God on the Brain....

Re: Re: God on the Brain....

shemp said:


I'll go out to the septic tank and start stirring.
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I kind of assumed that's what you'd be doing anyway.
 
LOL. That result will be used by both monist camps to assert their position is the only correct one. :D

Control is a better deal than Free Will anyway. ;)
 
FYI,

there is a thread on this topic with 120+ responses in the R&P forum. I think it is clearly a science topic too, and so I won't merge the two threads, but thought you might want to know you can find a discussion of the topic here...
 
hal bidlack said:
FYI,

there is a thread on this topic with 120+ responses in the R&P forum. I think it is clearly a science topic too, and so I won't merge the two threads, but thought you might want to know you can find a discussion of the topic here...
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Thanks, but the notion that this topic is science is clearly the only right position. Something must be wrong with their brains.

(But then I've always suspected that about the people who hang out on R&P.)
 
Arrgh.

The thread over in R&P is about as relevant to a scientific discussion of this topic as a bunch of Jr. High students arguing over who has more hit-points.
 
Some of this article reminds me of the Phineas Gage story.

http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/GAGEPAGE/Pgstory.htm

He also suffered Temporal Lobe Trauma and underwent dramatic personality changes, and ultimately what some might call a shift in his morality view. I wonder if these two cases are related in that they affected the same structures of the brain?

I realize at this point I'm just talking to myself on this topic, but at least I find it interesting.
 
I wonder how much of the effect is due to the subject already having strong religious convictions. I know one of the cases mentioned in the article was an avowed atheist, but a religious upbringing might still implant ideas that become visions once temporal lobe epilepsy occurs.

What do you think of the statement by the Seventh Day Adventist neurologist: that Ellen White's visions could not be attributed to an epileptic seizure because they were reportedly 15 minutes to 3 hours long? Neurology isn't my field, but I would still guess that disturbances to brain chemistry would follow even brief seizures that might account for lengthy alterations in behaviour.

Could all religious belief be attriuted to TLE or only really fanatical convictions, like thinking you're the mother of Jesus? Could TLE cause fanatical obsession in other things like conspiracy theories and so on?
 
This is not "real" science. It is "pop" science. I always like articles that include something like the following: "Scientists now think..."

Because it is not as if this study would be generally accepted by most scientists as indicative of anything. Certainly not objective, reproducible results. Spurious results? Small sample size? Pre-selected sample subjects, not randomly tested? Etc.

In fact, I seriously doubt the actual study came to ANY conclusion at all. Probably said "worthy of further research" or something similar.

But we all know reporting that would not get any readers or viewers, would it?
 
My friend used to get seizures, not full blown epilepsy but something else I think, but enough so he wakes up and doesn't know what happened, etc. Thanks to medication he doesn't get them anymore. He says he used to know he was about to have a seizure because things just started going weird and he would have some weird smell. Yet he was still fully aware of everything until the seizure. So I can see how this is plausible.
 
Andonyx said:
Some of this article reminds me of the Phineas Gage story.

http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/GAGEPAGE/Pgstory.htm

He also suffered Temporal Lobe Trauma and underwent dramatic personality changes, and ultimately what some might call a shift in his morality view. I wonder if these two cases are related in that they affected the same structures of the brain?

I realize at this point I'm just talking to myself on this topic, but at least I find it interesting.
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FYI, there's a brand new book out about the Phineas gage story: Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman.
 
I wouldn't jump on this bandwagon too quickly. As the first line clearly states, "some cases".

I really wish these articles posted links to the actual studies (when available).
 
I think I found the tru purpose of the BBC article linked in the opening post. If you read all the way to the bottom you'll find this:
Horizon: God On The Brain will be broadcast in April on BBC Two.
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It's a ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ ad for an upcoming TV show.
 
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