010), 86. 
  • 2
    Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. SMA 18-5068, NSDUH Series H-53),” https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHFFR2017/NSDUHFFR2017.htm#illicit1.
  • 3
    Robert L. Page, II, et al, “Medical Marijuana, Recreational Cannabis, and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association,” Circulation 142 (August 5, 2020): e14.
  • 4
    A.D. Meruelo, N. Castro, C.I. Cota, and S.F. Tapert, “Cannabis and Alcohol Use, and the Developing Brain,” Behavioral Brain Research 325 (May 15, 2017): 4. 
  • 5
    Phil Tibbo, Candice Crocker, et al, “Implications of Cannabis Legalization on Youth and Young Adults: A Position Statement Developed by the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s Research Committee and Approved by the CPA’s Board of Directors on February 17, 2017,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 63.1 (2018): 66. 
  • 6
    Marta Di Forti, et al, “The Contribution of Cannabis use to Variation in the Incidence of Psychotic Disorder Across Europe (EU-GEI): A Multicentre Case-Control Study,” Lancet Psychiatry 6 (2019): 427 – 436. The risk for psychotic disorders increases with frequency of use, potency of the marijuana product, and as the age at first use decreases.
  • 7
    Erik B. Oleson and Joseph F. Cheer, “A Brain on Cannabinoids: The Role of Dopamine Release in Reward-Seeking,” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives In Medicine 2.8 (August 2012): 10.
  • 8
    Nora D. Volkow, Ruben D. Baier, Wilson M. Compton, and Susan R.B. Weiss, “Adverse Effects of Marijuana Use,” New England Journal of Medicine 370.23 (June 5, 2014): 1, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/pdf/nihms762992.pdf. 

Why Elon Musk’s transhumanist dreams are flawed
By / Sep 7

Elon Musk has become a household name in the last few years. From the rise and popularity of Tesla to the commercialization of space travel through SpaceX, Musk is a man on a mission to revolutionize our society. According to Forbes, Musk is worth over $86.1 billion dollars, making him one of the wealthiest and most recognizable names in the world. A few years ago, I read a fascinating biography of Musk by Ashlee Vance with a fitting subtitle of “Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.” Vance describes Musk’s pursuit well, but the question of whether his vision of the future is fantastic is heavily debated today.

A couple weeks back, Musk held a press conference with his lesser known startup company called Neuralink, which is an American neurotechnology company founded in July 2016. Neuralink specializes in the development of brain computer interfaces (BCI) that it hopes will be able to help cure neurological diseases such as memory loss, hearing loss, depression, and insomnia—which are noble desires—as well as potentially enhance healthy human beings with abilities ranging from typing with your thoughts, hailing a self-driving car, or even extending your memory.

It’s like “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires,” Musk said during the product demo which showcased the technology implanted over two months ago in the head of a pig named Gertrude. The Neuralink BCI is a device about the size of a quarter and is connected by thousands of electrodes tied into the brain. This device measures “the electrical signals emitted by neurons” because “the speed and patterns of those signals are ultimately a basis for movement, thoughts, and recall of memories.” Musk and the talented team at Neuralink hope this demo propels the technology to future trials on human beings. The company also announced that the device had received “breakthrough device status” from the FDA, which it hopes will speed up trials on humans. 

Regardless of the future of Neuralink’s BCI, technologists have long sought to push the envelope on innovation mainly focusing on the question of “Can this be done?” rather than “Should it be done?” This lack of deep ethical reflection on technology can be seen throughout our world today with issues ranging from bias to debates over digital privacy. This drive has helped produce some of the most beneficial technologies that we use each day but has also given rise to dangerous abuses and misuses of technology that has led to the dehumanization of our neighbors and, in this particular case, of ourselves.

Transhumanist dreams and human nature

Transhumanism is a concept that has been around for a number of years. Known as the father of transhumanism, Julian Huxley, brother of the famed writer Aldous Huxley, describes this concept in a 1957 essay saying “the human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirely, as humanity.”

