INTRODUCTION SCIENCETIFIC VIEW OF THE SENSE OF

INTRODUCTION SCIENCETIFIC VIEW OF THE SENSE OF

INTRODUCTION God has created man with five important senses to help him relate with his environment. These senses help man to relate the information that he is getting outside the body to the brain which is the chief controller of the activities of the body. According to Microsoft Encarta, Sense Organs, in humans and other animals, are faculties by which outside information is received for evaluation and response. This is accomplished by the effect of a particular stimulus on a specialized organ, which then transmits impulses to the brain via a nerve or nerves. Aristotle classified five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch .

The writers of this paper are going to focus their attention on one of these five sense organs classified by Aristotle, which is the SENSE OF TASTE. The researchers of this paper will briefly look at this topic from three different dimensions. This involves biological, philosophical and biblical view of the sense of taste. THE BIOLOGICAL OR SCIENCETIFIC VIEW OF THE SENSE OF TASTE What does it mean? According to Science, the sense of Taste is one of the five special senses in humans and other animals, by which four gustatory qualities (sweetness, sourness, saltiness, and bitterness) of a substance are distinguished.Taste is determined by receptors, called taste buds, the number and shape of which may vary greatly between one person and another. In general, women have more taste buds than men.

A greater number of taste buds appear to endow a greater sensitivity in the mouth. Your mouth contains around 10,000 taste buds, most of which are located on and around the tiny bumps on your tongue. Every taste bud detects five primary tastes: •Sour •Sweet •Bitter •Salty •Umami – salts of certain acids (for example monosodium glutamate or MSG) Each of your taste buds contains 50-100 specialized receptor cells.

Sticking out of every single one of these receptor cells is a tiny taste hair that checks out the food chemicals in your saliva. When these taste hairs are stimulated, they send nerve impulses to your brain. Each taste hair responds best to one of the five basic tastes. Why do we need the sense of taste in our body? The simple reason why we need the sense of taste is because it protects our body. – Your sense of taste protects you from unsafe foods. If you ate poisonous or rotten foods, you would probably spit them out immediately, because they usually taste revolting.

That way, you stop them from entering your stomach. -Your sense of taste also helps you maintain a consistent chemical balance in your body. Liking sugar and salt for example, satisfies your body’s need for carbohydrates and minerals. Similarly, eating sour foods such as oranges and lemons supplies your body with essential vitamins .

What then happens to a person who has lost his sense of taste? The answer is not far from the point discussed above. The person’s body definitely is open to dangers or any type of problem or diseases through what he takes in. He is not safe at all in his body system.PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF SENSE OF TASTE The idea of taste both in ordinary and in philosophical uses has more than one sense. On the one hand, taste suggests a preference for better things, as in “his taste in music is impeccable,” and on the other hand, taste can suggest an ability to discriminate between various items, to distinguish them one from another, as in “his taste in wine is infallible, he always identifies the vineyard and the year. ” These uses of the word “taste” must somehow be related to the word’s use in reference to the sense of taste, housed in the taste buds.

Whether it is taste in the restricted sense, having to do with the sensation of things in one’s mouth, or in the broader sense, where one speaks of taste in works of art, for instance, the two components in the idea of taste may well be connected. It seems plausible to suppose that the connoisseur, someone of considerable taste, has a range of preferences at least partly on account of his ability to discriminate the components of whatever he is exercising his taste on. Thus the person of better taste prefers A to B, while others do not, and he does this because he is aware of elements of A and B not recognized by others.Both conceptions are present in the work of one of the earliest and best theorists of taste, David Hume. He thinks of both senses of “taste,” calling one of them the “mental” or “metaphorical” sense of “taste” APPLYING THE IDEA OF THE SENSE OF TASTE FROM SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY TO THE BIBLE First of all it is important that we look at the definition of taste from a biblical point of view to help us apply this topic spiritually.

What does the bible say about Taste? ta? st (Hebrew ??? , t? a? am, “the sense of taste,” “perception,” from ??? , t? a? ‘am, “to taste,” “to perceive”; Aramaic ??? t? e? e? m, “flavor,” “taste” (of a thing); Hebrew ?? , h? e? kh, “palate,” “roof of the mouth” = “taste”; ???????? , geu? omai; noun ??????? , geu? sis; in 2 Macc 7:1 the verb is ??????????? , epha? ptomai): Taste in the Scripture have two meanings: literally and figuratively. (1) Literal: (a) Gustation, to try by the tongue: “The taste (t? a? am) of it (manna) was like wafers made with honey” (Exo_16:31); “Doth not the ear try words, even as the palate (h? e? kh) tasteth (t? a?? am) its food? ” (Job_12:11); “Belshazzar, while he tasted (literally, “at the taste of,” t? e? m) the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink therefrom” (Dan_5:2). (b) “To sample,” “to eat but a small morsel”: “I did certainly taste (t? a?? am) a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and, lo, I must die” (1Sa_14:43). (2) Figurative: “To experience,” “to perceive”: “Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good” (Psa_34:8; compare 1Pe_2:3); “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! ” (Margin “palate,” h? ? kh) (Psa_119:103); “That by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man” (Heb_2:9); “For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come ..

