God and the Brain

What is the nature of reality? If you look around; some of you may state that you know the difference between what is real and unreal. Some might also say, for instance, that other people are real, and also physical objects are real. This is how everything certainly appears!

Everything is in the brain. There is a true story of a little girl , who was born without the ability to feel pain at Life full of danger for the girl who can't feel pain . If she touched a hot stove, or her arm was in a twisted position; she would not be aware of the danger, because she could not feel the pain associated with the event. So, obviously, the feeling of pain is in her brain, not in her limb. Also, there are numerous cases where one loses a limb, yet believes it is still there (Phantom Limb Sensation). Some schizophrenics hear voices. These voices are very real to the schizophrenic; the schizophrenics' brain generates sounds heard by the schizophrenic, as if they were generated by an outside source. In multiple personality disorder, when the person's brain is monitored for heat patterns by a CT scan, there are really different patterns associated with each personality; leading one to believe that in reality many people do technically exist in this person's brain.

The human brain cannot always be trusted. If you were to place a small x on a piece of paper about two feet in front of you, and offset to the right side. Then draw a dot 5 inches directly across from the x toward the left. Looking directly at the x with your right eye closed and the dot in your peripheral view, bring the paper toward you slowly, looking directly at the x with your left eye. The dot should disappear at some point (You may have to slightly move the paper back and forth, right and left to make dot disappear). The brain fills in what it thinks should be there. So, our brain has the ability to deceive us.

What is the brain? The brain is an organ with collections of nerve cells. The nerve cells form bridges with each other called synapses; this is how they communicate. No one know exactly what a thought is, but it is suggested that thoughts may lie somewhere among the clusters of neurons, maybe even in the junction of synapses.

If a surgeon were to stimulate various regions of the brain, then he would cause certain thoughts, emotions, or sounds to be experienced by the patient, because the patient's brain chemistry changes temporarily by the process of this stimulation. If a patient is given medication, his thought patterns also will change. These changes may last for sometime after the medication is ceased, depending on how long it takes for the drug to be eliminated from the body. So, brain chemistry influences how we think and behave.

How do we develop a specific brain chemistry? We are born with a certain brain chemistry, due to genes from our parents. If, for example, two parents have high testosterone levels, then the child is also likely to have high testosterone levels. Testosterone is a hormone that influences behavior. A person with high testosterone will tend to take more risks, be more aggressive, and have increased sexual desires.

So, we have a brain composed of numerous chemicals due to genes, which influences how we think throughout our lives. That is why people are so different. That's why it's impossible to win an argument at times, because everyone thinks differently due to varying biochemistries.

Now, imagine your brain on a UFO, with alien surgeons stimulating different regions of your brain with probes. Imagine your brain chemistry changing as your brain is being stimulated. First, the alien stimulates the sides of the brain, and makes you believe there are certain sounds in the environment. Then, the alien stimulates the back of the brain, making you see people. The alien continues to stimulate different regions; changing all sorts of neural chemical reactions. Now, imagine that when the alien is done doing his deeds; you see yourself and the world you currently exist in. Rene Descartes once stated in Descartes Selected Philosophical Writings(1988) that "You think, therefore you exist." So, you know for certain that you exist, because you think. You do not know for sure that anything else is real. Everything else could be created by our changing brain chemical balances. Rene Descartes further stated that he had proof for the existence for God. He suggested that people were imperfect. So, how can an imperfect being come up with a perfect thought, such as God? In Descarte's view he could not. He believed that the thought of God must have come from outside of the person and independent of him based on the perfection idea, proving the existence of God, in his opinion.

Studies conducted by Dr. Persinger in Percept Mot Skills (1984) suggest that there is a region of the brain associated with religious feelings. They noticed in patients, who were very religious, that they had accelerated heat patterns on their right temporal lobes of their brains. Also, people with seizures in the right temporal lobes often experience increased mystical feelings. So, incredibly, maybe the difference between an atheist and a believer is a difference in brain chemistry. The question is whether the perception of God is external or internal to the brain. Well, if we look at pit vipers, they perceive their prey with sensors that can detect heat patterns generated from their prey. Their brain chemistries are able to interpret these patterns. Humans do not see these heat patterns. Does this mean that the heat patterns that pit vipers sense, are not real, since we cannot naturally perceive these patterns? Of course not! So, maybe some people have certain brain chemistries in their right temporal lobes that allows them to perceive an alternate reality. Maybe the right temporal lobe of the brain is our link to God. The brain does not know the difference between an image we see, and an image we think about. The exact same heat patterns that are generated can be observed with a CT scan.

The brain may have the ability to influence reality. So, thinking positive, may influence the outcome of an event. They also state that reality may not exist unless there is an observer.

Persinger MA. 1984,People who report religious experiences may also display enhanced temporal-lobe signs.Percept Mot Skills:963-75

Descartes Selected Philosophical Writings trans Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988.

Oppenheim Keith, Life full of danger for the girl who can't feel pain ,CNN.com