Why God won't go away

By Andrew B. Newberg

Subjects: Spirituality--psychology, Psychologie religieuse, Religious Psychology, Aspect psychologique, God--knowableness, Mental Processes, Physiologie, Expérience religieuse, Psychology, religious, Spiritualité, Psychologie, Mysticisme, Popular Works, Neuropsychologie, Biologische aspecten, 231.042, Religion and science, Spirituality, Cognoscibilité, Knowableness, Religion and Science, Godsdienst, 11.06 psychology of religion, Neurowetenschappen, Dieu, God, Religion and Psychology, Brain--physiology, Foi, Bf 773 n534w 2001, Mental processes, Faith, Evolutietheorie, Bf773 .n48 2001, Brain, Belief and doubt, Faith--psychology, Religionspsychologie, Psychology, Physiology, Cerveau, Religion and psychology

Description: "Why have we humans always longed to connect with something larger than ourselves? Why does consciousness inevitably involve us in a spiritual quest? Why, in short, won't God go away? Theologians, philosophers, and psychologists have debated this question through the ages, arriving at a range of contradictory and ultimately unprovable answers. But in this new book, researchers Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili offer an explanation that is at once profoundly simple and scientifically precise: The religious impulse is rooted in the biology of the brain.". "Newberg and d'Aquili base this revolutionary conclusion on a long-term investigation of brain function and behavior as well as studies they conducted using high-tech imaging techniques to examine the brains of meditating Buddhists and Franciscan nuns at prayer. What they discovered was that intensely focused spiritual contemplation triggers an alteration in the activity of the brain that leads us to perceive transcendent religious experiences as solid and tangibly real. In other words, the sensation that Buddhists call "oneness with the universe" and the Franciscans attribute to the palpable presence of God is not a delusion or a manifestation of wishful thinking but rather a chain of neurological events that can be objectively observed, recorded, and actually photographed." "The inescapable conclusion is that God is hardwired into the human brain."--BOOK JACKET.