The Way Things Are

About the Book

Writing under the pseudonym John F Brain, the author describes the changing perspective of Man and his world, in simple terms for the average reader. He answers lingering questions of human origin and purpose and emphasizes the role of the still developing human mind as the basis of problematic behavior in current society.

He sees all life as a continuing chemical reaction of Earthly elements, with spontaneous origin occurring soon after planetary formation, suggesting that human life does not begin at fertilization, but only changes in form. As a parasite, Man can therefore only observe the universe, but never fundamentally comprehend it. He sees current humans as only the latest of evolving intelligent life, and uses past events to project their future. Being fertile and mutative, he suggests that more capable humans will eventually occupy our small planet, envisioning full globalization of genetically similar population, fewer sources of conflict and more ideal eventual government without borders.

His thesis is centered around the electrochemical properties of dynamic neural structures, that determine thought and feeling, all responses to sensory stimuli mediated by cells representing reality. He suggests that mediation is a function of the mechanisms of learning and memory in acquisition of experience. He observes that brain function has advanced substantially in evolution and notably, in humans since their ancestral animal mind. He believes that further neural development, influenced by behavior and expectation, will tend toward unprecedented improvement of the human condition.

He claims that biological evolution is accompanied by a more rapid “neurocultural evolution“, the real force in advancing society. This is based on the physical representation of learning in human brains and on its subsequent spread and utility by sensory communication, horizontally throughout society and vertically over generations. He believes that only intense worldwide education based on increased knowledge of neural mechanisms of learning, can realize full human potential.

Although quality of life is dependent on much of the emotional ancestral mind, he suggests that greater recognition of reality will result, not only in more positive social change, but also in substantial decline of the negative uncertainties of imaginative, mystical and theological constructs of the present emotional mind.

Discussions of other human needs and issues, include world leadership, separation of church and state, manmade religions, personal freedom and human rights, limitations of knowledge, open research on life processes, ethics of cloning and abortion, life after death, human intercession in evolution, extraterrestrial life and development of clean fusion energy, as in the sun and stars.

About the Author

THE MAN WHO CREATED GOD Under his pseudonym John F Brinster, noted author of science, philosophy, and religion, has produced an important satirical novel directed to imaginative beliefs in an anthropomorphic god with explanations of the emotional mind and filled with lively characters. It pits the most respected logical mind of Oxford Professor Jeremiah B Cackelry III against the emotional minds of traditional believers. A mysterious Cackelry abduction results in attempts to identify perpetrators through a mathematical code. The religious world challenges Cackelry to a Paris Summit to present his religion, patterned after concepts of the author’s former neighbor, Albert Einstein. His loyal assistant, Dr Anne Duchin, a neuroscientist and attractive tennis star, goes to his rescue. Dr Elaine Price, a disturbed lesbian assistant of equal beauty and of pathological belief, attempts to defend her god. Fiendish Dr Anton Schicter enters into an arrangement on the side of religions and plans an untraceable prefrontal leucotomy todestroy the professor’s creativity . Meanwhile, a militant Transylvanian cult takes advantage of the fear of Dracula vampires and Frankenstein monsters to protect membership. Cackelry is not atheistic but determined to replace imaginative notions with reality, notions that he believes deter neural development of reason essential for peaceful coexistence. He succeeds in creating his god and the ultimate religion for Man. The setting is Switzerland decades beyond the present. Requested by the new Third Millennium U N with expanded power, Cackelry builds the World University to lead the world out of stagnation. He marries Anne but, upon his mysterious death, she abandons her narrow life to marry his eldest son, Jeremiah Cackelry IV, a banker in Basel. In a society, torn with religious conflict, replete with prejudices, and with beliefs and practices that challenge human reason, this book presents a breath of fresh air.