That doesnt really contribute anything to the conversation. If you want to go talk about how great god is, go hang out at youth group or something. If you are trying to make a point that fits in some how to how religion and the anatomy of the human mind, I dont see how. I hate how all the philosphy threads get blown into the atheists verses the church crowd. Please try keep yourself on topic.
Unless your trying to say that Religion is mass produced by Chinese child sweatshop labor, in which case I am just confused.
Gender: Male Location: Sailing the seas of cheese.
But I don't. I don't think I need a higher power and I am human. Sure, I needed my mom and dad to raise me, at least someone to bring me up, feed me, clothe me, etc. But now that I'm old enough, I am able to take care of myself. When I'm down, I don't go to God, I talk to my friends or hang out on KMC.
I don't think of myself as being above other creatures either. I don't know why many people do. I never understood that. I don't understand why many people feel they need a leader as well, or to be more powerful than someone else. Sure, if someone is a threat to me physically, I will use whatever power it takes to free myself of their threat toward me. But I don't feel I am smarter just because I do so. I just want to survive and be happy and not put others in harm's way. I don't need God, as harsh as it may sound to some.
Gender: Male Location: Sailing the seas of cheese.
I see what you mean. Also, though I may not believe in God, I never cancelled out the idea that God may exist, and I may be wrong. I am comfortible with the fact that I may never know. Maybe I excercise the same part of my brain when I 'hope' for something. In essence, 'hope' is having 'faith' and 'faith' is the basis for believing in God, therefore, me hoping is the same as others believing in God. I see how that part of the brain could be triggered whether it's faith in God, or faith that my car will make it up a steep hill.
Persinger has tickled the temporal lobes of more than 900 people before me and has concluded, among other things, that different subjects label this ghostly perception with the names that their cultures have trained them to use - Elijah, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Mohammed, the Sky Spirit. Some subjects have emerged with Freudian interpretations - describing the presence as one's grandfather, for instance - while others, agnostics with more than a passing faith in UFOs, tell something that sounds more like a standard alien-abduction story.
That was what was said in one of those articles (This is your brain on God) where they were stimulating that area of the brain in test subjects... kind of what you were saying TH. We are all going to interpret this differently... Im not sure exactly how I interpret this, but I find this kind of stuff interesting. Its stuff worth thinking about, especially in the philosphy forum where there are a lot of different arguements going about "does god exist?" or "Bible: fact or fiction?"... its nothing conclusive for either arguement, just something that might need to be taken into account when people are forming their opinions.
Gender: Female Location: every which way but loose
Why would your knowing religious epileptics constitute as my relatives being the exceptions? Perhaps the epileptics you know are the exceptions. I'm more than willing to accept that my relatives could be the ones who are perhaps a little different, my whole family are indeed quite odd, but why does it have to be this way just because you know epileptics who do believe? And I know perfectly well that knowing two people doesn't mean I have a scientific case, but should I ever need that pointing out again I'll be sure and see you.
We have, I believe, already had a thread that discussed imagination and its existence, where it stems from, how it works etc. Find that, read some other views and then tell me where its origins are.
Imagination, IMO, is made up of experiences we have, memories and images that do, admittedly, take effect inside our brains, but are more of an essence to each individual than a scientific element of the human body.
I was simply arguing against that statement implying that we were genetically programmed to believe in God. As you said, religion may have been specifically created to to answer such questions, and if that is the case then how could we have been programmed this way from the start? More likely we decided this for ourselves, no?
And with regard to the 'laboratory-cum-church' comment, I was really trying to say that I believe those particular researchers to be entirely religious, just an attempt at lightening the atmosphere
The more 'imaginative' people are perhaps the ones who are more likely to be swayed by different concepts of religion than those who are steadfastly straight and narrow, who don't hold much creativity in their minds? Well, I'm creative, I'm imaginative, but I don't believe in a religion personally. I do however have a deep interest in religion and culture that may one day lead to my being completely turned, until then I cannot say
In an experiment with patients suffering from an unusual form of epilepsy, researchers at the UC San Diego brain and perception laboratory found that the parts of the brain's temporal lobe - which the scientists quickly dubbed the "God module" - may affect how intensely a person responds to religious beliefs.
If you think that this is just a bunch of religous scientists trying to justify thier beliefs and this is religiously biased, well I disagree...
If I thought it was advocating religion I would not have posted it
I myself am not religious, and I dont think that the idea of part of your brain controlling religous thought means that god exists... read some of my other posts and I think you will see that.
I think you are missinterpretting what I was trying to say earlier, and have a different interpretation on those scientific findings that I do... thats fine. Just I dont want to be missunderstood when voicing my opinions, it may not have been worded very clearly... I might have to try again.
I must admit Im not used to being apologized to... I usually completely alienate the other person long before it gets to the apology stage. It feels funny...
but, you get what i was trying to say earlier now though, not that you agree, but you see where i was coming from?
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Ytaker agreed with me once on October 9th, 2004
Oct 20th, 2004 09:44 AM
Twin that you are of mine 
