Phillip E. Johnson on Darwin
Monday, April 8, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
President Obama Wants to Get Inside Your BRAIN
Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
President Obama announced Tuesday his plan to spend $100 million to “revolutionize our understanding of the human mind.”
Dubbed the BRAIN Initiative — short for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies — the program calls on the National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation to kickstart the research.
Describing the brain mapping project as one of his administration’s “Grand Challenges,” the president explained the goal behind the grants:
Imagine if no family had to feel helpless watching a loved one disappear behind the mask of Parkinson’s or struggle in the grip of epilepsy. Imagine if we could reverse traumatic brain injury or PTSD for our veterans who are coming home. Imagine if someone with a prosthetic limb can now play the piano or throw a baseball as well as anybody else, because the wiring from the brain to that prosthetic is direct and triggered by what's already happening in the patient's mind. What if computers could respond to our thoughts or our language barriers could come tumbling down. Or if millions of Americans were suddenly finding new jobs in these fields — jobs we haven’t even dreamt up yet — because we chose to invest in this project.
Freeing the human race from disease is a noble endeavor, but perhaps President Obama should explain how the military’s super-secret research and development group (DARPA) is going to help.
DARPA answers that question on its own website. In a statement announcing its participation in BRAIN, DARPA declares: “Better understanding of human brain supports national security.”
To help keep the country safe, DARPA will focus on the following aspects of the function of the human brain:
DARPA plans to explore two key areas to elicit further understanding of the brain. New tools are needed to measure and analyze electrical signals and the biomolecular dynamics underpinning brain function. Researchers will also explore, abstract and model the vast spectrum of brain functions by examining its incredible complexity.
And:
DARPA’s planned investment includes new programs to address the areas outlined and ongoing efforts designed to advance fundamental understanding of the brain’s dynamics to drive applications (Revolutionizing Prosthetics, Restorative Encoding Memory Integration Neural Device, Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery, Enabling Stress Resistance), manufacture sensing systems for neuroscience applications (Reliable Neutral Interface Technology, Blast Gauge), and analyze large data sets (Detection and Computational Analysis of Psychological Signals).
Readers will rightly be concerned about the president’s plan to order DARPA to fiddle with the mind in the name of “national security.”
Last month, Esquire magazine’s Luke Dittrich highlighted the president’s plan to map the mind. In his research, Dittrich uncovered a paper by a few of the scientists involved in the BRAIN Initiative that reveals a more sinister aspect of the government’s quest to understand the mind.
The paper — entitled “The Brain Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional Connectomics” — includes predictions of the development of “techniques for wireless, noninvasive readout of the activity of neuronal populations.” In simpler terms, this research would allow those in control of the discoveries gleaned from this program to wirelessly access and control the brains of target populations.
Consider this excerpt from the academic study, as well:
This emergent level of understanding could also enable accurate diagnosis and restoration of normal patterns of activity to injured or diseased brains, foster the development of broader biomedical and environmental applications, and even potentially generate a host of associated economic benefits.
“Restoration of normal patterns” takes on an eery aspect when viewed in concert with the DARPA connection.
Rittich recognized this potential for less-than-noble application in his article. He writes:
I'm not saying that the President's brain-mapping project is a bad idea. As he put it in his State of the Union address, it could help "unlock the answers to Alzheimer's," among other worthy goals. But I do think it's worth considering that this same project is also a DARPA-associated endeavor that could lead to the development of the first truly sci-fi caliber mind-control technology.
Development of such mind-control technologies is certainly consistent with DARPA’s recent efforts to speed of the growth of the surveillance state and the increasing sophistication of the tools used to build it.
At The New American we have chronicled the various projects sponsored by the über-secret research and development arm of the military. One of the newest technologies being pursued by DARPA will not only widen the field of vision of government’s never-blinking eye, but it purports to predict the behavior of those being watched.
Forbes reports that DARPA has contracted with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University to develop “an artificial intelligence systemthat can watch and predict what a person will ‘likely’ do in the future using specially programmed software designed to analyze various real-time video surveillance feeds. The system can automatically identify and notify officials if it recognized that an action is not permitted, detecting what is described as anomalous behaviors.”
Deployment of the devices is anticipated at “airports and bus stations,” but there is little doubt that should these predictive monitors prove successful, they will be installed right there next to the red light cameras already mounted at nearly every intersection in America.
With millions of tax dollars deposited by BRAIN into its research coffers, DARPA can begin planning to identify brain activity typical of those who could potential pose a threat to national security. These threats could be eliminated by being brought into a federal government lab run by the National Institutes of Health and have their “diseased” brain healed and brought back into “normal” function.