Musk has long sought to upgrade humanity claiming that “to avoid becoming like monkeys, humans must merge with machines.” This argument is based on a materialistic and in some cases an evolutionary worldview that concludes we must improve upon evolution’s current iteration of humanity or be left behind by the rise of sophisticated machines. Musk, along with many other transhumanists, seek to transcend our frail humanity through the use of technological upgrades or even ultimately by the uploading of minds and discarding of the body. 

This is often portrayed in the framework of a mind/body dualism, where the mind is seen as software and the body is seen as hardware. The real you is your mind, thoughts, and emotions, and your body is simply a container that can be altered at will or even discarded as desired. This is a form of Cartesian dualism. In this line of thinking, the mind and body are severed from one another as the mind is elevated above the body in terms of value and worth. Certain streams of transhumanism can aptly be described as a revival of the old Gnostic heresy that denigrates the body due to the belief that it is part of the evil material world and has no lasting value. 

According to this logic, our bodies can and should be upgraded in order to keep from going out of date or commission. In the face of this rising threat to human exceptionalism, Musk said during the press conference that the applications of this BCI technology could one day extend to “some kind of AI symbiosis where you have an AI extension of yourself.” 

A call for Christian ethical reflection

Transhumanist dreams of upgrading or going beyond our humanity reveal a massive assumption in the nature and essence of what it means to be human. Nick Bostrom, a leading transhumanist and author of the influential book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, argues that our human nature is “a work in progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways.” But as author Nancy Pearcey points out, who gets to decide what is desirable, and does that actually align with the truth of who we are as image-bearers of God?

One of the great opportunities for the faith community in this age of innovation is to proclaim a richer and more cohesive worldview and ethical framework that holds high the dignity and respect of every human being, not based on their perceived worth or usefulness in our society but based on the transcendent reality of being created by God in his own likeness.

Outside of the more obvious ethical concerns surrounding this reductionist view of humanity as a disjointed mind and body—where the body is usually dimished—there is a growing concern about what these upgrades may do to our social order when some humans have implants or upgrades and others do not. The potential for inequality and designer humans are enormous. 

This technology would fundamentally change the nature of our relationships with one another because one group would be enhanced beyond typical humanity. We risk devaluing our fellow neighbors as they fail to live up to the ubiquitous ethical frameworks of utilitarianism. In an age fixated on human rights, this should lead to deep reflection in terms of the worth of all people, especially the least of these.

One of the great opportunities for the faith community in this age of innovation is to proclaim a richer and more cohesive worldview and ethical framework that holds high the dignity and respect of every human being, not based on their perceived worth or usefulness in our society but based on the transcendent reality of being created by God in his own likeness. Our status as human beings, as well as our human limitations, mean that our bodies are not something to be disparaged as if they don’t have the abilities that we need to flourish the way we would like in this life. If that were the case, then our embodied Savior was either not fully human (Phil. 2:7), or his resurrection body was incomplete (1 Cor. 15:12-19). And the Bible makes clear that neither are the case. 

The Christian view of human nature is fixed. We are embodied souls who, when belonging to Christ, will get the ultimate upgrade—redemption in the fullness of time by God’s power (1 Cor. 15:20-24). We have no need to keep up with the machines as Musk proclaims, because they will never catch us. We are fundamentally different and nothing, not even our own ingenuity or creations, will be able to change that.

Tinder Mercies–Or, How Porn Destroyed Sex
By / Aug 19

You’ve probably already seen the Vanity Fair piece on how the dating/hookup app Tinder is changing “mating rituals” for young Americans. The article is harsh and at times graphic, so read with care and discretion. Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn’t link to it. But what this article describes is nothing less than a voluntary sex market; the way the young men in the piece describe the joy of seeing all their sexual conquests mount up, you’d think it was prostitution but with social media for currency.

The title of the piece mentions the “Dawn of the Dating Apocalypse.” That’s an excellent choice of words. The point of an apocalypse is that you can’t imagine what comes after it. I think Vanity Fair’s editorial team is asking the right question: When you have a culture of utterly meaningless sex, whose geographic and practical boundaries are all but evaporated by technology, and whose random nature is encapsulated in the frivolous “swiping” of a smartphone screen…what’s next? How could the stakes be any lower?

