Science Says Your Brain Isn't Fully Developed Until You're This Age

While the age at which you legally become an adult is 18, your brain isn't fully developed yet. According to Insider, the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that helps with impulse control and that's still not completely done growing even when 18-year-olds are graduating high school and heading off to college, the military, working full-time, or backpacking across Europe. 

The Society for Neuroscience claims that the white matter in your brain doesn't peak until you are about 40 years of age. White matter is found deeper in the brain, while the gray matter is on the outside. White matter is made up of nerve fibers covered by myelin that serves to protect those neurons (via MedlinePlus). Maturity is connected to the prefrontal cortex, located at the front part of the frontal lobe. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for cognitive abilities and control, decision making, planning, problem-solving, and impulse control.

Click to read

WHY NEUROSURGEON MIKE EGNOR STOPPED BEING A MATERIALIST ATHEIST

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor did another podcast with Arjuna Das at Theology Unleashed, "where Eastern theology meets Western skepticism." Among other things, Egnor talked about why he ceased to be an atheist as he learned more about science and its dependence on mathematics, which is not a material thing. A partial transcript follows, taking us down to 15 minutes, with notes (more in a further installment)

Click to read

Lincoln’s Uncertain Decision: Fort Sumter, 1861

On March 5, 1861, Abraham Lincoln, only president for a day, had to make a decision on what to do. Lincoln had a divided cabinet, a divided party, and a divided country. Half of his cabinet wanted war with the newly-formed Confederacy. The other half, led by William Seward, wanted peace.

In his inaugural address, Lincoln attempted to clarify his position regarding Fort Sumter and other federal property in the seceding states. Because the constitution attempted "to form a more perfect union," it follows, Lincoln argued, that the possibility that a state, on its own, could secede would render the constitution less perfect. "I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken" and "that the laws of the Union [will] be faithfully executed in all the States."  Lincoln considered this a "simple duty" that should "not be regarded as a menace" but as an obvious and stated purpose of the Union as expressed in the constitution. "In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority," Lincoln continued. "The power confided to me, will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property, and places belonging to the government, and to collect duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion—no using force against, or among the people anywhere." Should a particular place prove utterly hostile to any federal presence in a region, Lincoln promised to forgo any federal presence....

Click to read