Five researchers take science where it's never gone before.
I saw this article while browsing through the Discover website, and read it.
A few passages caught my eye, e.g.:
"Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, has focused on the tendency of people from different religious traditions to report similar mystical experiences, which typically involve sensations of self-transcendence and "oneness." These commonalities indicate that the visions stem from the same neural processes, Newberg hypothesizes. To test his theory, Newberg has scanned the brains of more than 20 adherents of spiritual practices, including Christian prayer and Tibetan Buddhist meditation. He uses a technique called single-photon-emission-computed tomography, or SPECT, a variant of the better-known positron-emission tomography, PET.
The chief advantage of SPECT is that it can capture the brains of meditators in a relatively natural setting. The subject meditates not in the SPECT chamber itself but in a separate room. When a subject—a Franciscan nun, in one case—feels her ordinary self "dissolving into Christ consciousness," as she describes it, a radioactive fluid is injected into her body through an intravenous tube; the fluid travels to her brain and becomes trapped in nerve cells there. The nun then goes to the SPECT chamber, where a computer-controlled camera scans her brain. The resulting image reveals levels of neural activity in the moment immediately after she received the radioactive fluid, when she presumably was still immersed in contemplation."
So the key question that popped into my mind after reading this was: are all those experiences that I've been having while praying and worshipping God, simply neurochemical reactions, etc?
And so, it could be argued, back and forth, ad-nauseam, "these physiological effects obviously prove that it was GOD who made us!" "No, it doesn't! Your so-called experiences with God are simply chemical by-products!" "Yes!" "No!" "Take this!" "Oww! Take that!" etc. Wow. "Peace and love to all... now die, you scum!" :P (tongue-in-cheek here)
But more seriously, it made me look for an answer, because if the evidence so far is inconclusive that there's really a God, then wouldn't it be better to err on the side of agnosticism? To say, well, there may be a God, but I'm not sure and I don't want to risk believing in the wrong kind of God etc.
So asked God about this, 'cos was feeling pretty unsure how to answer that question. (Haha... I can imagine it now: "God, I believe You exist, but eh, I'm just wondering... do You really exist?")
Thank God really... He didn't leave me without an answer. (whew) This Bible passage immediately came to mind:
Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Wow... thank God for that passage. 'Cos I think you can't get as empirical as actually seeing the execution wounds with your own eyes, touching the nail wounds, and fingering with my own fingers the spear wound in an obviously ex-dead person's side...
So I think, religious experiences do come and go, and frankly, you can't base your faith on warm fuzzy feelings only. It's super-unsafe. Else you might as well go pop some "hallelujah" pills. You need to ground your faith in something that you can be sure is true.
Thus, it's really reassuring to know that, when I am tempted to doubt God's existence from time to time, and the latest scientific findings cast more agnostic aspersions on His existence... I remember that on the first Easter, Jesus Himself allowed one man to see and feel the very truth for himself with his own eyes and hands. And after that, scolded Thomas that blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Still, thank God that Thomas said that famous statement so many years ago... he spoke for all of us die-hard skeptics - and thank God that He answered to every skeptic - past, present and future - that day. :D
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