. ” (Heb_6:4, Heb_6:5) . However, the writers of this paper would like to consider two important passages that can help us apply the physical sense of taste to spiritually from the figurative definition of taste as seen above. These portions of the scriptures are: Psalms 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. NIV Psalms 119:103 103 How sweet are your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! NIV Psalm 34:4-8 “Taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”. NIV David gave a threefold witness of what the Lord does for His own: He saves (vv.

4-8), He keeps (v. 7), and He satisfies (v. 8). He sought the Lord and was saved from the fears (“terrors”; see 31:13) within him, and he cried to the Lord and was delivered from the troubles around him.To seek the Lord is the same as to look to the Lord; and when we look to Him by faith, He looks to us and “shines upon us” (4:6; Num 6:22-27). If we walk in unbelief, our faces will be ashamed; if we walk by faith, our faces will be aglow (Ex 34:29; Matt 17:2; Acts 6:15; 2 Cor 3:18).

The word “radiant” in verse 5 describes the joyful countenance of a mother who is welcoming her children home (Isa 60:4-5). After the Lord saves us, He keeps us and sends His angels to protect us (v. 7; 35:5-6; Gen 48:16; Ex 14:19).The Angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity (Josh 5:13-15), the Lord of the hosts of the angels, who made preincarnation visits to His people during Old Testament times. When David envisioned a camp of angels around him, he may have been recalling Jacob’s experience at Mahanaim (“the two camps”; Gen 32:1-2). The angels are servants of the saints today and minister to us in ways we will never know about until we get to heaven (Heb 1:14). Those who seek the Lord discover that He not only saves and keeps but that He also satisfies (v.

). “Taste” doesn’t suggest a sip or a nibble; it implies feeding on the Lord through His Word and experiencing all He has for us (1 Peter 2:3; see Heb 2:9 and 6:3). It means knowing Him better and enjoying Him more. It was a great blessing for David to be delivered from Gath, and it was a greater blessing for him to be protected by the Lord after he fled, but the greatest blessing was drawing nearer to God and enjoying His presence, not just His gifts. David found God’s Word sweet (119:103), and he rejoiced in the goodness of the Lord. Good” is an important word in this psalm (vv. 8, 10, 12, 14) .

Ps 119:103-104 103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Here is, 1. The wonderful pleasure and delight which David took in the word of God; it was sweet to his taste, sweeter than honey.

There is such a thing as a spiritual taste, an inward savour and relish of divine things, such an evidence of them to ourselves, by experience, as we cannot give to others. We have heard him ourselves, John 4:42.To this scripture-taste the word of God is sweet, very sweet, sweeter than any of the gratifications of sense, even those that are most delicious. David speaks as if he wanted words to express the satisfaction he took in the discoveries of the divine will and grace; no pleasure was comparable to it. 2.

The unspeakable profit and advantage he gained by the word of God. (1. ) It helped him to a good head: “Through thy precepts I get understanding to discern between truth and falsehood, good and evil, so as not to mistake either in the conduct of my own life or in advising others.

(2. ) It helped him to a good heart: “Therefore, because I have got understanding of the truth, I hate every false way, and am steadfastly resolved not to turn aside into it. ” Observe here, 1. The way of sin is a false way; it deceives, and will ruin, all that walk in it; it is the wrong way, and yet it seems to a man right, Prov 14:12. 2. It is the character of every good man that he hates the way of sin, and hates it because it is a false way; he not only refrains his feet from it (v. 101), but he hates it, has an antipathy to it and a dread of it.

3. Those who hate sin as sin will hate all sin, hate every false way, because every false way leads to destruction. And, 4. The more understanding we get by the word of God the more rooted will our hatred of sin be (for to depart from evil, that is understanding, Job 28:28), and the more ready we are in the scriptures the better furnished we are with answers to temptation .

CONCLUSION As discussed in this paper by the writers, that the sense of taste is important for the protection of our physical bodies, if not we will be open to any danger that may come to destroy our body systems.In like manner, the spiritual taste for the lord and his word should be our outmost priority as believers for nourishment and building of our spiritual lives. BIBLIOGRAPHY Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. http://www.

blackwellreference. com/public/tocnode? id=g9780631221319_chunk_g9780631221319 . International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (e-sword) Bible Exposition Commentary: OT : PC Bible Study version 5 Matthew Henry’s Commentary: PC Bible Study version 5