How Does This Thing Work?

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it...’ ." - Genesis 1:27,28

That males and females are different is nothing new, but how they are different biologically is something which scientists of the ’90s are just beginning to discover. Recently two independent studies demonstrated that the brains of men and women actually work differently.

The first study shows that the composition of the male and female brain makes men more inclined to fight and women to talk. Doctors gave 61 participants sugar with a radioactive "tracer", then studied brain activity. Men and women registered activity in different parts of the brain. These findings support that men are more biologically inclined to instrumental means of expression such as physical aggression, while women are more biologically inclined to symbolic expression.

A second study found evidence that men use a tiny area in the left side of the brain to process certain kinds of information.

The new research proved with empirical data that nature–not nurture–accounts for the way men and women think and respond differently. Even before these studies came out, I had long believed that at the root of so many male-female communication problems was a gross misunderstanding of each other’s nature.

When men and women communicate, they use the same vocabulary but speak a different language. Men tend to be rational; women emotional. Men want to fix things; women want to nurture them. Women want someone to listen; men want someone to do something with them. Men are competitive; women are cooperative. Men get angry; women cry.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. It does mean, however, that God made us different because this was His plan, His provision for our coming together in a relationship called marriage, in having our deep needs met in each other and in God.

Men and women are different physically, emotionally, yes, even spiritually. God knew what He was doing when He designed us. It’s about time science figured it out.

Resource Reading: Genesis 1:24-27