Jerry Falwell dead

I am constantly amazed at the hate leftists have for those who do not share their views.

I'm not a hyprocrite. I'm just the one with the more evidence-based, which usually means correct, point of view. Arrogant? Perhaps.

I used to be one of the religious right. My tone/personality was the same then. But then I woke up and used the other side of my brain.

And I have absolutely no delusions that I'm not offending others. ...

... And my issue with the other side is not that they offend me, but that their rationale behind their actions cannot be backed up by anything that would survive the litmus test of reason. And that we can't accept that crap as a society.

Ticomaya wrote:

I am constantly amazed at the hate leftists have for those who do not share their views.

The hate you've seen here at Falwell - ie, the wish to see him dead - is no greater than the hate Falwell had for godless gays etc - whom he wished to see suffering in hell eternally.

Considering the equibalance between those who crowd here to rejoice over Falwell's death and the conservative masses who crowded to Fallwell to cheer him on when he doomed opponents to hell, it's odd you should specify leftists as being the haters.

It ain't my proposition.

'God spot' is found in brain

by Steve Connor

Science Correspondent

LA Times, Wednesday 29 October 1997

SCIENTISTS believe they have discovered a "God module" in the brain which could be responsible for man's evolutionary instinct to believe in religion.

A study of epileptics who are known to have profoundly spiritual experiences has located a circuit of nerves in the front of the brain which appears to become electrically active when they think about God.

The scientists said that although the research and its conclusions are preliminary, initial results suggest that the phenomenon of religious belief is "hard-wired" into the brain.

Epileptic patients who suffer from seizures of the brain's frontal lobe said they frequently experience intense mystical episodes and often become obsessed with religious spirituality.

A team of neuroscientists from the University of California at San Diego said the most intriguing explanation is that the seizure causes an overstimulation of the nerves in a part of the brain dubbed the "God module".

"There may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with religion. This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society," the team reported at a conference last week.

The results indicate that whether a person believes in a religion or even in God may depend on how enhanced is this part of the brain's electrical circuitry, the scientists said.

Dr Vilayanur Ramachandran, head of the research team, said the study involved comparing epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they were intensely religious.

Electrical monitors on their skin ­ a standard test for activity in the brain's temporal lobes ­ showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a similar response when shown words invoking spiritual belief.

Evolutionary scientists have suggested that belief in God, which is a common trait found in human societies around the world and throughout history, may be built into the brain's complex electrical circuitry as a Darwinian adaptation to encourage co-operation between individuals.

If the research is correct and a "God module" exists, then it might suggest that individuals who are atheists could have a differently configured neural circuit.

A spokesman for Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, said whether there is a "God module" is a question for scientists, not theologians. "It would not be surprising if God had created us with a physical facility for belief," he said.

Brain region may be linked to religion

Copyright © 1997 The Seattle Times Company

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 1997

by Robert Lee Hotz

Los Angeles Times

NEW ORLEANS - No one knows why humanity felt its first religious stirrings, but researchers at University of California at San Diego reported yesterday that the human brain may be hard-wired to hear the voice of heaven, in what researchers said was the first effort to address the neural basis of religious expression.

In an experiment with patients suffering from an unusual form of epilepsy, researchers at the UC San Diego brain and perception laboratory found that the parts of the brain's temporal lobe - which the scientists quickly dubbed the "God module" - may affect how intensely a person responds to religious beliefs.

People suffering this type of seizure have long reported intense mystical and religious experiences as part of their attacks but also are unusually preoccupied with mystical thoughts between seizures. That led this team to use these patients as a way of investigating the relationship between the physical structure of the brain and spiritual experiences.

In a carefully designed experiment, the researchers found that one effect of the patients' seizures was to strengthen their brain's involuntary response to religious words, leading the scientists to suggest a portion of the brain was naturally attuned to ideas about a supreme being.

