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Central to Latter-day Saint faith is the doctrine that God has a body of flesh and bones “as tangible as man’s” (D&C 130:22). For Latter-day Saints, the idea of a corporeal God enlivens faith and calms doubt; when the Saints pray, they pray not to a mysterious entity but to a Man, who is not above dealing with them on a personal level. The idea that God is an exalted man has universal application to Latter-day Saints’ belief; it is the vine of truth that grows into every nook and cranny of their identity.

I will focus on just two small branches of that vine: the brain of man and the mind of God. If I can succeed in giving an insight into the mind of God, then, as a natural course, we gain insight into ourselves. This is my hope in writing; as Joseph Smith said, “If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.” [1]

The Value of Simplicity

In the fourteenth century, William of Ockham proposed a principle known today as Ockham’s Razor. The principle today reads: “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” In other words, the most superior way to arrive at truth is to build upon a core idea that has perfect simplicity.

Reaching simplicity is not always easy. I heard a proverb once: perfect simplicity, costing nothing less than everything. Whether in art, science, or just living, it takes sacrifice and courage to arrive at a state of perfect simplicity; we therefore sometimes tend to hide behind the security of complex things.

The appetite for complex things is found also within religious thought. Looking at ancient Christian creeds concerning the Trinity — three in one, one in three, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance — these documents often seem an exercise in logical futility.

Conversely, Ockham’s Razor is found throughout the revelations to Joseph Smith. The most straightforward conclusion about God’s nature is that he has a tangible body. After all, men and women and every known intelligent species have tangible bodies, so the simplest conclusion is that God would, too.

Continuing with Ockham’s Razor, if God has a body of flesh and bones resembling the human body, the most obvious conclusion is that God also has useful inward organs and outward anatomy that is comparable to humans. God would have eyes that see, lungs that breathe, a heart that beats, and a mind that thinks.

When the resurrected Lord appeared to his disciples, he told them to handle him and see that he was like themselves, a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). But this proof was not enough; so he called for some food and ate fish and honeycomb in their presence (Luke 24:41-43).

Why was this necessary? He did this to signify that even down to the details he was just as they were, with functioning inward organs that could digest food. Jesus took great pains to ensure that his witnesses understood him to be literally physical. In light of this, such scriptural phrases as “the mind of the Lord” and “the mind of God” can also be taken literally — that God has a physical brain (Rom. 11:34; Moses 4:6).

The Universe of the Mind

Scientists once thought of the brain in very finite terms; all we had to work with was maybe 50 billion brain cells (neurons), each with a thousand connections to other cells. Carl Sagan, an astronomer with a strong philosophical bent, once mused on the idea of whether or not man could one day understand the universe; he argued as recently as 1979 that with such limited resources, the human brain could never even comprehend the atoms in a grain of salt. [2]

New discoveries have shown that the total number of pathways and connections possible are drastically more diverse than that. It is estimated today that the human brain fires continually through some 100 billion neurons and 60 trillion synapses. Synapses are connections or passageways where messages get sent between brain cells. The message can be a thought, a memory, a feeling, or a bit of knowledge.

It is now almost universally believed that new connections are constantly being created in response to the stimuli fed to our brains — anytime we learn something or feel an emotion, synapses are created or strengthened. So dense are these synapses and connections that the brain is considered to be the most complex system in the universe. [3]

But the fact that there are more neurons and synapses, and that these are more adaptable than previously thought, is nothing compared to new evidence concerning glial cells. Glia, a Greek word, means glue. Glial cells were given their name because it was once thought that these cells were only a support, or glue, to the message-sending neurons. Glial cells might insulate and cool the synapses that were in danger of overheating from constant electrical impulses, but they were not transmitters.

New discoveries have led neuroscientists to believe that certain types of glial cells do in fact have the ability to encode and transmit information. This is significant because our brains have up to twenty times more glial cells than neurons. [4] When Einstein’s brain was studied, it was concluded that as far as neurons were concerned, he had an average brain. It might remain a mystery why he was so smart if it weren’t for the fact that he had many more glial cells per neuron than average. [5]

The point of this discussion boils down to the sheer number of possible connections and interactions that are possible in the brain. Some estimates place the number of possible patterns at 10⁸⁰⁰. This is an incomprehensibly large number. We have a universe within our minds. A famous neuroscientist summed up the now common belief concerning the megacosmic capacity of our brains: “The number of elements involved in information transfer, along with their interactions, represents a truly inconceivable number, far in excess of the numbers of particles in the known universe.” [6]

How Does God Comprehend the Universe?

