The God Part of our Brain

[Robert]

A while back I read the book, "The 'God' Part of the Brain" by Matthew Alper and, with one exception, I thought it was a very good book. I think there exists a part of the brain that is responsible for our feeling that there is a godly presence about us. The evidence is pretty convincing in this regard. Stimulate a specific part of your brain and you want to pray, go to church, you have overwhelming faith, and feel the presence of God. Destroy a specific part of your brain and you loose your faith, feel no godly presence, and stop going to church. I believe this to be true. However, I don't think this necessarily means that there is not a godly presence about us.

So, assuming the previous paragraph to be true, why would this God part of our brain evolve? How does it increase our survivability? The explanation the book gave was just very bad and wrong in my opinion. The book states that without our faith in God and belief in eternal life, the stress of facing death and non-existence would just be to great and cause us to die. This seems ridiculous since, because our death is so far away, we don't really worry about it that much, especially the younger people. Similarly, some people smoke even though they know it could be killing them. The consequence are just to far off to worry about.

So, why did the God part of our brain evolve? Perhaps it increases survivability by giving us extra strength. To believe in something greater than ourselves gives a clarity of focus, extra strength, determination, and perseverance to accomplish our goals. However, I don't think this necessarily means that there is a godly presence about us.

[Unreal Zelta]

Hey Robert,
"God" has never been my stronghold nor my favorite topic. The reason is quite simple, I do not believe in "God." So receiving the idea of a or the "God" might be coexisting with our minds or brains is rather overwhelming.

To me, the term "God" is used as a scapegoat for any miseries and or problems we have; the reason why we believe in "God" is because we do not believe in ourselves and need that symbolic person to blame on. I think the reason why we always refer to "God" is that it's such a good catch phrase, e.g. "Oh my God!"

I guess the idea of "God" do increase our chances of survivability slightly, e.g. One can sing "God" related songs at a cathedral or church with many fellow friends, the soothing sound of the music is an enlightenment to many, and subsequently he/she can talked to those people about any problems they have. It cancels out all anger and hatred in one and perhaps can prolong life slightly.

I hope I did not offend any religious members/visitors, if I did, then I apologize deeply.

Best regards

Zelta

[harmonygirl]

Interesting Robert. Wouldn't this also be true of any other aspect of our being? So we exist in a physical reality because we interpret it so? I agree there is no "proof" of the Goddess and definitely no counter-argument to brain stimulated responses with respect to the Goddess or otherwise. Does it matter if there's (objectively) a Goddess or not?

[dleviwing]

That God Part of the brain is called the “pleasure center” and is stimulated by many physical, mental, and chemical activities. When activated by a profound experience or change of thinking, it is often referred to as being born again and is well understood and used by religion and religious cults.

[Robert]

Interesting Robert. Wouldn't this also be true of any other aspect of our being? So we exist in a physical reality because we interpret it so?

Possibly. We may exist in a unique interpretation of physical reality. To see reality directly, unfiltered by our brain, we would see something very different from our usual experience.

I agree there is no "proof" of the Goddess and definitely no counter-argument to brain stimulated responses with respect to the Goddess or otherwise. Does it matter if there's (objectively) a Goddess or not?

It does indeed matter if there is a Goddess because the Goddess must be included in the Theory of Everything. If the Goddess exists that would complicate matters because it would open a whole new realm or dimension of existance that needs to be unified in the Theory. The complication may only be temporary until the unifying concepts and understanding are realized.

[Robert]

Hey Robert,
"God" has never been my stronghold nor my favorite topic. The reason is quite simple, I do not believe in "God." So receiving the idea of a or the "God" might be coexisting with our minds or brains is rather overwhelming.

There may be a bell curve type distribution of the strength of this God part, ranging from little to a profound effect on the person. Environment, culture, etc must also play their parts. Could it be that the profound religious leaders of the past where simply on the very high end of this bell curve?

