My Wife's Christian Co-worker

[Angrboda]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...=110997741

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"Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania and author of a book entitled, “How God Changes Your Brain” has been scanning the brains of religious people for more than ten years. Newberg One of Newberg’s test subjects was Michael Baime, a doctor at the University of Pennsylvania and a Tibetan Buddhist who has meditated at least an hour a day forthe past40 years. Baime told Newberg that during a peak meditative experience, “he feels oneness with the universe, and time slips away.†“It’s as if the present moment expands to fill all of eternity,” he explains, “that there has never been anything but this eternal now.”

While Newberg scanned Baime’s brain, the Buddhist meditated, and his brain mirrored those feelings.As was expected, his frontal lobes lit up on the screen because meditation is sheer concentration. But what Newberg found most interesting was that Baime’s parietal lobes went dark.

“This is an area that normally takes our sensory information, tries to create for us a sense of ourselves, and orient that self in the world,” he explains. “When people lose their sense of self, feel a sense of oneness, a blurring of the boundary between self and other, we have found decreases in activity in that area.”

Newberg achieved the same results with other monks he scanned. Itwas the same when he imaged the brains of Franciscan nuns praying andSikhs chanting. They all felt the same oneness with the universe. When it comes to the brain, Newberg says, spiritual experience is spiritual experience. “There is no Christian, there is noJewish,there is noMuslim, it’s just all one,” Newberg says.



Therefore ALL of them are correct in their god claim, or all of them are experiencing the same physiological process.

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The more I read, the more I am coming to conclude that meditation is primarily geared toward getting the brain to learn to focus in specific ways that are essentially unnatural. Surprisingly, my group therapy focuses on similar things, and mindfulness has taken center stage in many psychological therapies. Of what benefit training my mind to do these things will ultimately be, I don't know. But the research seems to indicate that, while it may not be anything metaphysical, something unusual is going on in the brain of the experienced meditator. I myself have experienced the sense of timelessness, though not the sense of oneness. I suspect I would interpret the same sensations differently given my skeptical outlook.

[Mystical]

I've used meditation as a way to in essence escape the pain in my body. I really think that it's a natural evolutionary tool for survival that can be harnessed for many uses. I too have never experienced a oneness with anything besides myself; but timelessness and feeling the past and present coalesce I have felt. I understand why someone would feel that's 'bigger than ourselves'. Its powerful to think about, really. All matter that we react with and are formed from, have been in existence for a very very long time.

[Rampant.A.I.]

The only belief that actually posits nothing greater than the self exists is solipsism.

I would say the kind of Creationists who can only dream up a 6,000 year old earth, in comparison to the massive size and age we know the universe to be are the ones who do not believe in anything more powerful than themselves. They merely believe in a slightly more powerful anthropomorphized force that thinks the same way they do, and hashtag it omnipotent and omniscient to feel good about their own small minds and the prejudices they were raised with.

[StuW]

Nice use of the word "hashtag" to draw the youngsters in

[Mystical]

The only belief that actually posits nothing greater than the self exists is solipsism.

I would say the kind of Creationists who can only dream up a 6,000 year old earth, in comparison to the massive size and age we know the universe to be are the ones who do not believe in anything more powerful than themselves. They merely believe in a slightly more powerful anthropomorphized force that thinks the same way they do, and hashtag it omnipotent and omniscient to feel good about their own small minds and the prejudices they were raised with.

I think it's far more than just self assurance and prejudice, that god provides though. Actually I know a few people who hold no prejudices and don't take the Bible as the unerring word of god (or history or a science book) and thrive on their belief in a higher power force for good in the understanding of our primal need for equality. It's those people whom I consider at the very least benign and therefore equally deserving of my respect. Its those people who can move forward not backward, and have the same goals as I for one, have myself. A communal brotherhood of humanity is needed in a now globalized society, along with universal respect for the environment we live in. Love, patience, kindness--these are the best humanity has to offer and therefore I can see why Biblicans or Koranians or whathaveyou find peace and understanding in the Bible. There is good in there, truths about ourselves to be recognized --on the other hand it represents the other spectrum of our emotions, too. Fear, hate, descriminate; punish, avenge, revenge -- just to name a few. Theists don't have small minds for believing as they do, they have weakened minds for believing that pieces of paper can tell them what to do, and in kind feel they can tell others what to do. Shaggys wife's coworker is not wrong by fiat of religion, but rather has self inflicted upon themselves a theological handicap of free thought. I think she should give him/her one of these

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in her minds eye and pay no more attention. Progress and truth cannot be stopped by bigotry and ignorance.

