Neuroscience teaches us that there is something called Autonomous Nervous System (ANS) that takes care of the independent working of these faculties. But, how does the ANS know that a healthy adult heart has to beat approximately 70 – 75 times per minute, and also make corrections as and when the body needs more oxygen supply? Or, how does the ANS know to maintain blood level & control blood flow or control breathing to ensure sufficient oxygen supply? Similarly, how does the ANS control and manage various other functions and faculties in the human body such as the digestive system or the respiratory system, & so on? Careful observation reveals that the ANS could be like a software program, which has been uniquely written by nature for every species to function in a particular manner. Like man, animals and plants also have their own ANS, & these are different from that of man’s. Just as single software program does not fit multiple purposes, functions, and applications, so too is the case with ANS. Hence, it can be reasonably deduced that every species has its own unique ANS serving it. Every time a being is born, it comes preloaded with its own set of program to carry out certain functions. Because the ANS maintains the critical functions of the body so precisely, it can be deduced that there is AWARENESS in the ANS for it to manage critical functions of the body without active participation of the person whatsoever. All that the person has to do is to react to the messages, signals, or information passed on by the brain upon receiving inputs from the ANS, which in turn is activated by the stimulus.
Just think of a situation where nature had not designed the ANS and we had to make decisions for everything – right from whether the heart should beat, if it should, then how many times in a day; to how much oxygen should be supplied; or, how much food should be digested; what body temperature should be maintained everyday, etc. Clearly, we cannot even imagine existence of life itself under such circumstances. Can we imagine a situation where we had to keep making decisions all the time about things like:
- The number of heartbeats in a day, should the heart take some tea break & if so, for how long?
- Should we inhale air or water? If air, then how much oxygen should be inhaled per hour?
When, how, where, & how much thirsty should we feel? How much urine should be passed in a day? - When, how, where, & how much hungry should we be? How much food should we have?
- How much of what food should be digested and how much of what to be excreted?
- Should we shed tears during emotional moments? If so, how much tears should we shed & what should be the flow rate?
- Whether the eye lids have to close instantly when dust falls or should there be a time lag in the response, & if so, how many hours time lag should be there and how to control that?
Can we even imagine for a moment all these things? Einstein once famously quipped after studying Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle – what this theory says is, God plays dice with the universe.
Einstein perhaps did not complete his thought. The complete statement should have been - God not only plays dice with the universe, but He also plays it very intelligently by betting His money on the most likely and necessary outcome. For, who could imagine the creation of a separate functional entity called Autonomous Nervous System and outsource most of the critical functions of the human body to it? Only God could have thought that we’d mess it up big time & hence proactively did a great job. Had it not been so, it would have been a collateral catastrophe.
Although neuroscience has taught us about the Autonomous Nervous System, its functions, etc., it is to be observed that ANS has been objectively studied by man and only after careful observation and deep studies have conclusions been arrived at. The point is that here too, a subject has objectively carried out extensive studies on the nature and functioning of the ANS before arriving at certain conclusions.
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