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The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God, by Matthew Alper
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About the Author
Matthew Alper (New York City) graduated from SUNY Stonybrook with a BA in philosophy. He has worked as an electrician in England, a photographer's assistant in New York, a fifth-grade and high school history teacher in Brooklyn, a truck smuggler in Africa, a tutor in the Philippines, and a screenwriter in Germany.
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Excerpt from Chapter 1: Throwing Rocks at God"The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other in silence for some time; at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.Alice replied rather shyly, 'I-I hardly know, sir, just at present-at least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'"-LEWIS CARROLLBy the time I was twenty-one, my quest for knowledge of God had taken several unexpected turns. In this time, I had searched the world's myriad religions only to find myself frustrated by a gamut of flaws and inconsistencies in all their logic. I had investigated the various paranormal phenomena only to encounter a trail of false claims and chicanery. I had experimented with the mind-altering effects of psychedelic drugs as well as transcendental meditation, only to undergo a series of distorted sense-experiences, none of which had brought me any closer to acquiring verifiable knowledge of any spiritual reality or God. As a matter of fact, if anything, they had only served to draw me farther away. This was due to the fact that while exploring the effects of LSD, I had a bad trip that led to a severe clinical depression compounded by a dissociative, depersonalization, and anxiety disorder. For a year and a half, I suffered this unfortunate state until, finally, with the aid of pharmacological drugs, I was restored to my previous, relatively healthy self.Though it may have come at a very high price, I nevertheless managed to garner some extremely valuable information from this otherwise wretched experience, information regarding the nature of my allegedly immortal human soul.According to the various belief systems (religions) I had thus far encountered, the human soul was supposed to be spiritual in nature, a fixed and permanent agent, unalterable and everlasting. Again and again, I was told that when I died, though my physical body would perish, "I"-the sum of my conscious experience, the essence of my thoughts and feelings, what was perceived as constituting my soul or spirit-would persist for all eternity. The fact, however, that my conscious self had been so drastically altered convinced me that there was no fixed or eternal essence in me.Twice in a year and a half, I had undergone two complete transformations of my so-called eternal self. First, my conscious self was transformed into something other than it previously had been by psychedelic drugs. Then, a year and a half later, my original self was restored, this time by a drug known as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). But I thought consciousness was supposed to be conceived in spirit-fixed, eternal, immune to the influences of physical nature. If this were true, how was it that the core of my conscious experience had been altered, twice now, by ingesting physical substances? How was it that a combination of molecules-raw matter-could affect something as allegedly ethereal as consciousness, that which was supposed to represent my immutable, transcendental soul? To believe that matter could affect one's spirit, that it could impact upon the soul, would be the equivalence, it seemed, to believing that one could throw rocks at God. If spirits or souls truly existed, it would seem they should be impervious to material influence.The fact that my conscious self-my allegedly immortal soul-was susceptible to the effects of chemical (physical) substances convinced me that human consciousness must be a physical entity governed by strictly physical processes. If this was true, then in order to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of consciousness-what I previously believed might constitute a soul-I would need to conduct an investigation into the nature of the physical sciences.Up until this point, I always had the greatest respect for the physical/natural sciences. I was always impressed by their ability to rationally explain most any phenomena as well as to lead to the creation of tools and technologies that worked to make our lives easier. Whereas in the past, however, in which I had admired the sciences, I now revered them. Science had saved my life. I was indebted to it. God didn't save me. I didn't save me. Science, the tool of reason, had saved me. I was my own living proof that science worked. And so, the same faith that many placed in a god or religion, I now placed in science. Simply, it was a paradigm which brought verifiable results. Not that I didn't have faith in science before this. Every time, for instance, I flipped a light switch, one could say I had faith the lights would go on. The difference was that, whereas in the past I had taken my faith for granted, I was now a staunch believer.As I saw it, science had resolved the riddle of the human soul. Science had proven it could come up with chemical formulas that could manipulate the contents of one's cognitions, emotions, and perceptions in almost whatever way it saw fit. It could electrically or chemically stimulate parts of one's brain in such a way that it could make one passive or aggressive, tranquil or manic, happy or sad. In essence, science could alter and manipulate one's cognitive and emotional states as if pulling the strings on a marionette.As a result, I was now convinced that the mind, which I previously believed to constitute my transcendental soul, instead represented the workings of my physical organ, the brain. There was no soul. There was no ghost in the machine. My thoughts-human consciousness-were not the manifestation of some ethereal force or will but rather the consequence of synaptic transmissions, electrical and chemical signals being registered throughout my brain, generating a host of sensations, perceptions, emotions, and cognitions in me-pure neuromechanics. Consequently, as far as I was now concerned, the riddle of the human soul had been solved. From hereon, I would interpret the origin of all perception, sensation, emotion, and cognition from a strictly neurophysiological-that is, scientific-perspective.As secure as I now was that there was no such thing as a transcendental soul, I still found myself plagued by that more essential problem of God's existence. As God supposedly constituted the embodiment of all things spiritual, not until I possessed some rational explanation through which I could resolve the problem of His existence could I be absolutely certain there was no such thing as a transcendental/spiritual reality. And as long as it was possible that God might exist, it was therefore also possible that I possessed a transcendental soul. Consequently, before I could commit to anything, I needed to resolve the greater and all-encompassing problem of God.As the physical sciences had helped me to rationally interpret the underlying nature of consciousness, I now wondered if it would be possible to apply this same tool of reason to resolve that ever-persistent problem of God. Could the physical sciences crack thatnut as well? Up until now, it hadn't come close. From biologists to astro- and quantum physicists, no one had ever advanced anything resembling a scientific interpretation of God. But why was this? Did God truly exist only beyond our grasp, beyond the range of human comprehension? Or was there a physical solution, only no one had discovered it yet?
