I don't think it's surprising that what we believe affects our physical state. A person may react calmly to a sound in the dark if he believes that it is just the wind causing a branch to tap on the window, whereas he may react with concern if he thinks it is an intruder, and with terrified hysterics if he believes it is a demonic spirit that seeks to harm him. His belief may or may not be true, but that doesn't affect the reaction.
We can look at brain scans and relate them to moods or mental states, but we cannot say that it is indicative of any metaphysical phenomena. After all, if the idea is that it cannot be detected, then the brain scans cannot possibly be pointing to that conclusion, could they?
We can look at brain scans and relate them to moods or mental states, but we cannot say that it is indicative of any metaphysical phenomena. After all, if the idea is that it cannot be detected, then the brain scans cannot possibly be pointing to that conclusion, could they?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
