Brain Surgery Linked To Sensation of Spirituality

the3stars writes "'Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas. This raises a number of interesting issues about spirituality, among them whether or not people can be born with a strong propensity towards spirituality and also whether it can be acquired through head trauma." One critic's quoted response: "It's important to recognize that the whole study is based on changes in one self-report measure, which is a coarse measure that includes some strange items."

Comments

Does that explain Catholocism?

[commodore73]

> Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace

Does that explain Catholocism?

Re:Yeah, it's called blissful ignorance

[CrazyJim1]

It's not quite so simple. Remember that Newton was highly religious. It would be hard to describe him as not having a fully functional brain.

Though one may argue a person who reads a study and infers their own biased opinion of others may not have a fully functional brain.

I've seen it on Digg and Reddit. There is a crowd hatred towards those who are spiritual in those places. I profess nothing more than what Jesus did: Love everyone even if they hate you. And I get lots of people raging that I'm the cause of all the world's problems. It is like they fail to read that all I profess for others is love.

I do understand scientists who see some Christians as a threat that argue against evolution, but I don't argue against evolution or an old Earth myself. I say God created the universe and life, but life is evolving, no doubt about that. There is even likely theistic evolution, but since we generally don't see God's hand at work, there is no use worrying about it.

Finally I'd like to conclude that spirituality is not a "feeling". I don't wake up one day and say I feel more spiritual than another day. Spirituality is your relationship with God. Do you dismiss God and go about your way, or do you realize he is there and strive to live differently as a result? God is good and truth, so we should also be good and never lie. There's a lot of times it is tempting to lie, but if we're trying to please God, we're to never lie. So I'm really suspicious of a test that says one person is "feeling" more spiritual than another person since that isn't even how it works.

Enough of the faith bashing

[Montezumaa]

While I do not look for opportunities to attack people who do not believe in God, I have had enough of this shit. Just because people believe in God(sorry, but he does exist and only a fool would attempt to "prove" otherwise), it does not mean they have an "altered mental status". This sounds like someone's attempt to demean a group of people. What if I decided to go out and prove that homosexuality was from brain trauma? I will guarantee that people would ask for my head on a plate.

Since a majority of humans believe a creator, or some entity/force outside of humanity(essentially, the spirituality this study links to), then I would tend to believe that the minority is missing something.

Re:Enough of the faith bashing

[Montezumaa]

It is not a theory; it is a fact. A majority of humans believe in a stronger, outside force. Essentially, they believe in God or something similar to God. This is not difficult to understand, as you can search online to find such information.

While I respect someone's decision to not believe in God, I do not respect people's decision to falsify information to demean another person's or group's beliefs. I expect people to respect my right to believe that God is real and for them to do so without trying to claim I suffer from retardation.

Re:This is my favourite

[kaizokuace]

so crazy religious extreme conservatives probably were dropped on their head as a baby?

Brain Damage

[Andypcguy]

I always thought religion was a result of brain damage. ;)