[Michael Schubert]

So basically she just came home and told me this guy she works with was talking about Christianity. My wife told him that she doesn't believe in god. She doesn't believe, but she hasn't researched anything about it or whatever. She just thinks the idea of a god is stupid. So this guy told her that she's not a whole person because she doesn't believe in something higher than herself. He also told her that there is a part of the brain scientifically proven to be "set aside" for god. Not to mention that people who believe in god are happier than people who don't.

So am I missing something, or is that absolutely ridiculous? I don't recall any "scientific" study saying we have a part of the brain for god. Or that Christians are happier. But I'm the first to admit that I'm no where near as educated on any of this as most of the people here, which is why I'm bringing it to you guys and gals.

I listened to a similar story from a stupid bitch in one of my college classes. She said that we can't have an Atheist for president because our country was supposedly founded on a belief in god. She argued this because apparently the original European settlers came here for religious purposes. In other words, they came here to escape religious persecution in Europe. Like most Christians, this woman views atheists as amoral people who do not tolerate theists, so she would never vote for one. That, of course, makes no sense. She is also anti-American, for she requires a political candidate to pass a religious test in order to win her vote, and the U.S. Constitution forbids religious tests for government offices.

As for your original situation, I would advise your wife to just ignore this ignorant fool. He has, as psychologist Darrell Ray would say, caught the God Virus. There is no use in debating people like this. It's like reasoning with a wall.

[Clueless Morgan]

I don't recall any "scientific" study saying we have a part of the brain for god. Or that Christians are happier. But I'm the first to admit that I'm no where near as educated on any of this as most of the people here, which is why I'm bringing it to you guys and gals.

I have read studies that seem to imply that the human brain is hardwired to believe in the supernatural. Never heard of a part of the brain that only processes that sort of thing. The guy is talking out of his ass.

I haven't heard of a God Center in the brain personally but that's not surprising as I don't work in the field of neuroscience, nor indeed in any scientific field, and I don't study it.

I did recently read The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer which talks about the phenomenon of patternicity and agenticity which might have a lot to do with why humans interpret otherwise mindless natural phenomenon as being caused by a being and how we're really really good at picking up on patterns that may or may not have any actual meaning - but we see them because seeing them has saved our lives in the past so evolution has selected for it. Perhaps this is what he means by the brain being hardwired to believe in the supernatural?

That's my two cents, someone smarter needs to start talking now.

[Rampant.A.I.]

Like many other delusions, it's an exercise in assigning extra importance to the self.

The Paternicity phenomenon is interesting, and I suspect Religion is due in large part to Fundamental Attribution Error

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundament...tion_error

When you get past the claim of humility, it becomes evident that believers not only assign themselves greater value than non-believers -- they're going to heaven, you're not -- but also have an inflated sense of destiny and purpose. Not only are they important to their God, they're important agents in the conversion of lesser persons: Those who are "too stupid" to figure out the world was created by an anthropomorphic God, who behaves and thinks much like they do.

[Severan]

I am happier after finding the truth.

[Cinjin]

Ok so my wife just got off work and dropped this story on me. And seeing I already have something of a history of posting work conversations, this isn't a departure.

So basically she just came home and told me this guy she works with was talking about Christianity. My wife told him that she doesn't believe in god. She doesn't believe, but she hasn't researched anything about it or whatever. She just thinks the idea of a god is stupid. So this guy told her that she's not a whole person because she doesn't believe in something higher than herself. He also told her that there is a part of the brain scientifically proven to be "set aside" for god. Not to mention that people who believe in god are happier than people who don't.

So am I missing something, or is that absolutely ridiculous? I don't recall any "scientific" study saying we have a part of the brain for god. Or that Christians are happier. But I'm the first to admit that I'm no where near as educated on any of this as most of the people here, which is why I'm bringing it to you guys and gals.