I guess the idea of "God" do increase our chances of survivability slightly, e.g. One can sing "God" related songs at a cathedral or church with many fellow friends, the soothing sound of the music is an enlightenment to many, and subsequently he/she can talked to those people about any problems they have. It cancels out all anger and hatred in one and perhaps can prolong life slightly.

I'm more of an agnostic these days, but when I was young, 6 or 7, my mother told me that God gives you strength to overcome hardship, and I believed this. In fact I believed it completely. That very day I confronted a bully from whom I had been running and hiding for weeks. I was full of confidence and had no fear at all. That bully backed down and never bothered me again. Was it God? I don't think so. Rather, it was the confidence I gained from a belief in something that possibly didn't exist.

Lions attack the weak ones of the herd. To be strong, confident, determined should increase survivability. Is the purpose of our evolving the God part of our brain to give us these characteristics? I'm not sure. Why couldn't we just directly evolve these characteristics. And these characteristis can arise in us from other non-Godly sources.

So, the question remains, Why did we evolve this God part of our brain?

I hope I did not offend any religious members/visitors, if I did, then I apologize deeply.

This is certainly a sensitive area, but to get to the truth we need to objectively discuss these issues. We need to have the courage to follow the evidence wherever that may lead.

[Unreal Zelta]

Hey Robert,
Thanks for your reply,
Perhaps, the God part of our brain has always been with us and always been evolved. I think it's how the society has evolved or revolutionized and how it changed its view of God that has affected us.

To further justify my point, I guess using an example would be helpful.
The concept of fascism was first carried out by Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator during WWII. And soon Adolph Hitler adapted this idea and manipulated the German people to follow this idea. Why? The depression and the reparation defenestrated their economy as well as their pride, they were desperate for a leader who can make their sorrows and hatred to go away. Hitler had that edge and the new ideas to help his fellow Germans. This same concept was used for the spreading of the Christian religion and "God" related ideas, the sole called God "messengers" made everything sound so convincing and the desperate people needed a leader to guide them out of their miseries and confusions.

From my own perspective, I believe that the God part of our brain has always been evolved as a mentioned earlier; we just needed that trigger to come to the realisation of it (in this case a person who came to the realisation naturally).

Different religions have various understandings of God, although God is that one symbol, our appreciations of it can range quite a lot (extremes on the normal curve). For me, I'm on the extreme part of the scale, in which I do not believe in God.

Note: I hope my example was not too confusing.

Best regards

Zelta

[harmonygirl]

Just to clarify, I guess I meant that we interpret everything according to our hardwiring, and we see or don't see objective reality for itself. So whether something objectively exists doesn't really matter, it's really how we interpret things. Good point about whether the TOE should account for the Goddess, but isn't the main thing belief? It may be that the Goddess part of the brain exists to boost our confidence in appropriate situations, but it could also exist to lessen tension and create harmony (no pun!) between us. If you are talking about a sense of the divine, as opposed to religions and their dogma, which I don't believe are based on a personal sense of the Goddess, this seems to manifest in people who spiritual but not necessarily religious and seems to me to tend to promote inclusion and peace. It could be that this place in our brain exists to allow us to appreciate reality. It seems to me that it's all speculation, but it's important to account for beliefs and their genesis in the TOE (again, no pun viz. the religious reference!)

[WithoutMe]

Well Robert,
I have already mentioned abt that part of our brain in my post regardng Ethics, thik it was titled "On An Immoral Ethics"

Rgds,
wM.

[mkirkpatrick]

My Robert,you do seem to be posting plenty,have you been on holiday too?
I do not accept any part of the brain as being the God part,all of the brain has a function,and that function,animated and stimulated by the mind,is to
eventually expose all human beings to the reality of life and the eternal nature and reality of it,this is being done via the process of evolution,many are now waking up as if from a long slumber and beginning to realize the nature of the human soul and all the implications that this understanding brings.


kind regards michael.