Monday, January 29, 2007
religion
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| .News about the future of Consciousness | ||
 |  Religion is intimately interwoven with human biologyThere is reason to believe that, to some degree, spirituality is hard-wired into the human nervous system. Recent experiments using thermal imaging indicate that brain activity during a "transcendent" experience is highest in the limbic system, that part of the brain which is associated with emotions and motivation, and in the connecting hypothalamus, amygdala and the hippocampus. Neurobiologists Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili have conducted research in the field of "neurotheology" using brain imaging technology ( Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, or SPECT for short ). They suggest that "religion is intimately interwoven with human biology." Their studies of praying Franciscan nuns and meditating Buddhist monks reveal that certain religious experiences, like meditation and prayer, are linked to increased activity and changes in the structure of the brain and nervous system. | |
 | The Mystery of Consciousness by Steven Pinker in Time Magazine [...] As every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to deny that other people have feelings is not just an academic exercise but an all-too-common vice, as we see in the long history of human cruelty. Yet once we realize that our own consciousness is a product of our brains and that other people have brains like ours, a denial of other people's sentience becomes ludicrous. "Hath not a Jew eyes?" asked Shylock. Today the question is more pointed: Hath not a Jew--or an Arab, or an African, or a baby, or a dog--a cerebral cortex and a thalamus? The undeniable fact that we are all made of the same neural flesh makes it impossible to deny our common capacity to suffer. [...] | |
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# posted by roodbont @ 8:35 AM 
