Re: OT: News of nuns

David Boothroyd wrote:
"Steve Brooks" wrote:
David Boothroyd wrote:
Gumrat wrote:

I love this headline from the Beeb's news website today:

"Nuns are scanned to look for a 'God Spot' in their brains" - does
it come on at about ten to eight Monday to Saturday, is what I
wondered..

Whole article here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5296728.stm

This has got to be worth an Ignobel prize nomination.

I don't see why. To me it looks like a perfectly valid piece of
work. What are your objections?

As an atheist myself I would expect to be fried alive if I suggested
that people become religious by reason of some physical disorder of
the brain. I think this research is on a par with those who weigh
people just before and just after death in an attempt to ascertain
the mass of the human soul.

I'm also an atheist. But I can't deny that religious experience is a real
phenomenon even as I deny the supposed source of that phenomenon. I didn't
see anything in the article suggesting that what was being studied was a
disorder. I'd assume it was part of the spectrum of normal human experience.
In fact I suspect I've experienced it myself on occasions. I just haven't
interpreted it as the result of the presence of a divine being.

Religion and hard science don't mix like that.

It's not about religion, it's about emotional states. Do you think science
has no place studying happiness, sadness, embarrassment etc?

--

SB


.

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