Psychologising and
Neurologising
about
Religion
Facts, Fallacies and the
Future
• "…men go out and gaze in astonishment at...
the stars in their courses. But they pay no
attention to themselves".
• I'm not now investigating the tracts of the
heavens or measuring the distance of the
stars... I am investigating myself, my memory,
my mind."
• "What then am I my God? What is my
nature?”
St. Augustine’s Confessions.
"What we are studying is not the
stars in the universe but the stars
within ourselves, our own nature"
Sir Martin Evans
2007 Nobel laureate
BBC Today Programme on
December 31, 2007
Robert Boyle
“Viewed his theological interests and his
work in natural philosophy as forming a
seamless whole and constantly used
results from the one to enlighten matters
in the other”
Macintosh J.T. and Anstey P., 2007
• “..fundamental changes in our view of the human brain
cannot but have profound effects on our view of ourselves
and the world” David Hubel, Scientific American, 1979.
• "The idea that man has a disembodied soul is as
unnecessary as the old idea that there was a Life Force.
This is in head-on contradiction to the religious beliefs of
billions of human beings alive today. How will such a
radical change be received? "
Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis, 1994
•
“…what is arguably the major cultural question of our
times: can the humanistic and even religious view of human
nature be reconciled with science?” John Horgan, 2003.
• “In the fullness of time educated people will believe there is
no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after
death.” Francis Crick. The New York Times, April 13th 2004.
"After the Double Helix: Unravelling the Mysteries of the State of
Being"
Lead Article : Nature 14th of June 2007
“ With deference to the sensibilities of
religious people, the idea that man was
created in the image of God can surely be put
aside”
"Scientific theories of human nature may be
discomforting or unsatisfying, but they are
not illegitimate."
WHAT ARE THE MAIN
CONTOURS OF THE
CONTEMPORARY
SCIENTIFIC LANDSCAPE?
Neuropsychology-the product of
converging streams
• The cognitive revolution
• experimental psychology
• brain imaging techniques
Archives of Neurology, 2003
The case of the Virginia schoolteacher.
“Change the mind and you change the
brain” :
effects of cognitive–behavior therapy on
the neural correlates of spider phobia
Vincent Paquette et al., NeuroImage, 18
(2003) 401-409
• "The distinction between diseases of "brain"and
"mind", between "neurological" problems and
"psychological” or "psychiatric" ones, is an unfortunate
cultural inheritance that permeates society and
medicine. It reflects a basic ignorance of the relation
between brain and mind.”
Antonio Damasio, Descartes Error,1994.
• We should talk of psychiatric illness or disorders rather
than of mental illnesses, and if we do continue to refer to
‘mental’ and ‘physical’ illnesses, we should preface both
with ‘so-called’, to remind ourselves and our audience
that these are archaic and deeply misleading terms.
R. Kendell, B.J. Psychiatry. June 2001
• We may regard mental activity and correlated
brain activity as inner and outer aspects of one
complex set of events that together constitute
conscious human agency.
• Interdependence characterised by an irreducible
intrinsic duality without dualism of substance.
Robert Boyle
“Viewed his theological interests and his
work in natural philosophy as forming a
seamless whole and constantly used
results from the one to enlighten matters
in the other”
Macintosh J.T. and Anstey P., 2007
TENSION AT THE SEAMS ?
“ The theologians of the early church began to use
ideas from Greek philosophy, and the conception
of immaterial and immortal soul found its way
into Christian thinking and has tended to stay
there ever since.”
Leslie Stevenson, Ten Theories of Human
Nature, 4th Edition, 2004
“the question of how the
transcendental soul acted upon the
physical body became replaced by the
question of how the immaterial mind could
arise out of fleshly matter. It still remains
a central question for the science of
mind”.
Kenan Malik, Man, Beast and Zombie, 2000
" In the fullness of time educated people
will believe there is no soul independent
of the body, and hence no life after death."
Francis Crick. The New York Times, April 13th 2004.