Of course, casual sex has been around for a long time (though I would argue that, in America, its public endorsement by the ruling and academic class is pretty recent). What hasn’t been around for a long time is the mindless rituals of social media and smartphones. What Nancy Jo Sales describes in her essay on students and Tinder is more than casual sex; it’s nearly automated sex. For the students interviewed in the piece, Tinder is a human menu, to be thumbed through for the “hottest” members. There’s no interpersonal dynamics or even the kind of hookup rituals you see in bars and nightclubs. It’s made to order sex without ever looking up from the phone.

Listen to how Sales’s subjects describe it:

“It’s instant gratification,” says Jason, 26, a Brooklyn photographer, “and a validation of your own attractiveness by just, like, swiping your thumb on an app. You see some pretty girl and you swipe and it’s, like, oh, she thinks you’re attractive too, so it’s really addicting, and you just find yourself mindlessly doing it.” “Sex has become so easy,” says John, 26, a marketing executive in New York. “I can go on my phone right now and no doubt I can find someone I can have sex with this evening, probably before midnight.”

Instant. Mindless. Easy. In other words, there’s no substantive difference between the Tinder hookup culture and pornography.

The blurry distinction in our contemporary culture between sex and masturbation is a frightening one. National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson wrote a harrowing description of the pornography industry that depicted the subsuming of sex by pornography. The porn industry hasn’t just changed how people think about sex, it’s changed how they define it. Williamson observed the intense effort that pornographers put into their products to make the solitary experience more “lifelike,” and concluded: “Porn is no longer an ersatz, last-option sexual substitute — it is an end unto itself. The…spectacle turns out to be a perverse vindication of the theories of Jacques Lacan: The signifier here has indeed taken precedence over the thing signified.”

What Williamson means is that pornography has redefined the sexual ritual–the unique attributes of real physical intimacy, even prostitution–and rewired the minds of its consumers to accommodate its fictions. The fantasy of porn is more desirable than the situations the porn actually simulates. Ergo, the age of pornography is the end of sex.

Of course, Tinder differs in that it is human bodies together. But is the proximity of bodies really enough to differentiate hookup culture from pornography? If the bodies are so disposable, so inconsequential, so ethereal in personhood, what’s the difference? Sales’s piece describes the lewd messages girls receive trying to initiate a sexual encounter. It’s important to understand that those messages aren’t merely requests for satisfaction, they are a form of satisfaction in and of themselves. That’s how pornography works. Tinder’s users are living in a sexual echo chamber. The people they let in to that chamber don’t exist as people but as instruments of satisfaction, or even lower, as “bragging rights” for their virtual selves.

What we’re seeing is that, in elite, affluent culture, where money and technology remove the barriers that most other people encounter when looking for “no strings attached” sexual recreation, the sexual ritual is reduced to masturbation. Individualistic, custom tailored, lacking personality. There’s no real difference between the hookup culture described by Vanity Fair and the culture of a million individual minds living out private fantasies via pornography. In both cases the arc of sex isn’t very long and it bends immediately towards the self.

This whole travesty reminds me of a letter that C.S. Lewis once wrote to someone on whether masturbation were ethically permissible for Christians. As only Lewis was able to do, he saw through the social claptrap of the day and got right to the heart of it:

For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival.

Among those shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification ever imposed on his vanity. In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself…. And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.

“They become the medium through which he increasingly adores himself.”  That’s us, all right.

Why Pornography Use Becomes a Habit
By / Jan 29

In every age and culture there are certain habits of sinful behavior that are particularly common and overwhelmingly destructive. In modern Western cultures one of the most soul-destroying habits is consumption of pornography, which leads us to commit adultery in our hearts. (Matthew 5:28).   

