Is Religion Hard-Wired Into Our Brains?

June 19th, 2008

This is a pretty old article from CNN.com, but I saw it the other day and though it was a pretty good read. Maybe only theoretical at most, but it is being discussed as “science” so I figured I’d share it.

Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of “Why We Believe What We Believe,” wants to change how we perceive faith. He’s working on ways to track how the human brain processes religion and spirituality. He calls it neurotheology. No it isn’t a new sort of acne solutions, but a study in how we perceive religion and faith.

“Just like we’re not hardwired for boats, but humans in all cultures make boats in pretty much the same way, Atran explains. “Now, that’s a result both of the way the brain works and of the needs of the world, and of trying to traverse a liquid medium and so I think religion is very much like that.”