The above quote about brain capacity leads me to an irresistible conclusion about how God comprehends the universe — he uses his brain. This conclusion might seem too simplistic even for Ockham’s Razor, except for the fact that the brain is so expansive.

D&C 88, particularly verses 6-13 and 41-44, provide profound insights to the greatness of God’s mind. These verses should be read carefully again and again; they hold a key to understanding how God comprehends the universe. The passages begin by explaining that all things are animated by the “light of Christ.” The light of Christ is a universal energy field, “the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed” (D&C 88:13). Name any object in the vast universe, and this light penetrates it; nothing can hide from it, because it is everywhere (D&C 88:12).

Now the key: “And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings” (D&C 88:11). To couch the revelation in other terms, “The brain functions by the means of light.”

This revelation was far ahead of its time. How interesting that today neuroscientists speak of the brain functioning through electrical impulses, like a never-ending lightning storm. The brain is a command center continually firing off impulses of light. So the vehicle for God’s infinite mental capacity is light, because the “light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space” (D&C 88:12).

I have formed a mental picture while reading section 88 — the Father, glorious and beautiful, full of energy and fire and electricity, his countenance like lightning, dwelling on the polestar planet around which all his created orbs orbit, sits upon his throne in the bosom of eternity. A light originates from his mind, filling his whole body with light; the light blazing from him reaches outward in all directions and fills and penetrates all things in the cosmic expanse. Because the light is forever connected to his mind, and because his mind has an astronomical amount of possible light-transmitting connections that we on earth call neurons, glial cells, and synapses, he can comprehend all things.

The League of God, the Mind of Man

The next inevitable conclusion is this: If God has a mind that can comprehend the universe, and the human brain has more possible neurotransmitting patterns than all the atoms in the known universe, then man can also one day comprehend all things and become like God. This conclusion aligns with a precious truth taught by Joseph Smith. 

“Here, then, is eternal life — to know the only wise and true God,” said the Prophet, “and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.” [7]

When Joseph Smith first introduced the idea that man can become as God, many traditional Christians decried the doctrine as blasphemous. It was seen as lowering God to the groveling level of man and placing man in a league where he just did not belong. But now we have biological evidence that man does indeed belong in that league; the miraculous human mind is a potential passport to the spheres of the Gods.

Everlasting Burnings and the Mind

True, there are serious limitations to the human brain in its present state. To illustrate, if all neurons and synapses were to fire at once, the brain would overheat and be destroyed. There are strong physiological limitations due to the fact that human flesh is not designed to withstand intense currents of heat, light, or electrical transfer. But what if flesh did not have those limitations?

This is what is so brilliant about the LDS doctrine of a glorious resurrection; when men and women come forth from the grave, their bodies are resurrected to various degrees of glory and light (D&C 76:50-98). Old limitations concerning heat and light are overcome. With incorruptible flesh designed specifically to withstand light and heat, synapses and other pathways in the brain would be capable of an intense amount of energy transfer.

Thus the scripture says, “That body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things” (D&C 88:67). This is not possible in our brains today, but the brain’s infinite network is already in place, awaiting the day when circumstances are more auspicious. Just as our bodies are the temple of God, our brains are the blueprint of a godlike potential.

This blueprint can be biologically observed. It is one more piece of evidence that helps answer what should be considered the most crucial question of the age: Is the human family the literal offspring of God, or not? If we are ultimately children of God, then we can grow up to become like him. All this time, the evidence that humans are gods in embryo was not even in front of our nose — it was closer — it was behind our eyes and between our ears!

There is great brilliance and genius behind the simple doctrines that Joseph Smith taught. They pass the test of Ockham’s Razor. The simplest idea — God has a mind — acts like an explosive that bursts open the understanding of mankind’s place in the eternal work of salvation. To me, the sheer elegance of modern-day revelation is almost scary-good. My mind is overcome with wonder—and that is saying a lot considering the mind has the potential to comprehend the universe.