Once we had evolved the necessary brain architecture, we could “do” religion, brain scans indicate. The research shows that, to interpret a god’s intentions and feelings, we rely mainly on the same recently evolved brain regions that divine the feelings and intentions of other people. “We’re interested to find where in the brain belief systems […]
Brain researchers trying to understand the neural basis of religious belief have concluded that the brain has no special region or network for this task. Rather, it depends on general networks that exist for other purposes. A team led by Dr. Jordan Grafman of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke questioned volunteers about […]
Brain scans of participants thinking about God show activation in the same part of the brain where people empathize with others. One such brain region, called the precuneus (the upper green dot), is also associated with imagination, balancing complex tasks and self-consciousness. The human brain, it appears, responds to God as if he were just […]