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There are people that believe there is nothing beyond the 5 senses and everything can be defined in a tangible way.
But even scientists acknowledge that we do not know everything, especially about the brain.
If God existed it would be perfectly logical for God to stimulate a region of the brain in our spiritual centers rather than in the same regions that sex and drugs stimulate. God would then be giving proof positive that he exists. Isn't that what God wants--for us to believe he exists? Why then would he choose to stimulate the same regions that drugs and sex stimulate. It's like God is begging us NOT to believe in him.
But if God didn't exist, then everything would be happening exactly as we observe it happening: praying to God is just another reward the human brain gives itself when it wants to feel good. And there's no doubt at all that humans feel good when they pray--EXACTLY like they feel good when the take a good hit of cocaine. The brain scans prove that.
If God existed it would be perfectly logical for God to stimulate a region of the brain in our spiritual centers rather than in the same regions that sex and drugs stimulate. God would then be giving proof positive that he exists. Isn't that what God wants--for us to believe he exists? Why then would he choose to stimulate the same regions that drugs and sex stimulate. It's like God is begging us NOT to believe in him.
But if God didn't exist, then everything would be happening exactly as we observe it happening: praying to God is just another reward the human brain gives itself when it wants to feel good. And there's no doubt at all that humans feel good when they pray--EXACTLY like they feel good when the take a good hit of cocaine. The brain scans prove that.
Who told you that?
I have prayed, and I have used cocaine, and I do not recall praying making me feel much of anything, let alone like the happy jolt you get from snorting a line. (At least the first line. Then you spend the rest of the night trying to chase down the feeling you got from that first one.)
If God existed it would be perfectly logical for God to stimulate a region of the brain in our spiritual centers rather than in the same regions that sex and drugs stimulate. God would then be giving proof positive that he exists. Isn't that what God wants--for us to believe he exists? Why then would he choose to stimulate the same regions that drugs and sex stimulate. It's like God is begging us NOT to believe in him.
But if God didn't exist, then everything would be happening exactly as we observe it happening: praying to God is just another reward the human brain gives itself when it wants to feel good. And there's no doubt at all that humans feel good when they pray--EXACTLY like they feel good when the take a good hit of cocaine. The brain scans prove that.
And who are you to dictate what God should do to convince you ?
This is where "faith" comes in...when you have no proof.
I don't pray and I don't worship but I do talk to a higher being (God, the Divine, Spirit, etc).
And I get answers when I need them.
I have prayed, and I have used cocaine, and I do not recall praying making me feel much of anything, let alone like the happy jolt you get from snorting a line. (At least the first line. Then you spend the rest of the night trying to chase down the feeling you got from that first one.)
I think it stands to reason that lots of people pray and don't feel anything. I know I didn't in the last 10 years of my Christian faith. And I think it stands to reason that a person's reaction to drugs and sex wear down with time to the point that they develop a powerful tolerance to both.
But on average, when a fervent Christian prays they get a powerful reaction in the form of feelings of extreme warmth and love pouring into their being. When this happens and it's measured on a MRI, then the "reward" centers of the brain are being stimulated to produce dopamine and endorphins and those reward areas of the brain light up.
They are the exact same areas of the brain that light up when a person who is extremely susceptible to a powerful jolt of stimulant from cocaine takes that hit, as opposed to someone who has developed a tolerance to cocaine. Even in sex, a person can climax without feeling any reward from the act; it's purely a mechanical reaction to stimulation of the sensitive parts of the sex organs. But when they experience a tremendous surge of pleasure from the act, those areas of the brain that light up like a Christmas tree from communing with Jesus likewise light up like a Christmas tree when they put $10,000 on 00 on the Roulette wheel and 00 turns up.
If you say so. I've never heard anyone say they get that reaction from prayer.
I did not grow up in or later in life participate in the type of church that "catches the Holy Ghost" and rolls around on the floor "slain in the spirit" or whatever, either, so maybe people in those churches do experience that.
If you say so. I've never heard anyone say they get that reaction from prayer.
I did not grow up in or later in life participate in the type of church that "catches the Holy Ghost" and rolls around on the floor "slain in the spirit" or whatever, either, so maybe people in those churches do experience that.
I saw something like that at a revival. They didn't roll on the floor but they did go up to the front, crying and getting down on their knees with their hands in the air.
I was like WTF... I don't know that I would attend a revival again.
If you say so. I've never heard anyone say they get that reaction from prayer.
I did not grow up in or later in life participate in the type of church that "catches the Holy Ghost" and rolls around on the floor "slain in the spirit" or whatever, either, so maybe people in those churches do experience that.
Wait, MQ, are you saying you've never spoken to a Christian who has prayed and felt a tremendous sense of love emanating from their being--they're just emotionally unmoved? What about the Christians' feelings upon which the study was based? What about these people:
Kathleen H. Hughes, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency: “One of the most sublime experiences is to feel in prayer the warmth of the Spirit—a clear manifestation to us that Heavenly Father hears us and loves us.
President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985): But always, if we have been honest and earnest, we will experience a good feeling—a feeling of warmth for our Father in Heaven and a sense of his love for us.
God is nothing more than a neurochemical reaction in the brain.
Science has proven it.
What Christians think is the inflowing of the Holy Spirit when they pray and commune with God/Jesus is nothing more than neurotransmitters called dopamine and endorphins--what medicine calls "feel-good" chemicals--flooding the body to warm and relax it--the exact same chemicals the body makes when a person engages in pleasurable sex, experiences the thrill of a big win at the Roulette wheel, and takes a hit of cocaine.
These brain areas actually light up on an MRI when "reward centers" in the brain are tickled by sex, drugs, gambling and yes, praying to Jesus.
So when a Christian kneels and prays or reads the verse John 16:27, “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and believed that I came from God” and he feel his spirit being flooded with the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, just know that it isn't God or the Holy Spirit that is producing these pleasurable sensations of feeling loved by God. It's neurochemicals that the Christian is stimulating his brain to produce which in turns gives him these pleasurable sensations which he attributes to the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Simple formula:
Pleasurable sensations from reading Bible/praying = stimulation of pituitary/hypothalamus glands = production of endorphins/dopamine = pleasurable feelings of joy and contentment.
You are making a fundamental category error in interpreting the findings, Thrill. When it comes to HOW we experience ANYTHING AT ALL it will ALWAYS involve the neurochemical reactions in the brain! That says nothing about WHO OR WHAT is experiencing it nor WHO OR WHAT is the source of the stimulation. Our human body functions on pleasure/pain so our Spirit uses those signals to differentiate between stimuli within Reality whatever their source..
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Now all this begs the question:
Why would God choose to stimulate the EXACT SAME areas of the brain AS the areas that are stimulated when a person engages in sex and takes drugs? It doesn't make a bit of sense--
Unless "God" is just an imaginary being and that the need to commune with a higher power we call God is something that evolved over millions of years of evolution--as this scientific article in Discover magazine demonstrates:
"The Human Brain Evolved to Believe in Gods
How belief in the supernatural makes sense in light of evolution."
This pretty much prove that God is nothing more than a neurotransmitter reaction.
Unless a Christian can give a reasonably believable answer to why God would decide to tickle the same areas of the brain as sex, drugs, and gambling.
Again, since you have determined that the God typically believed by Christians does not make any sense to you, why do you keep using THEIR concept of God to refute any and all concepts of God? IMO, the typical mainstream Christian understanding of God is NOT the God Jesus revealed, represented, and demonstrated on the Cross. That makes your criticisms valid of the "precepts and doctrines of men" that they use in the churches. But that is ALL human vanity and hubris (among other motives) and has nothing to do with God.
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