Neurotheology and Spirituality

Neuro-Theology: Your Brain on God

Dr. Michael EnglandNovember 13, 2009

Did God create man and the brain, or does the brain

create God?

Does our hard-wiring create the powerful God Experience, or does God create our

psycho-physical wiring?

In Philadelphia, a researcher discovers

areas of the brain that are activated during

meditation.

At two other universities in San Diego and North Carolina, doctors

study how epilepsy and certain hallucinogenic drugs can produce

religious epiphanies.

In Canada, a neuroscientist fits people with magnetized helmets that

produce "spiritual" experiences.

Using powerful brain imaging technology, researchers are

exploring what mystics call nirvana, and what Christians describe as

a state of grace.

Scientists are asking whether spirituality can be explained in terms of

neural networks, neurotransmitters and

brain chemistry.

"The brain is set up in such a way as to have spiritual experiences and religious experiences," said Andrew Newberg, a Philadelphia scientist

who wrote the book "Why God Won't Go Away."

"Unless there is a fundamental change in the brain, religion and spirituality will be here for a very long time. The brain is predisposed

to having those experiences and that is why so many people believe in God."

The image shows the brain before meditation and prayer(on the left) and during prayer (on the right) where we see that during the involvement in prayers and meditation, blood flow has increased. The frontal lobe region is responsible for controlling emotions and agitations in humans and a region also important for the acquisition and practice of complicated perception-movement abilities.

Single-Photon-Emission Computed Tomography

The image shows a blood flow decline in the Parietal lobe at the region where humans sense their time and space limits. It was concluded from these results that during prayer, contemplation and seeking God, the limits of self-consciousness disappear and a feeling of peace and freedom starts in the person and one feels closer to God in a way that no words can describe.

Many believers are offended by the notion that God is a creation of the

human brain, rather than the other way around. It reinforces atheistic

assumptions and makes religion appear useless.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Newberg (University of Pennsylvania) found decreased activity in the parietal lobe, one of the parts of the brain that helps orient a person in three-dimensional space.  "When people have spiritual experiences they feel they become one with the universe and lose their sense of self," he said. "We think that may be because of what is happening in that area -- if you block that area you lose that boundary between the self and the rest of the world. In doing so you ultimately wind up in a universal state."

Could the flash of wisdom that came over Siddhartha Gautama -- the Buddha -- have been nothing

more than his parietal lobe quieting down?

Could the voices that Moses and Mohammed

heard on remote mountaintops have been just a bunch of firing neurons -- an illusion?

Could Jesus' conversations with God have been a mental delusion?

Some weep, some feel God has touched them, others become frightened and talk of demons and evil spirits. "That's in the laboratory," Persinger said. "They know they are in the

laboratory. Can you imagine what would happen if that happened late at night in a pew or

mosque or synagogue?"

His research, Persinger said, showed that "religion is a property of the brain and has

little to do with what's out there."

Dr. Persinger (a professor of neuroscience at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario ) fit

a set of magnets to a helmet-like device. Persinger runs what amounts to a weak

electromagnetic signal around the skulls of volunteers.

Four in five people, he said, report a "mystical experience, the feeling that there is a sentient being or entity standing behind or near" them.

"It's irrational and dangerous when you see how religiosity affects us," said Matthew Alper, author of "The God Part of the Brain," a book about the neuroscience of belief. "During times

of prosperity, we are contented. During times of depression, we go to war. When there isn't enough food to go around, we break into our spiritual tribes and use our gods as justification

to kill one another."

Those who believe the new science of neuro-theology disproves the existence of God say they are holding up a mirror to society about the destructive power of religion.

They say that religious wars, fanaticism and intolerance spring

from dogmatic beliefs that particular gods and faiths are unique, rather than facets of

universal brain chemistry.

Belief and faith, believers argue, are larger than the sum of their brain parts: "The brain is the hardware

through which religion is experienced," said Daniel Batson, a University of Kansas psychologist who studies the

effect of religion on people.