For this reason we should give special scrutiny to how habits of porn consumption develop and how they can, by the power of the gospel, be overcome. The entry on Job 31:1 discusses how to sever the shackles of porn. In this entry we’ll examine how pornography hijacks the male brain and distorts men’s affections. (Women can become addicted to pornography too, of course. The reason for the focus on the men is simply because more research has been done on the unique connection between the male brain and pornography.)

Too often we fail to adequately consider how our physical body (including our brain chemistry) affects our soul. But as William M. Struthers, associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College, explains,

Because the human brain is the biological anchor of our psychological experience, it is helpful to understand how it operates. Knowing how it is wired together and where it is sensitive can help us understand why pornography affects people the way it does.

Here are four reasons porn use becomes a destructive habit:

Porn rewires the brain — Sexually explicit material triggers mirror neurons in the male brain. These neurons, which are involved with the process for how to mimic a behavior, contain a motor system that correlates to the planning out of a behavior.  In the case of pornography, this mirror neuron system triggers the arousal, which leads to sexual tension and a need for an outlet. Seeking a release through porn leads to hormonal and neurological consequences, which are designed to bind a man to the object he is focusing on. “In God's plan, this would be his wife, but for many men it is an image on a screen,” says Struthers. “Pornography thus enslaves the viewer to an image, hijacking the biological response intended to bond a man to his wife and therefore inevitably loosening that bond.”

Dopamine causes arousal addiction — In men, there are five primary chemicals involved in sexual arousal and response. The one that likely plays the most significant role in pornography addiction is dopamine. Dopamine plays a major role in the brain system that is responsible for reward-driven learning. Every type of reward that has been studied increases the level of dopamine transmission in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine, act directly on the dopamine system. Dopamine surges when a person is exposed to novel stimuli, particularly if it is sexual, or when a stimuli is more arousing than anticipated. Because erotic imagery triggers more dopamine than sex with a familiar partner, exposure to pornography leads to “arousal addiction” and teaches the brain to prefer the image and become less satisfied with real-life sexual partners. This neurological mechanism is one of the primary reasons for the abundance and addictiveness of Internet pornography.

Overstimulation creates desensitization — Overstimulation of the reward circuitry—such as occurs with repeated dopamine spikes related to viewing pornography—creates desensitization. As Gary Wilson explains, “When dopamine receptors drop after too much stimulation, the brain doesn't respond as much, and we feel less reward from pleasure. That drives us to search even harder for feelings of satisfaction—for example, by seeking out more extreme sexual stimuli, longer porn sessions, or more frequent porn viewing—thus further numbing the brain.”

What makes Internet porn unique — Wilson identifies a number of reasons, including: (1) Internet porn offers extreme novelty; (2) Unlike food and drugs, there are almost no physical limitations to its consumption; (3) One can escalate both with more novel “partners” and by viewing new and unusual genres; (4) Unlike drugs and food, Internet porn doesn't eventually activate the brain's natural aversion system; and (5) The age users start watching porn. A teen's brain is at its peak of dopamine production and neuroplasticity, making it highly vulnerable to addiction and rewiring.

***

Understanding how pornography affects men’s brains can helps us prepare solutions for breaking this soul-destroying habit. Next we’ll look at six steps that can help sever the shackles of pornography.

Issue Analysis: The effects of pornography on the male brain
By / Apr 16

“For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.” – 2 Peter 2:18-19

Over the past thirty years, increasing access to pornography has made millions of people — including an ever-growing number of men — “slaves of corruption.” This willing enslavement to pornography has affected almost every area of our society, from the home to the office to our churches. But the place most affected and most detrimentally transformed is the male brain.

“Because the human brain is the biological anchor of our psychological experience, it is helpful to understand how it operates.” says William M. Struthers, associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College. “Knowing how it is wired together and where it is sensitive can help us understand why pornography affects people the way it does.”[1]

Ultimately, freedom from this yoke of slavery can only be found in Christ (Galatians 5:1). Jesus is the only one who can truly save us from the effects of our sin and corruption. However, the destructive impact of pornography cannot be alleviated solely through increased evangelistic efforts.

