This is your brain on religion (or Madonna)
See this pretty picture of a brain lit up by singing gospel songs? What if I told you those same pathways would light up for a Madonna fan at a karaoke bar yelping along with the rocker’s lyrics.
Dr. Alasdair Coles, a lecturer in neurology at University of Cambridge, and an Anglican priests as well, takes a very acerbic look at brain imaging studies of the faithful, particular those that make claims of unique brain findings for people who have religious or mystical experiences.
His lecture at our seminar today was titled “Neurotheology” and he had a definition: “the scientific study of the mechanisms of brain function which underlie human religious behavior, belief and experience.” Then he debunked his own title.
Yes, the brain is involved, he says, but “this tells us nothing about God.” It shows interest in brain mechanism and it tells us more about humans and their individual reaction but “it doesn’t look at communal or societal effects” and, he says, “it has largely consisted of poor experiments — over-interpreted and uncritically taken up by media.” (Ouch!)
He took a cudgel to several studies, particularly ones that relied on brain imaging, but failed the “so what?” question. So what if, for a handful of faithful Catholics, looking at a picture of the Virgin Mary reduced their experience of pain. Would passionate fans of rocker Madonna have had the same effect?
And, as Fraser Watts, theologian and psychology Fellow here at Cambridge and our host, pointed out, “Nothing in the Gospel is about giving people less pain. It’s quite the opposite.”
So, are there brain signatures for religious experiences, a mark of the awareness of an unverifiable God? Coles looked at another study aimed precisely at this. it concluded there were “no differences in the signatures for verifiable or unverifiable beliefs.”
However, interestingly enough, Coles, who holds an “unverifiable hypothesis” of a belief in God himself, thinks that doesn’t mean we might not one day, with improved technology, find something here. ”You or I can have the same numinous feeling but for some of us it acquires significance over and above the earthbound reality.”
Two Days In
First two preview days in Chatham have passed without death or injury. The first night, astonishingly, provoked a standing ovation, despite the fact that I felt the first half went pretty terribly. We’d all been concerned about whether the second half would play well, and confident about the first: the surprising outcome for us was that it was the first that needed the most attention. Things that you imagine will be inherently fun just fall a bit flat, or take too long; you realise that segments are too wordy or bits need to be re-arranged to create the strongest impact. So we cut out some pieces, tightened others, and made a whole load of changes. The second night was better, though my balding headlet got confused over some of the changes and left a few bits shoddier than I would have liked. Such is the nature of previews, and the audience get to see a work in progress, which has its own pleasures.
I don’t want to mention any specifics from the show, so please, if you’ve seen it, please please don’t talk publically about the content either. I’m very careful in pre-tour interviews, despite journalists’ wearying insistence, not to give anything away that happens in the show (partly because we make so many changes late, but mainly because I want to preserve the surprises). So I hope you’ll join in with that as we go along and more of you see it. There are a few more previews left and then Wednesday the official first night kicks off in Hastings. That’s Hastings, which I royally frigged off last year by having to cancel when I couldn’t speak. At least this year they’ll get a reasonably fresh voice.
TTFN,
X
Need a wee.
An hour or so before the first night kicks off. Very much looking forward to it. Chatham delightful.
X
Jedi police
Eight police officers serving with Scotland’s largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, it has emerged. Strathclyde Police said the officers and two of its civilian staff claimed to follow the faith, which features in the Star Wars movies.
The details were obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Jane’s Police Review. Strathclyde was the only force in the UK to admit it had Jedi officers. In the Star Wars films, Jedi Knights such as Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda use the Force to battle the evil Darth Vader, who has strayed to the dark side.
About 390,000 people listed their religion as Jedi in the 2001 Census for England and Wales. In Scotland the figure was a reported 14,000.
The Office for National Statistics did not recognise it as a separate category, and incorporated followers of Jedi with atheists. Last year, brothers Barney and Daniel Jones founded the UK Church of the Jedi – which offered sermons on the Force, light sabre training, and meditation techniques.
