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Neurotheologists Claim Religion is all in the Mind
Source: The Times via Cosmiverse website ^ | November 27, 2001 | Source: The Times

Posted on 11/27/2001 9:32:17 PM PST by prisoner6

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The author of this particular article really got it wrong. The researchers DID NOT ALL say unequivially that religion is all in the mind. From my read it was Pascal Boyer stating "instead of God creating our brains, our brains created God". and religious thinking is a cerebral virus that infected our minds as soon as we were evolved enough as a species to be able to embrace it.

The article itself then goes on to state that Boyer is not alone BUT..."Newberg (poster comment - other researchers) asserts that these findings do not necessarily mean that religion is no more than an artifact of our brains. He says that it is possible that we create religious experiences in our heads, but equally possible that we are detecting a spiritual reality that actually exists".

This artcle is just another vapid attack on religion, and the writer of the article twisted the headline to his own ends. Actually the writer is probably just out of school, green as heck and trying - and failing - to be clever in concocting a hook.

Be that as it may what I find really interesting is the reference to the "Thomas Pulse".

"He has found a way of inducing religious experiences, or a "sensed presence", simply by bathing the skulls of volunteers in a mild but precisely controlled electromagnetic field called the "Thomas pulse", named after the researcher who developed it.

Four out of five of those who don the magnet-laden helmet in Persinger's human consciousness laboratory report some kind of mystical experience while wearing it".

Does anyone else remember the mid '60's song "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan?

Maybe "Electric Banana" is finally here.

Plus, is the term "neurotheologist" a replacement for "mind burned out on drugs and I'm-feeling-guilty-about-all-the-free-love-and-sex-and-no-morals dippie hippie"? If so how does one actually obtain employment in that field?

prisoner6

1 posted on 11/27/2001 9:32:17 PM PST by prisoner6 (b_carnes@hotmail.com)
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To: prisoner6; GovernmentShrinker
Bump for morning
2 posted on 11/27/2001 9:37:16 PM PST by Free the USA
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To: prisoner6
Is (fanatical) worshipping of nature all in the brain to?
3 posted on 11/27/2001 9:38:20 PM PST by operation clinton cleanup
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To: prisoner6
After three days, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He sits at the right hand of God.

This happened in history, not in the mind.

4 posted on 11/27/2001 9:40:44 PM PST by Kevin Curry
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To: Heuristic Hiker
Interesting article on religion...
5 posted on 11/27/2001 9:43:02 PM PST by Utah Girl
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To: Kevin Curry
Neurotheologists Claim Religion is all in the Mind

They are right about Islam, because the 72 virgins can only live in one's head.

6 posted on 11/27/2001 9:43:09 PM PST by KQQL
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: KQQL
They are right about Islam, because the 72 virgins can only live in one's head.

LoL! Did you here the latest about the matyrs and virgins? Word is there are so many Muslims dying in the Jihad that there aren't enough virgins to go around! So instead of getting 72 virgins, a martyr is limited to ONLY ONE 72 YEAR OLD VIRGIN!

prisoner6

8 posted on 11/27/2001 9:47:18 PM PST by prisoner6
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To: prisoner6
Spot on.
9 posted on 11/27/2001 9:47:33 PM PST by alaskanfan
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To: prisoner6
Somewhere, sometime, I read another article about this study. The headline read something about the brain being "hardwired to believe in God." It was a totally different slant. You could construe that God wired a direct link, so to speak.
10 posted on 11/27/2001 9:51:26 PM PST by Samwise
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To: prisoner6
"instead of God creating our brains, our brains created God"

The jealous and the morally-blind would like to think that a moral life coupled with the reception of real grace, which results in supreme happiness, is all just a mental construct easily replicated with a magnetic helmet. I'll hold my formless, shoreless Ocean of blissful, conscious, loving Light against their magnets any day.

One day a frog from the ocean fell into a deep well. Inside the well was a well frog, who asked the newcomer where he came from. "I came from the ocean," said the ocean frog. "And how big is this ocean of yours?" Stepping from side to side, the well frog asked, "Is the ocean this big?" "No," said the frog from the sea, "The ocean is much bigger than that." So then the frog from the well leaped from one side of the well to the other, and asked, "Is the ocean as big as this?!" "Oh, no," said the frog from the sea, "The ocean is much bigger than this well." At that the frog of the well declared, "That's impossible! There is nothing bigger than this well!"

11 posted on 11/27/2001 9:57:24 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: prisoner6
The first opinion is more personal opinion than science. I realize I'm biased on this debate, but looking at it objectively this article has few hard facts.
12 posted on 11/27/2001 10:01:26 PM PST by Dat
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To: Samwise
Remember Carl Sagan's book "The Dragons of Eden"? If I recall he was one of the first people - I won't say scientist - to propose a brain hardwired for religion.

At one time I was quite enthralled with CS, and paid good money to attend one of his lectures at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. I even dressed in beige slacks and a brown cordoroy jacket with leather elbow patches.

Boy, was THAT 35 bucks down the terlit, Not to mention the cost of the clothes! Although when I walked around smoking my pipe I have to admit the outfit WAS quite a babe magnet. Of course that's before it was "out" to smoke a pipe.

Oh and I had LOTS more hair.

priosner6

13 posted on 11/27/2001 10:01:35 PM PST by prisoner6
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To: prisoner6
The title is inconsistent with the body of the article, which is fair and balanced. The findings square well, with my own (present) theology, which is that God MADE us this way, on purpose.

The science is merely discovering the architecture, but reveals little of the Architect, God Himself. Carl Yung, the noted Swiss Physician and Psychologist, opined that there was within all humans, a collective subconscious. He was onto the same thing.

Most organised religions tap into this architecture, for good purpose, much of the time. Religous belief systems, evolved into civil laws, structure many aspects of man's lives. True in primitive and advanced societies, for good and for evil.

14 posted on 11/27/2001 10:02:43 PM PST by truth_seeker
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To: prisoner6
My own religious opinions are, I think, as reasonable as the world views of these scientists, whose views are not much different from that of Lenin, who believed that thought as a secretion of the brain. Why don'gt they admit they are trying to showhorn the evidence into a preconceived world view that apounts to another religion?
15 posted on 11/27/2001 10:03:48 PM PST by RobbyS
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To: prisoner6
Yep, that's my reading of the "author," too. Another journalist hatches, from his self-made egg.
16 posted on 11/27/2001 10:04:18 PM PST by PoorMuttly
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To: prisoner6
Hmnmmm? This may have a point! "As a man thinks, so is he". The Bible.
17 posted on 11/27/2001 10:08:08 PM PST by Sueann
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: Kevin Curry; 4TheFlag
Don't suppose they'll tell us that the 12 Disciples, and the Holy Bible are a  figment of our imagination, too.......do ya???

You KNOW.....the MIRACLE of CHRIST'S ASCENSION is just buggin' them to .death! … … … .pun intended

Sad thing is …………… Christ DIED on the CROSS for THEM, too!

They'll NEVER GET IT.... so sad.......just so sad....

That's OK, though....more room in Heaven for the rest of US!!!

You KNOW..... Heaven will be FILLED with FREEPERS!!!! … … WAY TOOOOOO KEEEWWL!!!!

19 posted on 11/27/2001 10:13:39 PM PST by Pray4USA
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To: Pray4USA
You KNOW..... Heaven will be FILLED with FREEPERS!!!! … … WAY TOOOOOO KEEEWWL!!!!

And there'll be plenty of Kool-Aid for throats dry from singing the Hallelujah Chorus for millenia! The cup runneth over!!
20 posted on 11/27/2001 10:17:37 PM PST by Belial
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