"It is not clear why such dedicated neural machinery . . . for religion may have evolved," the team reported yesterday at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. One possibility, the scientists said, was to encourage tribe loyalty or reinforce kinship ties or the stability of a closely knit clan.

The scientists emphasized that their findings in no way suggest that religion is simply a matter of brain chemistry. "These studies do not in any way negate the validity of religious experience or God," the team said. "They merely provide an explanation in terms of brain regions that may be involved."

Until recently, most neuroscientists confined their inquiries to research aimed at alleviating the medical problems that affect the brain's health, and to attempts to fathom its fundamental neural mechanisms. Emboldened by their growing understanding of how the brain works, however, scientists are now investigating the relationship between the brain, human consciousness and a range of intangible mental experiences.

Craig Kinsely, an expert in psychology and neuroscience at the University of Richmond in Virginia, called the new study "intriguing."

"People have been tickling around the edges of consciousness, and this sort of research plunges in," Kinsely said. "There is the quandary of whether the mind created God or God created the mind. This is going to shake people up, but (any conclusion) is very premature."

Vilayanur Ramachandran, the senior scientist involved in the experiment and the director of the center for brain and cognition at UC San Diego, said, "We are skating on thin ice. We are only starting to look at this.

"The exciting thing is that you can even begin to contemplate scientific experiments on the neural basis of religion and God."

The God Spot

by D. Trull
Enigma Editor
[email protected]

Scientists, philosophers and atheists have long argued that God and spirituality are constructs of the human mind, although that opinion generally hasn't been a popular one. After centuries of bloody holy wars and fierce theological dispute, the controversy of the Creator's existence has taken a strange new turn: humanity may finally have uncovered tangible evidence that the phenomenon of religious faith is all in our heads.

Literally.

A group of neuroscientists at the University of California at San Diego has identified a region of the human brain that appears to be linked to thoughts of spiritual matters and prayer. Their findings tentatively suggest that we as a species are genetically programmed to believe in God.

The researchers came upon these cerebral revelations in the course of studying the brain patterns of certain people with epilepsy. Epileptics who suffer a particular type of seizure are often intensely religious, and are known to report an unusual number of spiritually-oriented visions and obsessions. Measurements of electrical activity in the brains of test subjects indicated a specific neural center in the temporal lobe that flared up at times when the subjects thought about God. This same area was also a common focal point overloaded with electrical discharges during their epileptic seizures.

Could this heretofore unidentified part of the brain -- nicknamed the "God module" -- actually be some sort of physiological seat of religious belief? The scientists who discovered it believe it might be. They have performed a further study comparing epileptic subjects with different groups of non-epileptics -- a random group of average people, as well as individuals who characterized themselves as extremely religious. The electrical brain activity of the subjects was recorded while they were shown a series of words, and the God module zones of the epileptics and the religious group exhibited similar responses to words involving God and faith. No word yet on whether the brains of atheists and agnostics might flatline the monitors, but the parallel results among the strong believers are considered impressive.

"There may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with religion," the research team announced at a conference for the Society for Neuroscience. "This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society."

Anthropologists and Darwinian theorists have frequently speculated that religion may have developed as a self-policing mechanism as cooperation with others became useful. With their intelligence and skills at making weapons, there was little to stop early humans from slaughtering each other like wild maniacs, until they began to fear unseen beings even bigger and badder than themselves. This sort of adaptation has always been considered a purely psychological function, but now we have the first evidence that the religious instinct may be physically hard-wired right into our noggins.

Which brings us to the most intriguing conundrum posed by the discovery of the God Spot. It's a double-edged sword shoved right through the heart of the science vs. religion debate, bearing either good news or bad news for the faithful masses depending on how you answer the chicken-or-the-egg question: does it mean that God created our brains, or that our brains created God?

"These studies do not in any way negate the validity of religious experience or God," the God module's discoverers took care to note, plainly anticipating a reception of fire and brimstone from certain quarters. "They merely provide an explanation in terms of brain regions that may be involved."

