MIND-In 1836, Ellen White, founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist movement (a Christian denomination), suffered a brain injury at age 9 that changed her personality permanently, and she began to have powerful religious visions that shaped the foundations and beliefs of this new religion. Today, neuroscience is out to prove that God does indeed exist...between your ears, that is. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) sufferers experience vivid hallucinations that often resemble "God-like" encounters, and this has prompted scientists to experiment with this part of the cerebral cortex. One neuroscientist in particular named Michael Persinger has developed "the God Helmet." Within this helmet, magnetic fields stimulate the temporal lobe with 80% of its subjects reporting feelings ranging from "a presence in the room," to visual hallucinations and even disembodiment. This theory definitely begs some important questions. Is the "God experience" just a contrived, super-emotion of the mind? Could the "Holy Ghost chillbumps" just be a product of an induced euphoria created by our temporal lobe? There is definitely evidence that religious people live longer, healthier lives, but in terms of evolution, wouldn't this "faith trait" be advantageous to keep around? Simply a survival benefit to having religious belief would explain the Jews ability to withstand the many attempts at eradication throughout history. Could God simply be an evolution of the human brain to promote survival and ease our anxiety about death? Maybe it's simply a by-product of childhood tendencies to trust our parents?
Out of arrogance, we believe that we are the only species deserving of eternal life. So the next time you smash an ant on your front porch, think about how it was simply trying to survive, and your convenience took priority over LIFE.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/godonbrain.shtml
2 comments:
Evolutionists have long conjectured that God was only a figment of our evolutionary imagination, so this is nothing new. If you read the article in detail there is nothing but imaginative conjecture and storytelling involved. There is a significant number of better ways this data could be interpreted and it is clear what their biased intentions are. They admit, for example, that only “some of them” have a religious sensation. Gee, could that be because “some of us” are religious? It had no affect on the infamous Dawkins. Let’s face it; the brain is probably the most intricate and sophisticated machine ever designed by God and it’s the interface with our spirit. We don’t have a clue as to how it works and therefore speculation will abound. Unfortunately, evolutionary spins on medical research for the most part have been a hindrance to true scientific discovery. For example, research on most “vestigial” organs has now shown them to have vital functions. Thinking the curvature of our backs is an evolutionary throwback led to incorrect treatments which only worsened the situation of back patients. Once it was considered to be designed that way, proper treatments provided significant relief.
This experiment shows that the part of the brain that could possibly be responsible for delusions and hallucinations could be responsible for what people report to be "God experiences." Yes, this is not hard evidence. Just an idea. I think we've all got the point that you have all of the answers. I'm willing to accept that I could be wrong. Are you?
Post a Comment