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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
"God Module" in the Brain?
An earlier post about the discovery of the region of the brain involved in altruism reminded me of a similar finding that I have often read. The finding claims that specialized neural circuit in the temporal lobe of the brain is responsible for faith, religious belief, and belief in God and the supernatural. A few may find this claim blasphemous, and it indeed is, understandably, quite disturbing.
If you have read the book Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind www.amazon.com), you may have noted that the author, a neurologist, makes a similar claim in the chapter on God and the Limbic System. He says that the brain?s temporal lobe may be a source of religious experience and that there may be a ?God module? in the brain. The neurologist believes that somewhere in the brain's temporal lobes there may be a neural circuit for religious experience. He points to the fact that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy are obsessed with religion. A few atheists have banked on this finding to claim that religion is a disease of the temporal lobe. Indeed, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have said that seizures in the lobe produced visions of supernatural beings, including God, angels, and demons, and near death experiences (NDEs) serendip.brynmawr.edu). BBC Horizon aired a program ?God on the Brain? www.bbc.co.uk), which discussed this subject in some depth.
Are religious beliefs and belief in God and the supernatural hardwired in certain brains and genes? Could it be that religion is a by-product of the Darwinist evolutionary process of random mutation and natural selection, whereby a specialized neural circuit has evolved the diversity of the world's religious beliefs? Evolutionary psychology has offered a completely naturalistic explanation for the evolution of the neural circuit involved in religion. What is it exactly that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy experience? Why do seizures in the temporal lobe produce these feelings? Does this mean that there is somehow a "hole" in the temporal lobe in that the material universe and human consciousness "connect" through the "hole" to the non-material world where God can be seen? How does the soul come into play in all this?
I do not imply that I necessarily agree with any of these claims, but I am just curious to see what you think.
If you have read the book Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind www.amazon.com), you may have noted that the author, a neurologist, makes a similar claim in the chapter on God and the Limbic System. He says that the brain?s temporal lobe may be a source of religious experience and that there may be a ?God module? in the brain. The neurologist believes that somewhere in the brain's temporal lobes there may be a neural circuit for religious experience. He points to the fact that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy are obsessed with religion. A few atheists have banked on this finding to claim that religion is a disease of the temporal lobe. Indeed, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have said that seizures in the lobe produced visions of supernatural beings, including God, angels, and demons, and near death experiences (NDEs) serendip.brynmawr.edu). BBC Horizon aired a program ?God on the Brain? www.bbc.co.uk), which discussed this subject in some depth.
Are religious beliefs and belief in God and the supernatural hardwired in certain brains and genes? Could it be that religion is a by-product of the Darwinist evolutionary process of random mutation and natural selection, whereby a specialized neural circuit has evolved the diversity of the world's religious beliefs? Evolutionary psychology has offered a completely naturalistic explanation for the evolution of the neural circuit involved in religion. What is it exactly that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy experience? Why do seizures in the temporal lobe produce these feelings? Does this mean that there is somehow a "hole" in the temporal lobe in that the material universe and human consciousness "connect" through the "hole" to the non-material world where God can be seen? How does the soul come into play in all this?
I do not imply that I necessarily agree with any of these claims, but I am just curious to see what you think.