The psychology of luck
Psychologists have documented the many irrational ways we think about luck, from the fact we prefer to make our own choice in gambling games (thus increasing our sense of control) to our belief in lucky runs or hot numbers. Now Michael Wohl and Michael Enzle have extended this research by showing that we are prepared to hand over control to others if we believe they are likely to be luckier than we are. Wohl and Enzle call this “illusion of control by proxy”.
Derren Brown Makes Woman Invisible
Mind-Lord Derren Brown is in trouble tonight after one of his stunts went terribly, terribly wrong. Brown made a volunteer from his audience seemingly completely invisible but soon admitted he had no idea how to make her visible again.
The Earth will be destroyed by flood
Republican congressman John Shimkus’s introductory remarks at a House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing last week.
I’m actually speechless!
Fir tree found in man’s lung
A MAN suffering from chest pains was astonished to discover that what his doctors thought was a tumour was, in fact, a fir tree growing in his lung. Medical staff say that Artyom Sidorkin, 28, inhaled a seed which then sprouted inside his body.
Sidorkin, of the Urals region of Russia, was believed to have cancer after he checked in to hospital with chest pains and coughing blood. After an X-ray revealed an apparent tumour, he was rushed into surgery.
“We were 100 per cent sure,” said surgeon Vladimir Kamashev. ”We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery.” Before the operation, which would have removed a major part of Sidorkin’s lung, the surgeon carried out a biopsy to investigate the growth.
“I thought I was hallucinating,” said Kamashev. “I told my assistant, ‘Come and see this – we’ve got a fir tree here’. He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things.” The 2in spruce, which was said to be touching the man’s capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.
Sidorkin, now recovering after the operation, said: “To be honest, I did not feel any foreign object inside me. But I’m just so relieved it’s not cancer.”
London Paper (Thanks Sabina)
Coronation Street in skeptic remark row
Angry Coronation Street viewers have complained to Ofcom and ITV after a character made “anti-Christian” remarks during an episode on Easter Sunday. The broadcast watchdog said it received 23 complaints over Ken Barlow referring to the faith as “superstition” and God as a “supernatural being”.
TV said it received about 100 complaints over the remarks. It added the soap was set in modern society and “represents views from all sides of the religious spectrum”. In the soap, while the Barlow family were preparing to go to church, Ken – played by William Roache – questioned his son Peter on why he was allowing his grandson, Simon, to be “indoctrinated” by the church.
He then went on to criticise Simon’s school for teaching creationism. After the family returned from church, Ken began to tell his grandson that Jesus rising from the dead “may not necessarily be true” and that scientists think the Big Bang created the universe.
Ofcom said it would be taking the complaints seriously.
BBC (Thanks Hogg)
Long Island man sues Mendham psychic in alleged $250K scam
A New York man claims a psychic he met online who was supposed to tell his fortune instead scammed him of $250,000 amid promises of creating an anti-negativity gold statue.
In a lawsuit filed today in Superior Court in Morristown, Charles Silveira, 38, of Seaford, Long Island, names as defendant Ava T. Miller, 32, a psychic he met online and who lives in Mendham, Morris County.
Silveira gave Miller thousands of dollars over a period of several months, funds she allegedly used for a trip to Florida, which she claimed was necessary to perform specific psychic rituals, as well as to buy gold for a statue “to ward off the negativity in his life,” the lawsuit claims.
Some of the payments were made via transactions with Miller’s daughter at the Short Hills Mall, according to the lawsuit. In all, Silveira paid $247,850 and never received the statue, according to the lawsuit. Silveira also bought more than $5,000 in Chanel purses for Miller as a gift for her sacrifice of giving up her work.
In March 2008, Miller convinced Silveira to buy her a home in Mendham, the lawsuit states. Miller allegedly claimed “she loved him and wanted to be with him, and that they would live together” there.
NJ.com (Thanks Siobhan)