In its announcement, DARPA names “Detection and Computational Analysis of Psychological Signals (DCAPS)” as one of its primary areas of emphasis in its BRAIN activity. A separate entry on another part of the DARPA website reveals more about DCAPSand how it could be used:
DCAPS tools will be developed to analyze patterns in everyday behaviors to detect subtle changes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal ideation. In particular, DCAPS hopes to advance the state-of-the-art in extraction and analysis of “honest signals” from a wide variety of sensory data inherent in daily social interactions. DCAPS is not aimed at providing an exact diagnosis, but at providing a general metric of psychological health.
DCAPS also aims to develop novel algorithms for detecting distress cues from users who opt in to provide data such as text and voice communications, daily patterns of sleeping, eating, social interactions and online behaviors, and nonverbal cues such as facial expression, posture and body movement. The outcomes of these analytical algorithms would be correlated with distress markers from neurological sensors for improved understanding of distress cues.
There is legitimate reason to oppose the BRAIN Initiative. The president’s nomination of DARPA as one of the three primary participants in the project reveals a darker, less altruistic purpose behind the government’s goal of getting inside the brains of Americans.
As has been demonstrated, Washington considers patriots “home-grown terrorists” and there is little doubt that any technologies developed by grants from the BRAIN Initiative could eventually be used to identify those with tendencies toward suspect thoughts and to use the map of the brain to re-program patriots and eliminate the threat they are accused of posing to national security.
Despite the president's portrayal of the project as having a purely humanitarian purpose, there is irrefutable evidence that it is yet another expansion of the surveillance state and assault on the Fourth Amendment.
Joe A. Wolverton, II, J.D. is a correspondent for The New American and travels frequently nationwide speaking on topics of nullification, the NDAA, and the surveillance state. He can be reached at jwolverton@thenewamerican.com.
Show’m Jesus
By David Berg
Download Audio (9.9MB)
Faith today is not built on what we have seen. Our faith is not built on any supernatural, miraculous manifestations. The Lord is requiring this generation, and most of the world’s population since the beginning of time, to believe by faith in His Word, just to believe what He said. “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God”—today.1
In the Millennium, faith will come by not only hearing the Word of God, but seeing. You’ll see the kingdom of God on earth. Nobody will have to convince you then that there’s a God and that Jesus Christ His Son is the King of kings ruling the world; you will see the evidence of it on every hand.
Nobody will have to convince any lost souls or sinners then. Nobody’s going to have to convince those people that there’s God and that Jesus is His Son and that this is the kingdom of Christ on earth. And I think there are going to be millions who are going to receive and believe just by having seen.2
But more blessed are ye, who though having not seen, yet have believed.3 That is a principle of the spiritual kingdom of God, that He is going to bless those who have simply believed by faith, faith in the spirit world and all things spiritual, including the death of Christ for you. You weren’t there at the cross; you didn’t see it happen. You wouldn’t know anything about it if someone hadn’t told you.
The only way you can be saved today is by faith in God’s Word. He’s requiring of this generation and all former generations that they be saved just by believing Him and His Word. But the Millennial kingdom will come, and in that era, faith and belief will be the result of believers having seen. But they will not have as great a blessing as you have, because you believed though having not seen.
Every one of you, every witness is the living Word. You’re all little Jesuses, in a way, because you all have the Spirit of Christ. You all have Jesus in your hearts, you all manifest the love of Christ, so you’re supposed to be like Him, and you are.
You are Christ’s, He says; you belong to Him.4 Your body is His. Your mind, your heart, your life are His. You carry the Word of God and the word of salvation just as Jesus did.
There are still billions of people who have never had a chance to be saved, because they have never heard the Gospel, much less seen the Gospel in you.
As Dwight L. Moody said, “Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather.” I guess he must have gotten that lesson from selling shoes. He was a shoe salesman. But I’ll tell you, he began really preaching the Gospel and he was a great personal witness. That was his great strong point long before he started preaching in churches. He was winning so many souls, just an ignorant young shoe clerk who'd never even finished school. So then they started coming to him to find out how he did it. He’d just tell them, “Watch me while I’m selling shoes. Watch how I witness.”
Lots of people say, “I see a light on your face. I see something in you that I’ve never seen before.” That’s the one little confirmation God gives. Someone has said, “You can’t prove God exists. You can’t put God in a test tube and prove to me that God is.” I want to tell you right now, He’s put Himself in you, and you are the living, visible proof that there is a God, just as His creation is visible proof of His existence. Your love, the light in your eyes and on your faces and the wonderful spirit that people feel from you, not only proves that there’s a God, but that God loves them.
