Perception - The Theistic Origin Theory of Gestalt Psychological Perception

Seeing as it is so late as I write this, I know that I will not be satisfied one bit with how this very tough issue is explained, so I will surely have an update to this post quite soon.

Let's start with the Psychology:
Gestalt psychology, technically speaking, is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The Gestalt effect refers to the form-forming capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves.
In layman's terms, this is best explained by the old adage conerning all things "Gestalt": the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

What this means is that the human mind tends to organize everything we perceive into "wholes" rather than "parts," which means it will fill in gaps when necessary to bring about some sort of "wholeness" or continuity within what we percieve.

Long story short, the mind perceives more than is actually there.

Now, for the Bible:
-- "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20).
-- "Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45)
-- "Jesus said to him, 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.'" (John 14:9)

Now for the theory:
Being a Christian, I believe God created man very purposefully, so every psychological aspect of humans has intent behind it on both a practical and spiritual level. Thus, I'd like to provide a Theistic Origin Theory for Gestalt Psychological Perception. In other words, I'd like to provide a theory as to the origin of this type of perception in mankind, and that origin is from God (the Theistic being). So . . . why did God create us with these Gestalt tendencies?

As one can see from the three Scriptures above, I have taken just three ways in which God communicates Himself, His will, and His attributes. These Scriptures plainly talk of God showing Himself through things that the sum of their parts do not equal God. Nature (Creation), words on a page (the Scriptures), and a human being (Jesus) do not equal God when each is added to eachother, much less when each is taken individually. But, nonetheless, the Bible says this is so. Why can it be? Gestalt Psychological Perception.

My theory is this: God created us to perceive things greater than what we've been given so that He may be able to communicate to humans and reveal himself supernaturally to them in ways that were seemingly natural. That's why we can perceive there is a God just by looking at nature; the fingerprint of God on this world is greater than the sum of it parts. That's why God can speak to us anew through 1,500 year old words written on a page we may have seen a million times over; the whole that the Scripture wishes to convey is greater than the sum of its parts. That's why, God the Father can be fully revealed perfectly in an incarnated form as a human; the whole of who Jesus is, is greater than the sum of his parts.

We know this to be true, so let's rejoice in it; that God created us to have full ability and capacity to perceive and know Him, even in the most "common" of things.

I will add more Scripture as I come by it. Those three were just the ones that came to mind this second, but I will find more.

On our next episode: either
(a) Psychopathology - who's fault is it?
(b) Sleep theology - why do we sleep?
(c) Toilet Theology - why do we poo? (probably not this one)

I hope you get a laugh out of that,

--paul<><