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Product details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks (September 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1402214529
ISBN-13: 978-1402214523
Product Dimensions:
8.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.9 out of 5 stars
119 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#302,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A very thoughtful, reasoned argument.It did not, however, change my believe in GOD.Laying aside all descriptions of GOD (religious texts, the Bible, Torah, etc.) the assertion that GOD, or the concept of GOD, is basically a function of evolution is logical and easily acceptable to me.If a belief in GOD is a part of the placebo effect, that's fine, too, because the placebo effect is real.If it (a faith, personal to the believer) works (according to each individual's understanding of "works") then what does it matter if it's a placebo or an actual, physical reality?For example, one might say "I was in a hopeless situation and GOD helped me recover." The scientist will say, "The fact you recovered proves the situation was not hopeless."Does it matter, as long as the recovery occurred?
I've read other books on this subject which can be either too dry or too caustic, but this one hits the mark, although I'm not sure I totally agree with Alper that neurological wiring towards religiosity negates the reality of the supernatural or divine. I'm an atheist, so I"d like to agree with him wholeheartedly, but you could also say, as I believe Chomsky said, that humans are hardwired for language in a way animals are not, yet this doesn't negate the fact that language, while culturally constructed, is a real phenomena and we are wired to receive it and acquire it quickly. I'm probably getting in over my head with my analogy, but I think it's worth considering. We humans create music, a cultural construction that is not found in the animal world, yet the phenomenon itself --- the sounds-- are a concrete reality. In fact, some deists might insist that because we are 'wired for God', so to speak, that in itself is proof of God. I wouldn't go that far; we can also be 'wired' for hallucinations and mental illness too. An interesting read and a worthwhile contemplation on a timeless subject; what makes Alper sympathetic is that he arrived to his conclusions as a result of a spiritual search, not a biased knee-jerk stance against religion, which I find a bit off-putting from folks like Hitchens (Mr. Caustic himself). And Richard Dawkins' book, "The Blind Watchmaker" is a bit abstract for me; the statistical probability discussions of evolution just went right over my simpleton head. If you are looking for a layman's take on this debate, this one is it.
I bought this book after hearing an interview with the author on Coast-to-Coast radio. I thought the interview was much better than the book. In fact, I felt the first half of the book was nothing more than a rehash of the Psych 101 class I took in college some 40+ years ago. I really didn't enjoy this book until I got to chapter 15 and the near death experiences. I felt that I could have been well served by reading only the last six chapters. Finally, I was a bit surprised the author didn't even address the possibility of intelligent design and that the gods people worship were possibly those same intelligent designers.
Very interesting perspective! I like that Matt has combined so much research into explaining why humans have such a tendency to believe in god. It's a great read and a fantastic explantion of the relious aspect of human behavior.
Alpers' reading of science is flawed on many counts, most of them inconsequential, but his drawing of generalizations is weakened by these errors. The book's major premise depend on our knowledge of impending and inevitable death being mentally devastating, and he provides little evidence of this result. That said, he weaves interesting speculations of evolved neurophysiology. His proposals in the final chapter to substitute a "religion" based on universally held moral precepts brought to rational behavioral norma are inspiring to a secular rationalist like myself, but they aren't likely to find much traction within religious establishments.
I agree also with what Matthew Alper has written and said in his many interviews. "Human beings are genetically hard wired to experience belief in spirituality and various paranormal phenomena, even though there is no scientific basis for it. According to sociobiology, there are regions in the human brain that generate these belief systems, and the brain evolved this way as a coping mechanism to deal with the knowledge of our inevitable deaths." He also said, "I believe that the anxiety [about death] was so overwhelming that it forced the selection of this cognitive modification which...compels us to believe that there's this other transcendental force...through which, even though we know the physical body will die, we now believe this spiritual component will live on forever."He wrote about studies of meditation and prayer, which show decreased blood flow in the amygdala region of the brain-- this helps to reduce anxiety and fear, which could account for the sense of spirituality. He also wrote that the parietal lobe also gets a decreased blood flow, which can affect spatial and temporal consciousness. In his research he feels many people who are hyper-religious have epilepsy.Being a Neuro-theologist Matthew has also expounded about his theory on the genetic nature of spirituality and how humans are wired to believe in a "God" and spiritual realm. As an atheist, he feels the God part of the brain evolved as a coping mechanism through natural selection-- human survival was enhanced through belief in an afterlife. For those of you who are not familiar with the meaning of `atheist' it is in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities, and in a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists. He cited the work of neuroscientist VS Ramachandran who discovered a connection between temporal lobe epilepsy and religious experience. Ramachandran even found that sometimes reading religious text to epileptics could trigger a seizure in them. Another study indicated that religious figures such as the Apostle Paul and Joan of Arc suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy.The tests of Michael Persinger ,using a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator, showed that stimulation of the temporal lobe could bring on spiritual or religious experiences. In an interview at the University of Pennsylvania, he mentioned the study of Tibetan Monks during meditation/prayer showed blood flow changes in their brains, which could account for reduced anxiety and an increased feeling of transcendence.I highly recommend this book for those who are brave enough to think "outside of the box." It is one of the books our Spiritual Study Grroup in Florida has read with great enthusiasm. There is a difference between being spiritual and being religious. Daphna Moore, Publisher, Hughes Henshaw Publications.
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