Separating our personality & intellect from what we consider our "spirit" has always been a tricky thing to define from a theological point of view. Scientifically, it's easy. There is no "spirit." There is only body and it is either living or dead. With that as a lead-in, I just read an interesting article about the "God Spot" in our brain. You can read the article here: (
Scientists Locate "God Spot"). It's not very long.
The overall gist is that brain scans show our brain has higher thought patterns operating when when we are thinking about "religious statements." This suggests that there is no single "God Spot" in our brain - a sole location where religious thought occurs.
The researchers draw the conclusion that this "suggests that religion is not a special case of a belief system, but evolved along with other belief and social cognitive abilities." Not surprisingly, the research identified that other active parts of our brain when we think religious thoughts are the areas controlling metaphor and abstract thoughts.
A couple of unanswered research questions remain. The first is a sort of "chicken or egg" question. Were the religious thought functions central in early cultures or did they evolve with other social functions? The second is whether or not the brain reacts differently for other religious cultural thought. Apparently the study was done solely on Western Christian adherents.
So - there you have it. There is no single "God Spot" in the brain.
Here's my question to you: How closely tied is our brain to our spirit?
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Comments (17)
It depends on what kind'of person you are and what environment brings out in you. I believe in God whenever I'm scared or stressed. I just don't believe in a personal God. I've had "visions" but they were, I think, the result of stress and kept me from harming myself.
I wasn't empty like now.
i shud thynk science hazza long way to go trying to figur out wut the gowd spot akshuly evn meenz azza persun who iz theist by naytchur i feel tho i cannot proove that my brayn & spyrit ar klosley lynkd
Makes sense; worship as presented in the Scripture is holistic, involving all of one's actions and attitudes.
As far as what "evolved" first, how on earth should I know? I wasn't there.
I am still trying desperately to get my hands on a copy of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, which explores how the brain relates to music (which I take to have at least a partial connection to the spiritual world.) I may or may not have a better answer for the final question once I've studied that a bit.
Silly scientists.
Don't they have more pressing things to look for?
We have yet to find an engram
We have yet to find any "personality" spots
Heck, we don't even understand the pharmacodynamics of alcohol: the most used drug in the world.
Other problem with this concept:
They've found that stimulation to the (anterior? I could be wrong) temporal lobe produces sensations that someone is in the room, and has been activated on occasion during prayer. When thinking about heaven (which is in the future), various parts of the frontal lobe should light up (future planning). When thinking about your place in the church the (posterior? or medial?) Cingulate Cortex should light up (the quote unquote "me" center...this has the same problems as God center, but still). And when thinking about your Love for God the hypothalamus should light up (I still don't understand this one, but this is allegedly one of the love regions and the only one I remember offhand). The point is this: the brain is localized, yes, but not that hyperlocalized.
To answer the last question...I don't know, that's why I'm writing a paper about Dualist and Monist views of the mind. Should be a good time...but at this point all I know is both views have lots of problems and are easily refuted, impossible to defend well.
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - Certain types of music (I believe the study used new agey-stuff) actually elicited low levels of analgesia (pain relieve) no joke :P
Music does some wild things to the brain
i've always wondered how a brain scan looked while someone was praying. that, i think, would be interesting. i know at least for myself, when i'm praying my brain exists then between two planes of existence.
@sheepthatsblack@xanga - I have the book on this reserve at the library and am counting the days. I have coveted it ever since I heard the author on the radio telling about a man who was struck by lightning and escaped unharmed except for a previously non-present ability to play the piano at full professional concert level.
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - Wait, what? This guy got hit by lightening and became a concert pianist? That makes no sense, but I'm very intrigued....
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks you say? I'm going to have check that out.
@harmonyminusmelody@xanga - (Assuming duality of mind and body) your mind is in a different plane, your brain stays put. There's nothing that interesting about a brain scan of prayer...sorry...a lot of activation in language centers, normal higher processing centers, occasionally the ventral tagmental area (analgesia, probably most interesting finding) and temporal lobe, and also occasionally lowered activity in the amygdala (fear processing) but nothing too terribly wild, unfortunately.
I think they're probably tied together, but I doubt you'd ever find a "God spot". Just like scientists can't find a particular "memory spot"...
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - I heard about that from my TOK teacher. I was to read that book! It's amazing how one accident can change a person's life.
@pansybradshaw@xanga - I hope I don't offend you, but, dang, I can't understand a single word you just typed!
I liked this article, and I'm happy at the sort of sophistication that goes into posts.
I think there's a difference between spirit and brain. I think there's a difference between mind and brain. In philosophy it's called dualism.
Bluntly, I don't know. I'll tell you in 50 years when I've had more time to think it over.
@irreplaceablex@xanga - hahahahahahaha i bet you cud if yu tryd
Certain radical Quantum Mechanics advocates would say that, assuming our spirit is some sort of entity of pure thought and consciousness and not physically manifested in our world, our brains actually receive and react to extremely subtle signals transmitted through random fluctuations in microscopic scales.
No kidding. I find that to be a very interesting idea.
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I'm not scientist but I'll say this; if they have found anything, it is merely the parts of the brain that are normally able to perceive the things of the spirit; not God Himself.