Who Made Who
Not only is this a bad-ass AC/DC song, but also a compelling question raised in this article, “Who Made Who?” Does God exist outside of our minds, meaning he created us, or did we create God?
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Q: Why do humans believe in something that they’ve never seen for themselves? A: Because it feels good. Prayer and meditation increase levels of dopamine, the brain’s pleasure hormone. |
Spirituality and belief don’t have to equate to religious faith, Newberg said. The feelings of enlightenment and well-being some derive from religion can come to others through from artistic expression, nonreligious meditation, watching a beautiful sunset or listening to stirring music.
Scientists studied the areas of the brain stimulated by the activity of prayer, meditation and speaking in tongues (glossolalia) with interesting results:
- Both prayer and meditation showed “decreased activity in the parts of the brain that have to do with sense of self and spatial orientation — which suggests the description of oneness with God, of transcendence sometimes experienced in meditation or prayer.”
- Those speaking in tongues were shown not to have control over their own speech, but they were unable to locate another area of the brain as responsible for it, you can imagine the implications here.
The Center for Spirituality and the Mind is “bringing together some 20 experts from fields including medicine, pastoral care, religious studies, social work and bioethics” to explore the relationship they have demonstrated and proven via brain scanner images, and how to integrate this with treatment to complement medicinal treatments.
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