Neuro-Theology: Your Brain on God

Dr. Michael EnglandSeptember 13, 2015

Neurotheology is a scientific field that

attempts to study the neurological activity of

the brain during spiritual experiences.

Neurotheology immediately runs into

controversy by presupposing that all spiritual experiences

are the result of neural impulses and

brain patterns.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."