The concept of Big Brain, Little Brain has been around since about 1985.   In the medical profession, "Little Brain" generally refers to the enteric nervous system, while "Big Brain" is all the rest of the cerebral cortex and its gray matter.

To simplify, there is a little part of the brain which sees and hears the outside world, processes language and is aware of the body's surroundings.   It is your conciousness.   It is a tiny part of the brain as a whole.

And the rest of the brain is where memories are stored, patterns compared, reflexes invoked, and the whole nervous system kept under control.   By comparison to the conscious part of the brain, it is really, really massive.

The latest research, using high technology machinery, suggests that Little Brain processes about 2,000 bits of data per second.   In the scheme of things, a reasonable sized computer, doing a reasonable job.

The same study shows that Big Brain processes about 4 billion bits of data per second.   It has access to every waking memory, every dream, every sensation you have ever experienced.   When you hear beautiful music, it has the power to make you cry.

The problem we have : the big big problem we all have : is that Little Brain and Big Brain have no simple method of communicating with each other.

For instance, in mid-sentence you may find that you suddenly realise
that you have forgotten the topic under discussion.   A phenomenom so common, it is called a "Brain-Skip" (or other similar meaning phrase for your particular part of the world).

Now just think that through: Big Brain has access to every memory of every experience you ever had - and yet it cannot tell you something as recent as a few seconds ago.   

It would seem that Big Brain simply has no real concept of language per se: that is the province of Little Brain.   And Little Brain has no direct access to all those memory stores.

Big Brain - Little Brain explains such phenomena as deja vu, fear of public speaking, dream mechanisms and so on.   (If anyone wants, I can go into details, perhaps off line).

The fascinating insight (for me) is that it might also explain where all religions come from.

The thing is, is that Little Brain has no idea of the existence of Big Brain.   Even with all the data and facts to hand, none of us are really aware of our own Big Brain.   It surrounds our Little Brain, and is perhaps thereby totally invisible to us.

But suppose for a moment, you did become aware of your own Big Brain. What on earth would you make of it?   At a moment of great stress, emotion or whatever, you were suddenly aware that you were in the presence of someing about 2,000,000 times smarter than you, knew every single thing that you had ever done, and was everywhere in the universe that you had ever been.

Wow.   Obviously you have been in the presence of a god.

And obviously this god is not you yourself - you know you are not a God.   Even the most feeble attempts of yours to perform a miracle failed miserably - so the God you just met must have been an external being.

And when our ancestors had such experiences, they found that others in their tribe had near identical experiences.   It became clear to them that the same external entity had revealed itself to each of them.   An enitity which knew all things, was omnipotent, and which never revealed itself or its purpose to them in any regular or systematic manner.

In the way theology explains away all that is inexplicible, these new emergent theologies were first required to explain themselves away. And the different explanations that each tribe came up with gave us commonality and diversity in our religions.

Perhaps.   A point worthy of debate, nicht wahr?