"To say the brain produces religion is like saying a piano produces music."

At the Fuller Theological Seminary's school of psychology, Warren Brown, a cognitive neuropsychologist, said, "Sitting where I'm sitting and dealing with experts in theology and Christian religious practice, I just look at what these people (neuroscientists) know about religiousness

and think they are not very sophisticated.

They are sophisticated neuroscientists, but they are not scholars in the area of what is involved in various forms of religiousness."

Religious Models of the Brain• The soul• Dualism– Important to classical Christian doctrine– At odds with a scientific approach to the

brain• Revelation• Spiritual experiences

The Soul• Where is the soul - what bodily or brain

structures form the soul?• Brain science seeks to directly examine

the neurological basis of all aspects of experience

• If a stroke damaged the part(s) of the brain where the soul resides, what would that look like?

• If the soul cannot be injured, then what is it?

Dualism• Classical Christian dualism--there is an immortal soul• Adventists traditionally reject the doctrine of the immortal

soul, and claim adherence to “holism”• Holism in the sense of an absence of an immaterial soul has

some obstacles:– If there is no immortal soul, how do you explain the

resurrection?– If there is no immortal soul, how do you explain the

incarnation?• In response, Adventists typically end up in a position of

resisting an immortal soul while maintaining a strong dualism.• How does the immaterial soul interact with the material

body?

Divine-Human Interaction

• Revelation--God communicates to human beings through our brains– Which parts of the brain are responsible?

• Brain science can elucidate conditions which externally appear similar to inspiration

• Drugs, meditation, ritual are effective in facilitating spiritual experience. Do they summon God?

If God existed and created the universe, wouldn't it make sense that he would install machinery in our brains that would make it

possible to have mystical experiences?

But it is likely that neuro-theology will never resolve the greatest question of all--namely, whether our brain wiring creates God, or whether God created

our brain wiring. Which you believe is, in the end, a matter of faith.

Further Reading

LamininEvery living

creature has laminin inside of

them...the purpose of laminin is that it basically keeps our bodies from falling apart. It holds us

as one united whole.

God holds us together with laminin and

saved us with the cross.

Laminin, a protein in our body that literally holds our skin, organs, and everything else in our body in place. It is literally the glue of our body. Guess what shape laminin is in?

The shape of a cross.

Colossians 1:17 - “He (Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” 

‘And he (Christ) is before all things and in him all things HOLD

TOGETHER.’ I have even acknowledged the term ‘HOLD

TOGETHER’ indicates that Christ is the glue of the universe. I have

always believed it to be true because God’s word says it but now, hidden deep within the

molecular structure of the human body there is a signature of the

truth displayed.

Colossians 1:17 - “He (Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” 

Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. What a blessed assurance and reassurance for our oft-tormented

souls to know that there is One who is able to hold us together no matter

what circumstances in life are imposed upon our fragile existence.

Laninin

At the center of virtually every galaxy is a brilliant spheroid of light, made up of

hundreds of thousands of stars.

At the galaxy’s core, they are so closely spaced that they produce a uniform,

powerful light that has the appearance of being solid.

But like the cross of Christianity, it shines forth for those who will see it — who will still be brought to the point of decision about their eternal destiny. It shines dimly, sending forth a final message of hope — and warning.

A curious cross has now been dimly perceived in the

heavens. What it is, no one really knows.

The cross is a sign that beams a message of truth into the soul of humanity almost devoid of that commodity. The meaning is as clear as it is convicting. If one has not

had an encounter with the cross, one has never dealt with the Truth.

Many refuse to accept that truth, but we are told that one day a "sign" will appear over the earth, signaling that the Lord is coming to make manifest the work that was completed at the cross.

Matthew 24, verses 29 and 30 mention the return of the Lord, preceded by the greatest sign in

the history of the planet.

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be

darkened, and the moon shall not give her light ... then shall appear

the sign of the Son of man in heaven ... they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great

glory."