"After the Double Helix: Unravelling the Mysteries
of the State of Being"
Should we continue, then, to speak of 'souls' at all? I see no
problem with the word in principle (as Lewis Carroll
suggested, you can use words however you like as long as
you pay them extra on Thursdays); you can say 'soul', as
long as you are committed to meaning by that ‘a whole
human being living in the presence of God’ Soul-language,
within a Christian context, is a shorthand for telling a story
of that sort, a story about the way in which human beings
as wholes are irreducibly open to God. It is not, within
Christian theology, a shorthand for a story in which a
partitioned human being has a soul in one compartment, a
body in another, and quite possibly all sorts of other bits
and pieces equally divided up. We can then continue to use
the word ‘soul’ with fully Christian meaning; but we should
be careful, because the language has had a chequered
history, and may betray us.
N.T.Wright (2000)
...in the absence of "soul", what is it
that makes us authentically human?
To speak in more traditional terms,
what does it mean any longer to affirm
that we are bearers of "the divine image".
Joel Green, 2004
......to be in the image of God is at once to be
created as a particular kind of being - a
person - and to be called to realise a certain
destiny.
Colin Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian
Theology, 2nd edition, T. and T. Clark, 1997
Whatever therefore is to be said about the human cannot be
confined to general statements about humanity apart from
God. It cannot be said apart from the discovery that in Jesus
Christ we see who we are and we also see God for us.
The answer to the question about who we are is finally
eschatological, where tears are no longer part of the human
reality, where joy is the order of eternity, and where our
transience disappears in the disappearance of death. We
cannot see that yet. But we do see Jesus. That will have to
do. I think it is enough”.
Patrick Miller, Professor of Old Testament. Princeton
University, 2004
What about ‘the spiritual dimension’?
Times 2 April 16th 2006
2007
A New trend “Neurotheology”
• "a rest to his mind,
a cheerer of his spirits,
a diverter of sadness,
a calmer of unquiet thoughts,
a moderator of passions,
a procurer of contentedness…"
•Isaak Walton. The Compleat Angler.
The Elusive God-Spot
The temporal lobe is considered "the God
module”, the part of the brain that connects
with the transcendent.
Willoughby Britton, 2004
Hypereligiosity may stem from increased
activity in the medial prefrontal cortex of the
brain... my theory is that the medial prefrontal
cortex plays the role of the conductor of an
orchestra in religiosity"
Osamu Muramoto, 2004
"Obviously, the external reality of "God" can
neither be confirmed nor disconfirmed by
delineating the neural correlates of
religious/spiritual/mystical experiences. In
other words, the neuroscientific study of what
happens to the brain during these experiences
does not tell us anything new about God."
Christopher Stawski, The Spiral, March 2004,
Vol.4, No.3. p.4.
Robert Boyle
“Viewed his theological interests and his
work in natural philosophy as forming a
seamless whole and constantly used
results from the one to enlighten matters
in the other”
Macintosh J.T. and Anstey P., 2007
The Elusive God Spot
Are We Hard-Wired to Seek God?
All that may be new here is an analysis
that finds in the human brain a mirror
of all these imagines Dei - all these
images of God - and thus may suggest
further ways of comprehending them.
Carol Albright and James Ashbrook
"....the several fold variability in 5 HTIA
receptor density may explain why
people vary greatly in spiritual zeal"
J. Borg et al, The serotonin system
and spiritual experiences. American
Journal. of Psychiatry
160;11,November 2003 pp.1965-1969
• The image is not located in any of these but
in our human vocation, given and enabled by
God, to relate to God as God's partner in
covenant. To join in companionship with the
human family and in relation to the whole
cosmos in ways that reflect the covenant love
of God. This is realised and modelled
supremely in Jesus Christ.
• Joel Green, 2004
"Neuroscience is now the largest area of biomedical
research, and new breakthroughs in the field are likely to
dominate the 21st century. The major Neuroscience Prize
will salute outstanding achievements and encourage
further developments in a discipline with infinite potential."
Press release, 25th April 2004, Peter Gruber Foundation to
Give Annual International Prize in Neuroscience
2004
2005
Sensitivity to Face View
The soul and its faculties
“ It would be foolish to seek a
definition of "soul" from the
philosophers. Of them hardly
one, except Plato, has rightly
affirmed its immortal
substance......... Indeed, from
Scripture, we have already taught
that the soul is an incorporeal
substance;….”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Book I Chapter
XV Section 6.
•The imago Dei as the capacity for moral behaviour and
moral agency.
•... herein does very much consist that image of God wherein
he made man ...viz. in those faculties and principles of nature,
whereby he is capable of moral agency.