Not everybody in the world has had that opportunity; not everybody in the world has heard the Gospel. They may have heard of Jesus, but they don’t always understand who He was or what He did. If we don’t reach them now, they’ll get a chance to know Him in the Millennium. But they won’t be as blessed as you are and as the ones you’re reaching now with the Gospel.People are going to have all kinds of proof in the Millennium, and they’re going to believe then because they have seen. But right now you’ve got the tough job of trying to get people to believe though having not seen. They may not realize it, but they’re seeing the living proof right now when they look into your eyes and your face and they hear your words. They see and feel and hear Jesus through you. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”5
You represent not only Jesus, but the Word of God. You become like a walking Bible, a walking, talking Bible—the living Word of God. Every single one of you is the living Word of God, because you have Jesus and you manifest Him and His Word.
I want you to remember that what people see in you is going to help prove to them that there’s a God and there’s a Jesus and there is love. And the only Word of God many people are going to get and pay any attention to is the Word they hear from you.
Most of the unsaved are not going to be reading the Bible. The only real proof many of them are going to see is you. All the rest has to be faith. And God even plants that seed of faith in their hearts to help them to believe in you. They often have to believe in you before they can believe in the Lord. Think of that.
They’re not only going to hear about Jesus from you, they’re going to see Him in you. You’re the living proof of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Jesus lives in you, right? So if they see any light, if they see any love, if they hear any truth, if they find the way, they’ve found it through seeing Jesus in you and hearing His words through you.
So that’s the biggest job we all have, to show Jesus to the world.
We used to sing an old song:
Let others see Jesus in you,
Let others see Jesus in you.
Keep telling the story, be faithful and true;
Let others see Jesus in you.6
That’s exactly what the Lord wants you to do, the biggest job you have, the greatest work that you can possibly do.
When Jesus was here, He was only one Jesus, but now there are millions of Christians all over the world that ought to be showing Jesus to the rest of the world. They should be hearing Jesus through us. “Greater works than these shall ye do.”7 What greater work can you do than to show Jesus to others and let them hear Jesus through you and let them find Jesus through you, to save an immortal soul forever? That’s the greatest work anybody can do.
Let others see Jesus in you. Let others hear Jesus from you. And there will be many, many more souls won who will be more blessed than anybody else throughout eternity, because they believed, though having not seen.
It’s a big responsibility. That’s a great privilege that you have: to show them and let them hear Jesus through you. And it’s a very great privilege for them to be blessed to believe in what they see in you and what they hear from you, even though not having seen Jesus or God or the spirit world or heaven. They are especially chosen, especially called, especially blessed, for “though having not seen, yet they have believed.”8
The greatest work you can do is to have a part in the salvation of more souls.
While passing thro’ this world of sin,
And others your life shall view,
Be clean and pure without, within;
Let others see Jesus in you.
Your life’s a book before their eyes,
They’re reading it thro’ and thro’.
Say, does it point them to the skies,
Do others see Jesus in you?
What joy ’twill be at set of sun,
In mansions beyond the blue,
To find some souls that you have won.
Let others see Jesus in you.
Then live for Christ both day and night,
Be faithful, be brave, and true,
And lead the lost to life and light;
Let others see Jesus in you.
Let others see Jesus in you,
Let others see Jesus in you;
Keep telling the story, be faithful and true,
Let others see Jesus in you.
And let others hear Jesus from you. That’s your job for the rest of the time that God gives you here, the privilege of letting others see Jesus in you and hear Jesus from you.
Help us, Lord. May others see Jesus in us. May they hear Jesus from us and through our Family throughout the world, and through other Christians too, who love You and are preaching the Gospel and witnessing and winning souls, all Your children everywhere who are faithful, those who are really burdened for souls, out doing their best to witness and win souls, especially Your missionaries around the world who’ve left their native lands and comfort and pleasure, sacrificing to live in a foreign country as ambassadors of Your goodwill. Bless them, Lord, and make them a blessing, and may we win many, many more souls as others see and hear Jesus in us.
Let others see Jesus in us and hear Jesus from us. That’s our job, all of us, anywhere, everywhere, all the time. The greatest work we can possibly do, Lord, is to let others see You in us, hear You from us, and be won for Your eternal kingdom. Amen.
Originally published January 1986. Updated and republished April 2013.
Read by Peter Amsterdam.
1 Romans 10:17.
2 Hebrews 8:11.
3 John 20:29.
4 1 Corinthians 3:23.
5 Colossians 1:27.
6 From “Let Others See Jesus in You,” by B. B. McKinney (1886–1952).
7 John 14:12.
8 John 20:29.
