Procrustes Stretched
"intuition and imagination and intelligence"
Scientific Study of Religion: "Can the same basic circuitry produce Mother Teresa and the Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta?" --- "If so, how? To approach even speculative answers to such questions, the researchers have to capture what goes on in the brain of a believer during a religious moment.'
... Who would protest this and why? Would it be only the haters -- the haters who truly believe they are different than their perceived enemies? Will it include others with agendas both hidden and unhidden?
... Who would protest this and why? Would it be only the haters -- the haters who truly believe they are different than their perceived enemies? Will it include others with agendas both hidden and unhidden?
"I think some people worry that we're biologizing the religious response … that that will demystify it or make it somehow less important," said Anderson, who was raised Mormon but left the church a decade ago.
There are plenty who would relish any data that support the idea that God is all in the mind. But Korenberg and Anderson aren't looking for how people come to believe in a supernatural being. They want to know what happens once they do believe.
...
Until now, Korenberg and Anderson have done what medical researchers do — studied abnormalities. She has spent 15 years investigating the neurochemical and genetic roots of Williams syndrome, an obscure brain abnormality somewhat like the inverse of autism; it causes people to become hypersocial but befuddled by simple objects. They have extreme emotional reactions to music, akin to religious ecstasy.
There are plenty who would relish any data that support the idea that God is all in the mind. But Korenberg and Anderson aren't looking for how people come to believe in a supernatural being. They want to know what happens once they do believe.
...
Until now, Korenberg and Anderson have done what medical researchers do — studied abnormalities. She has spent 15 years investigating the neurochemical and genetic roots of Williams syndrome, an obscure brain abnormality somewhat like the inverse of autism; it causes people to become hypersocial but befuddled by simple objects. They have extreme emotional reactions to music, akin to religious ecstasy.