As Christians we should seek the well-being of our society (Jeremiah 29:7). One important way we can more effectively heed that calling is to be aware of the damaging physical and psychological effects of pornography. We should also be able to articulate these harms to those who do not share the Christian worldview in order to better advocate for restrictions to pornography. We need to effectively communicate that pornography is not only a spiritual problem but also a serious individual and public health concern.

Here are several ways that pornography affects the male brain:

Pornography hijacks the normal biological response in men

Sexually explicit material triggers mirror neurons in the male brain. These neurons, which are involved with the process for how to mimic a behavior, contain a motor system that correlates to the planning out of a behavior. In the case of pornography, this mirror neuron system triggers the arousal, which leads to sexual tension and a need for an outlet. “The unfortunate reality is that when he acts out (often by masturbating), this leads to hormonal and neurological consequences, which are designed to bind him to the object he is focusing on,” says Struthers. “In God's plan, this would be his wife, but for many men it is an image on a screen. Pornography thus enslaves the viewer to an image, hijacking the biological response intended to bond a man to his wife and therefore inevitably loosening that bond.”

The Coolidge Effect: Why Internet pornography is so addictive

Why do men seek out a variety of new explicit sexual images rather than being satisfied with the same ones? The reason is attributed to the Coolidge effect, a phenomenon seen in mammalian species whereby males (and to a lesser extent females) exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new receptive sexual partners, even after refusing sex from prior but still available sexual partners. This neurological mechanism is one of the primary reasons for the abundance and addictiveness of Internet pornography.

Pornography leads to “arousal addiction”

In men, there are five primary chemicals involved in sexual arousal and response. The one that likely plays the most significant role in pornography addiction is dopamine. Dopamine plays a major role in the brain system that is responsible for reward-driven learning. Every type of reward that has been studied increases the level of dopamine transmission in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine, act directly on the dopamine system. Dopamine surges when a person is exposed to novel stimuli, particularly if it is sexual, or when a stimuli is more arousing than anticipated. Because erotic imagery triggers more dopamine than sex with a familiar partner, exposure to pornography leads to “arousal addiction” and teaches the brain to prefer the image and become less satisfied with real-life sexual partners.

Pornography leads to sexual desensitization

Overstimulation of the reward circuitry—such as occurs with repeated dopamine spikes related to viewing pornography—creates desensitization. As Gary Wilson explains, “When dopamine receptors drop after too much stimulation, the brain doesn't respond as much, and we feel less reward from pleasure. That drives us to search even harder for feelings of satisfaction—for example, by seeking out more extreme sexual stimuli, longer porn sessions, or more frequent porn viewing—thus further numbing the brain.”[2]

Internet pornography is uniquely harmful

What makes Internet porn unique? Wilson identifies a number of reasons, including:

(1) Internet porn offers extreme novelty;

(2) Unlike food and drugs, there are almost no physical limitations to Internet porn consumption;

(3) With Internet porn one can escalate both with more novel “partners” and by viewing new and unusual genres;

(4) Unlike drugs and food, Internet porn doesn't eventually activate the brain's natural aversion system; and

(5) The age users start watching porn. A teen's brain is at its peak of dopamine production and neuroplasticity, making it highly vulnerable to addiction and rewiring.

Pornography use can cause psychological and physiological impairment

Men's exposure to sexually explicit material is correlated with social anxiety, depression, low motivation, erectile dysfunction, concentration problems, and negative self-perceptions in terms of physical appearance and sexual functioning.

Pornography deforms sexual character

“The psychological, behavioral, and emotional habits that form our sexual character will be based on the decisions we make,” says Struthers. “Whenever the sequence of arousal and response is activated, it forms a neurological memory that will influence future processing and response to sexual cues. As this pathway becomes activated and traveled, it becomes a preferred route—a mental journey—that is regularly trod. The consequences of this are far-reaching.”

 

[1] William M. Struthers, Ph.D, “The Effects of Porn on the Male Brain,” Christian Research Journal, volume 34, number 05 (2011).

[2] Gary Wilson, “Desensitization: A Numbed Pleasure Response,” http://yourbrainonporn.com/desensitization-numbed-pleasure-response