Jonathan Edwards
• "Aiding others at the cost or risk to oneself is widespread in
the animal kingdom"
Frans de Waal
•The fact that the human moral sense goes so far back in
evolutionary history that other species show signs of it,
plants morality firmly near the centre of our much maligned
nature.’
(de Waal,1996)
Even if animals other than ourselves
act in ways tantamount to moral
behaviour, their behaviour does not
necessarily rest on deliberations of
the kind we engage in .It is hard to
believe that animals weigh their own
interests against the rights of others,
that they develop a vision of the
greater good of society, or that they
feel lifelong guilt about something
they should not have done'
(de Waal,1996)
•"From the beginning philosophers have agonised over the
question of what makes a human, is there a difference in kind
or merely a difference in degree between ourselves and other
animals? Direct comparisons between people and animals
are often seen as demeaning, even offensive”
Frans de Waal,1996
"It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how much he
resembles the beast, without at the same time showing him
his greatness, it is also dangerous to allow him too clear
vision of his greatness without his baseness. It is even more
dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both.”
Blaise Pascal, 17th century
Is spirituality embodied?
• religiosity and temporal lobe epilepsy
• what may we learn from Alzheimer’s
patients?
• men of God with feet of clay - some case
histories
Special European Union Report
European citizens deliver proposals on brain
sciences
"The citizens panels from nine European countries
had come together to share their recommendations
for the future of brain science marking the end of
what is thought to have been the largest ever public
consultation on science".
The Psychologist March 2006
THE TIMES
Dec. 8th
• BRAIN TRAINER:A FIVE DAY WORKOUT TO EXPAND YOUR MIND
Dec. 15th
• Autism may involve “ATYPICAL NEURONAL DEVELOPMENT FROM
THE EARLIEST STAGE SHOWING THAT IT IS NOT A REACTION TO
PARENTAL BEHAVIOUR”
• GERMAN SCENTISTS CLAIM TO HAVE FOUND THE GENE LINKED TO
SERIAL STUPIDITY, report in Science
• THE PINEAL GLAND “ MAY HOLD THE KEY TO THE HUMAN SOUL”
report from the National Taiwan University
• Science Editor reports on “ PEACE GENE IN OUR TIME?”
NEURAL PROCESSES PSYCHOLOGICAL
STATES
Neurofibrillary tangles
senile plaques
granulovar deterioation
acetylcholine deficiency
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
forgetfulness, lack of
recognition, increasing
confusion, marked changes
in concentration and
recent memory from anxiety
and depression to emotional
unresponsiveness dementia,
paranoid delusions, hallucinations.
sense of separation from God
guilt because of reduced
discipleship
sense of unworthiness
overwhelming sense of sin
and God’s wrath
loss of interest in devotions
and prayers
• "from a neuroscientific perspective, it is
now unnecessary to postulate a second,
metaphysical entity, such as a soul or
spirit, to account for human capacities
and distinctives. Joel Green, 2004
• "if the immortality of the soul and, hence,
dualism are essential to Christian thought,
then the church should be bracing for an
encounter with science far overshadowing
debates about creation and evolution."
Lawson Stone, 2004
"The idea that man has a disembodied
soul is as unnecessary as the old idea
that there was a Life Force. This is in
head-on contradiction to the religious
beliefs of billions of human beings
alive today. How will such a radical
change be received? "
Francis Crick, The Astonishing
Hypothesis, 1994
O’Craven and Kanwisher
Next slide shows activity when
faces or houses are seen or
imagined.
Telling whether someone is imagining faces
or places: raw fMRI signal 1 subject
% signal change in
Parahippocampal Place Area
% signal change in
Fusiform Face Area
Theories which depict experience and its neural basis as
inseparable aspects of a single process may hold out
the greatest promise. But we do not have any clear
understanding of how a single process could have two
such different aspects.
Making sense of their relationship may require us to
rethink the nature of matter, mind, or both.
Adam Zeman , Consciousness, a user's guide, Yale
University Press 2002 p.341.
“ ..I believe …an understanding of how the brain
gives rise to the mind …will require a change at least
as radical as relativity theory, the introduction of
electromagnetic fields into physics-or the original
scientific revolution itself..”
Science and the Mind –Body Problem
Thomas Nagel 2006