Another quote from the science article I linked to in post #9:
Quote:
Mystical Misfirings
Scientists and scholars have long speculated that religious feeling can be tied to a specific place in the brain. In 1892 textbooks on mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and epilepsy. Nearly a century later, in 1975, neurologist Norman Geschwind of the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital first clinically described a form of epilepsy in which seizures originate as electrical misfirings within the temporal lobes, large sections of the brain that sit over the ears. Epileptics who have this form of the disorder often report intense religious experiences, leading Geschwind and others, such as neuropsychiatrist David Bear of Vanderbilt University, to speculate that localized electrical storms in the brain’s temporal lobe might sometimes underlie an obsession with religious or moral issues. ...
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Searching for God in the Brain: Scientific American
So if this scientific view is correct, that is that strong religious experience is an artifact of the brain's structure, then it must serve, or have served, some evolutionary purpose. Since science also informs us on the dubious nature of religious beliefs/practices-talking in tongues for example- then how should the scientist & freethinkers address the myriad religious claims that contradict the science, and more to the point how to fairly interact with those who have these overly religious behaving brains?
I don't know the answers, but I think these are the questions.
