Believers are certainly going to take issue with [the idea that God is an illusion]. And so do many scientists. I put the question to New York University’s [Orrin] Devinsky. Does the fact that we can track spiritual feelings in our temporal lobe mean that there’s nothing spiritual going on?
“No,” he says simply.
Think about a man and woman who are in love, Devinsky says. They look at each other, and in all likelihood, something fires in their temporal lobes.
“However, does that negate the presence of true love between them?” he asks. “Of course not. When you get to spirituality, as a scientist I think it really becomes extremely difficult to say anything other than, ‘It’s possible.’
It is long past time for people who know their faith to make no apologies to science and, instead, challenge scientists to explain their narrow epistemology.
See Harry Potter at Kings Cross station. Really. Book 7.
I am doing research on brain plasticity (using rhesus monkeys) at the department of neurology at a school of medicine in the South. From my discussions with the scientists here, it is clear that we know almost nothing about the “higher functions” of the brain: thought and decision. I have listened in on nerve action potentials firing in the brain of a monkey as related areas of his hand are stroked. We can get get a monkey to perform and action, to listen to a sound or press a button, and map the related brain area based on neurochemical activity. All we are doing at this stage is following wires. We have almost no concrete knowledge of how even simple computational operations (e.g., AND and OR) are performed. So the media speculation on finding “God” in the brain, or mapping spirituality is laughable. When we figure out how we do 1+1, then we can move on to describing Moses, Mohammed and miracles.
Why is it so surprising to have spiritual things reflected in the body? We happen to be incarnate. Like Jesus. Real body, real person. The researchers sound a little gnostic. I bet this would really shock a neurobiologist, but when we take communion (Speaking as an Orthodox, I assume Catholics believe the same) we are doing just about the most cosmic, overwhelmingly awful spiritual thing imaginable and not imaginable, receiving God….With our *mouths*. Then the *rest* of our bodies. All of it. Brain, too. Kind of makes the whole issue a little “Academic”.