No matter how inconclusive or sketchy they label their findings as being, these scientists will inevitably be denounced as heathenistic blasphemers doing the work of Satan. Yet at the very same time, other equally devout worshipers will praise this discovery as a beautiful and wondrous epiphany that spells out God's great plan.

So what'll it be? A sacred temple in the temporal lobes, or an incidental conflagration of the synapses? The Kingdom of Heaven confined to the insides of our skulls, or "I think of God, therefore He is"? Touched in the head by an angel, or brainwashed into belief by biology?

Believe what you want, but either way, I think those who draw any serious mechanistic or teleological conclusions from this research ought to have their heads examined, as well.



Sources: The Times (London); The Los Angeles Times

Maybe God created man with the propensity for belief. What say you?

While you're at it, why don't you post a study that shows God doesn't exist? That'll prove it once and for all.

Ticomaya wrote:

Maybe God created man with the propensity for belief. What say you?

While you're at it, why don't you post a study that shows God doesn't exist? That'll prove it once and for all.

Again with the prove the negative crowd.

nimh wrote:

Ticomaya wrote:

I am constantly amazed at the hate leftists have for those who do not share their views.

The hate you've seen here at Falwell - ie, the wish to see him dead - is no greater than the hate Falwell had for godless gays etc - whom he wished to see suffering in hell eternally.

Considering the equibalance between those who crowd here to rejoice over Falwell's death and the conservative masses who crowded to Fallwell to cheer him on when he doomed opponents to hell, it's odd you should specify leftists as being the haters.

How so? I'm convinced Christians have the capacity to hate, and I've not condoned Falwell or his actions or positions with regard to condemning anyone to hell.

Are you saying the study doesn't exist?

Ticomaya wrote:

nimh wrote:

Ticomaya wrote:

I am constantly amazed at the hate leftists have for those who do not share their views.

The hate you've seen here at Falwell - ie, the wish to see him dead - is no greater than the hate Falwell had for godless gays etc - whom he wished to see suffering in hell eternally.

Considering the equibalance between those who crowd here to rejoice over Falwell's death and the conservative masses who crowded to Fallwell to cheer him on when he doomed opponents to hell, it's odd you should specify leftists as being the haters.

How so? I'm convinced Christians have the capacity to hate, and I've not condoned Falwell or his actions or positions with regard to condemning anyone to hell.

"How so"? I pointed out something simple enough.

Here's a thread about Jerry Falwell and his death. It's seen posts specifying the hateful things Falwell wished upon his opponents, and it's seen posts specifying the hate Falwell's opponents have for him.

Your conclusion: "I am constantly amazed at the hate leftists have for those who do not share their views" (my emphasis). Odd, no? Strangely selective perception?

Of course, if I were feeling flippant, I could come up with an unexpectedly charitative interpretation of how you singled out the leftists as those whose hating doesnt cease to amaze you.. Hey, perhaps you meant that, you know, Falwell's followers' hating doesnt surprise you in the least, but you'd expected better of leftists!

I somehow doubt it though..

Ticomaya wrote:

Are you saying the study doesn't exist?

No, there are no studies that prove God does not exist.

There are also no studies that prove ghosts don't exist.

So your point is?

Wilso wrote:

Ticomaya wrote:

Maybe God created man with the propensity for belief. What say you?

While you're at it, why don't you post a study that shows God doesn't exist? That'll prove it once and for all.

Again with the prove the negative crowd.

Are you saying the study doesn't exist?

Maybe God created man with the propensity for belief. What say you?

While you're at it, why don't you post a study that shows God doesn't exist? That'll prove it once and for all.

Ticomaya wrote:

Maybe God created man with the propensity for belief. What say you?

While you're at it, why don't you post a study that shows God doesn't exist? That'll prove it once and for all.

I will be delighted to post such a study as soon as you post a study proving that God exists.....

and really, who gives a **** one way or another? We'll find out eventually...