Is your brain hardwired for religion?

[OldCityTans]

It started out as an ordinary day for Saul back in A.D. 36. He wanted to murder disciples of a man who claimed to be the Messiah, and he was on his way to Damascus to do so. Then, on the way to Damascus, a light flashed all around Saul. He fell to the ground and heard a voice that claimed to be Jesus Christ. The voice told him to continue to the town, a task likely made no easier by the blindness Saul experienced when he got up. Saul remained blind for three days, until a disciple named Ananias laid hands upon him. Saul's sight was restored, and he immediately became baptized. After his experience, Saul became a powerful preacher for Jesus; today, he's better known as St. Paul.

Paul's story is interesting not just to biblical scholars, but to neuro-
scientists as well. Some scientists claim that the account of this conversion, found in the book of Acts, contains enough evidence to diagnose Paul with temporal lobe epilepsy. The flash of light, the voices and the fall to the ground are the evidence of a seizure, according to these neuroscientists, with the blindness a result of the postictal state that follows a seizure [source: Brorson, Brewer]. While most doctors agree that it's impossible to diagnose epilepsy definitively in someone who lived so long ago, Paul would join some other religious figures reputed to have brain disorders, including Moses and St. Teresa of Avila

HowStuffWorks "Is the brain hardwired for religion?"

[OldCityTans]

Is This Your Brain On God?

More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve.


Part 1: The God Chemical
At Johns Hopkins University, research suggests that chemicals that act on the serotonin system trigger mystical experiences that are life-altering. Serotonin is a chemical messenger that helps regulate mood and sleep. Now those neurologists -- and others -- are replicating studies from the 1960s in which patients with end-stage cancer were given LSD to see if they were convinced that life exists beyond death. The research raises the question, is God a delusion created by brain chemistry, or is brain chemistry a necessary conduit for people to reach God?

click here for more... Is This Your Brain On God? : NPR

[BaltimoreBob]

Quote: More than half of adult Americans report they have
had a spiritual experience that changed their lives.

No I have never dropped ACID.

Baltimore Bob

[geoffrobinson]

I would argue that we are born latent theists. And that we subconsciously have knowledge of God, shown via our consciences and other beliefs.

We all have beliefs which are needed to make heads or tails of the world which themselves are only consistent with a theistic framework.

[OldCityTans]

I would argue that we are born latent theists. And that we subconsciously have knowledge of God, shown via our consciences and other beliefs.

We all have beliefs which are needed to make heads or tails of the world which themselves are only consistent with a theistic framework.

Would you mind listing some of these beliefs?

Would you also pls define subconscious & conscious?