Toward a brainy church

...As you go higher in organized institutional ranks, more power is accorded to impose decisions that overrule lower ones...

...Edelman maintains that a dynamic core of the brain produces our unique unitary human consciousness through the operation of a dynamic and massively parallel process of circuitry...

...But I also agree with those who said Gore should have asked for the statewide recount first thing, so it wouldn't look like he hand-picked the counties where he expected the most support...

...Coherence in the kingdom need not be dependent upon ascending hierarchies, exercising ever more executive control and exacting ever more subordination...

...This constant circular mutual communication leads to a correlation of the players' notes so that coherent and integrated music emerges...

...Jesus told his disciples that authority in his kingdom would not be exercised in the domineering way that power was exercised in the world...

...Now, I understand, the newest oath of fidelity demanded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith can come by fax...

...One body must have one head, a family requires a husband-father, a unified institution must be commanded by one authority at the top, if we are to avoid chaos, incoherence, or heresy...

...DIANE LAVOS Natick, Mass...

...The brain, of course, depends upon nearly instantaneous dynamic back-andforth communication of information...

...Information and conflicting opinions may travel up a hierarchy to the top, but decisions and orders come down through the appropriate channels of command...

...A more vital way to achieve unity would consist of constant communication and mutual receptivity of all to all in the system...

...Armies, navies, courts, and corporations run tight, efficient ships, so why shouldn't the church be organized in the same way...

...And, according to Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman, the bram is not a computer with a hierarchical computer program culminating in an executive processor...

...Such unilateral exercises of central authority are neither fast enough nor mutually open enough to follow the brain's pattern of dynamic back-and-forth communication...

...The going model used to include feudalism and the divine right of kings, but today the international corporation is crowned...

...These interacting signals influence and mutually regulate the players' actions...

...As they say in information-processing talk, a system finally relaxes into equilibrium...

...but for Paul there were still lower and higher organs...

...Until such time as the church can move toward a more neutral stance on the interpretation of the orientation itself—at root, a difficult, but serious theological and philosophical question—most dialogue between the gay community and the church will remain one of defensive posturing ROBERT J. COMISKEY Springfield, Va The editors comment: We doubt that the official church is supporting research to eliminate gays through genetic surgery, or otherwise...

...Just because armies, empires, chimpanzee troops, and computers operate through top-down hierarchies of control, the church need not...

...Does this image of unity arising from equality and rich diversity sound familiar...

...Yet another model of rational decision making is emerging that challenges the assumption that dominance hierarchies are necessary for unity While it may be true that even in the domains of language syntax, mathematical algorithms, and computer programs, rational hierarchies and decision rules operate, this does not seem to be the way the human brain is organized...

...Edelman offers the explanatory analogy of a string quartet "in which each player responds by improvisation to ideas and cues of his or her own, as well as to all kinds of sensory cues in the environment...

...No little man or (papal...

...SIDNEY CALLAHAN TOWARD A BRAINY CHURCH Not top-down but back-and-forth Conservatives in the church buttress their theological arguments for a centralized authority at the top of a hierarchy by relying on current assumptions about rational organization...

...Saint Paul used the human body as an analogy for the unity of the church He describes the way the body's organs, such as hands and feet, act together...

...In the past it took months, if not years, for a papal legate to travel over the Alps to deliver authoritative Roman decisions...

...If we were to use an analogy drawn from the brain we could claim that it is possible for truly independent and equal entities to operate in their own unique ways, but through mutual communication to achieve a coherent unity without dominance...

...The brain in its ability to achieve unified consciousness is undoubtedly the apex of human rationality...

...The editorial echoes the sentiments of many Americans, even beyond partisanship, yet speaks volumes about our resilient, but battered democratic system of government and the primacy of the vote...

...There is "no unique, computer-like central processor" with the ability to coordinate different areas (see Gerald M. Edelman and Giulio Tononi, A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination, Basic Books...

...Such a thought sends tremors of fear and distrust into the minds and hearts of the gay community, who are already fighting an uphill battle for their legitimate place at the Lord's table...

...Individual unique Christian units, be they persons or churches, keep their independence, but through dynamic intercommunion and mutual influence, spontaneously interact to achieve unity...

...Voting rights Your stand against the bombastic activities of the Bush campaign was courageous, ("Votes Count," December 15, 2000...

...Is the goal (agenda) of the church, while showing compassion to gays, to support research to eliminate this objective disorder through means acceptable to the church, for example, genetic surgery in utero with no adverse side effects...

...9 (Continued from page 4) it is a virtual certainty that, given the rapid advances in these fields, we will know with a high level of confidence its causes within the next several decades...

...For church unity to equal humankind's unifying consciousness, we need signals that communicate without impediments and obstacles...

...A theology of the church, and visions of Christian unity based upon the Trinitarian nature of Father, Son, and the all-pervasive power of the Holy Spirit, could be buttressed by pointing to the way rational human consciousness emerges and functions...

...An incredibly complex, amazingly fast back-and-forth communication process enters and reenters between the parts of the system to achieve unity...

...I will keep a copy of your editorial with my Boston Globe from the day after the election as a reminder of the preciousness of my vote and everyone else's...

...homunculus sits at the top of a hierarchy receiving all the incoming messages and executing unilateral decisions downward...

...But since each player is connected by myriad fine threads or pathways of communication to all the 8 other players, their actions and movements are conveyed back and forth from one to the other with lightning rapidity...

...What would it take for the churches to match such speedy communication between independent units...

...To get the quartet to make beautiful music in harmony, signals have to flow freely within the system...

...No conductor, no boss, no hierarchical algorithms of instruction exist, but the mutual intercommunication of independent parts produces integrated harmony and unity, richer than each unit acting alone could ever produce...

...Old wineskins are hard pressed to hold new wine...

...The jet plane also makes it possible to summon dissident bishops and theologians to Rome for reprimands...