The God Spot and Religion!

MookJong

MookJong

MookJong

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So it looks like scientists have found the God Spot, the part of the brain which reacts to religious themes and connotation.

A group of 40 volunteers, drawn from the main monotheistic religions, were asked to listen to a series of statements about God and asked to say whether they agreed or disagreed while having their brain scanned.

When statements about God being involved in the world were read, the lateral frontal lobe areas – one of the part of the brain which enables us to empathise with other people – were engaged.

But when it came to comments such as "God is wrathful", activity was centred on the medial temporal and frontal gyri.

And when more abstract or doctrinal questions were raised, it was the right inferior temporal gyrus – the circuitry which helps us understand metaphor – which was most engaged.
Click to expand...

Full Telegraph Article Here

The most interesting part for me is that the idea of God triggers the part of the brain that allows us to feel empathy. Off the cuff I can think of 3 scenarios why this may be true:

1 - This is simply learnt behaviour through religious practise. Over time the idea of god has been associated with positive, caring and compassionate memories in the volunteer and these are simply being triggered.

2 - This part of the brain has an evolutionary function which has helped us to survive under the harsh environment of nature. However that would mean the idea of god is actually and evoloutionary creation too.

3 - God intended us to have this part of the brain so that we can feel his presence....I know I know


For me the most interesting thing will be to do the same test on a group of Atheists and then a group of Agnostics to see if the brain area is not lit up at all in non believer and only lit up a little in the Agnostics.
 
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You see stuff like this all the time popping up in Newscientist and the like.
Identifying parts of the brain responsible for everything sounds like hocus pocus (oh the irony!) to me.
How can you possibly make a statement like 'the part of the brain that allows us to feel empathy'? By the fact that it's also lit up when these guys think about god, that means it's not the only thing that bit of the brain does, so why associate it with empathy when we know so little about it?

It smacks of people trying to draw conclusions with far too little information to me.
 
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