This is the central portion of Michelangelo's fresco on the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
In 1990, Frank L. Meshberger, M.D., described (in JAMA, volume 264, October
10, pages 1837-1841) his recognition that the "purple clouds"
surrounding the image of God could be interpreted as a brain. He further
argued that this was consistent with Michelangelo's philosophy that the brain
gives Man his intellect.
In August, 2006 (submitted to JAMA, rejected), Dr. Ashford made additional observations
about the Sistine chapel frescoes. The other 3 images of creation appear to describe brain evolution.
At the front end of the chapel, Jesus is sitting in the middle of a coronal image of the brain.
See the attached WORD document for a full description and pictures.
Comment from Daniel Soultanian: See:
"I think that the true interpretation of the scene is, assuming that the
piece of cloth or bag is really a representation of the human brain, as
follows:
The "bag" seems to be containing God; in other words the brain
contains God or God is the creation of the brain. So the title of the
scene could be creation of God by the human intellect. That does not
necessarily mean Michelangelo was an atheist, for him God existed, but
probably only as a necessary creation of the human brain, necessary because of
the need of the brain to imagine and believe in the
"spiritual". There is a French anthropologist by the name of
Teilhard de Chardin that suggested a more or less similar interpretation of
the nature of God. But being a Jesuit priest he had to be very careful on how
to present it. He said it takes a large number of neurons assembled in a
complex way similar to the human brain to be able to understand God.
There are those who say that he really meant create rather than
understand."
For an alternate view, see: Dave Barry, 10/6/02
