Human Brains Hardwired For Spirituality?

[Left Leanings]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133032/There-God-spot-new-research-claims-instead-spirituality-exists-brain.html

I suppose this could have gone in the 'religion' section, but I've put it here anyway.

Scientists have been arguing for a long time, that human beings are 'hardwired' to have a predisposition for spirituality, and that there is a specific 'god spot' for this form of behaviour.

Now additional complexities have emerged, cos researchers are saying that many areas of the brain give rise to spiritual leanings.

[Sentinel]

It makes sense to me that such a 'spot' in the brain would have developed as a response to growing intelligence and the resulting pondering over the meaning of life, death etc. A defense mechanism of sorts.

Luckily humans can be taught to ignore and forget those feelings.

[black magick hustla]

there are all sorts of "religious like" feelings that are not about gods. i imagine natonalism, humanism, etc. fill that void in different ways. fuck, communism too.

[the last donut of the night]

Luckily humans can be taught to ignore and forget those feelings.

i think communists' main goal should defend the right to be fully human, something capitalism takes away from us every day. it's pretty important we keep those feelings

[Anarcho-Brocialist]

A study was done to actually see if this was true, when they performed the studies on religious folks, they believed there was a God by the activity in the brain, when they did it on Atheists, no special activity was produced. Accordingly, their is no genetic 'God Gene'. It's all prattle.

[X5N]

I don't believe it really matters anyways. Humans have the amazing ability to contradict their supposed programming. It's just a matter of making people believe that there's no reason to contradict this "programming."

[Ostrinski]

There is no "programming." Humans find use for spirituality through interaction with their environment.

[Left Leanings]

Personally, I don't know what to think about it. I'm no scientist, and the debate goes on. Thanks for your replies anyway, comrades :)

[NewLeft]

There is no "programming." Humans find use for spirituality through interaction with their environment.
Tabula rasa is contested, but first, of course there is programming for our senses. Then there's more controversial indications (for us on the left) that there's genetic influence on our IQ, gender identity and behavior. Between environmental determinism and hereditarianism, hereditarianism has the empirical data.

[Ostrinski]

Tabula rosa is contested, but first, of course there is programming for our senses. Then there's more controversial indications (for us on the left) that there's genetic influence on our IQ, gender identity and behavior. Between environmental determinism and hereditarianism, hereditarianism has the empirical data.Let's see this empirical data.

All of this which of course has nothing to do with spiritual programming, as all things spiritual are undoubtedly socially constructed for there is no spiritual realm, and so it can come from no other place than society and therefore be born out of interactions with said society.

[TrotskistMarx]

You know life i a mistery. I wonder what would happen after we die, death is a big mistery !!



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133032/There-God-spot-new-research-claims-instead-spirituality-exists-brain.html

I suppose this could have gone in the 'religion' section, but I've put it here anyway.

Scientists have been arguing for a long time, that human beings are 'hardwired' to have a predisposition for spirituality, and that there is a specific 'god spot' for this form of behaviour.

Now additional complexities have emerged, cos researchers are saying that many areas of the brain give rise to spiritual leanings.

[Left Leanings]

You know life i a mistery. I wonder what would happen after we die, death is a big mistery !!

When we die, there is nothing. Our physical brain ceases to be, and our consciousness, identity, feelings etc, cease to be also. That's my take on it, anyway.

[Armchair War Criminal]

People practice spirituality, but not always, so we already know, prior to any systematic investigation, that human nature is such that it provides necessary but not sufficient conditions for spirituality. So a headline like "human brains hardwired for spirituality!" fails to mean anything. Pointing to results from brains to show that behavioral differences between people are due to innate differences is equally confused, because just whatever our individual minds do - innate, learned, whatever - supervenes on brains.

Of course, systematic empirical investigation can tell us about what those preconditions are, how spirituality works in more detail, and so on. There's been a lot of cool research on meditation recently. But that's a different matter.


Tabula rasa is contested, but first, of course there is programming for our senses. Then there's more controversial indications (for us on the left) that there's genetic influence on our IQ, gender identity and behavior. Between environmental determinism and hereditarianism, hereditarianism has the empirical data.

If by hereditarianism you mean "any genetic influence exists" then yes, obviously hereditarianism has the empirical data. But that's not how the terms are generally used and the reifying model that generally accompanies hereditarian approaches (conventionally understood) is on really really bad epistemological footing.

[Kenco Smooth]

Let's see this empirical data.

All of this which of course has nothing to do with spiritual programming, as all things spiritual are undoubtedly socially constructed for there is no spiritual realm, and so it can come from no other place than society and therefore be born out of interactions with said society.

The link between g (I dislike referring to it as 'intelligence' due to the slipperiness of the word) and genetics is well documented (http://genetica.ufcspa.edu.br/artigos/artigos%20recentes/Genetics%20of%20intelligence.pdf). Not got references to hand for sex-identity and admit to not be familiar with the literature but it's my understanding that the general consensus is that there is a large genetic factor involved, but again don't quote me on that.

I'm not sure your reasoning holds up. Individuals suffering from schizophrenia and severe forms of psychosis can display cognition quite detached from what could be called material reality but that isn't evidence for the pure construction of their delusions and hallucinations. Rather these are understood as the result of typical cognition acting in bizarre ways. For example auditory hallucinations of schizophrenics have been linked to faults in the production and processing of speech (both processes that are uncontroversially heavily genetically influenced). That's not to say that auditory hallucinations are not largely tempered by environmental factors (the simple fact they take the form of language is evidence that they are) but it is evidence that mental processes (the functioning of which are genetically influenced) can produce results that need not be prompted by materially reality or present themselves to the senses.

For example there's no way spirituality could take form without a certain ability to undertake abstract thought. That's simply one process which could mediate a genetic or neurophysiological influence onto spiritual feelings.