60. GOD — Part C
Ten years ago senior TIME magazine writer, Jeffrey Kluger, wrote an article for the magazine entitled “The Biology of Belief.” He reported a growing body of scientific evidence that faith may bring us health. “People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God.” He also affirmed that our brains and bodies contain a lot of spiritual wiring. He called attention to the positive impact of meditation, prayer, church attendance, fasting and even dialogue on our well being. He pointed to the long-time seminal work of physician and neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Newberg.
Newberg acknowledges scientists who view religious and spiritual adaptations across millions of years and who believe that those adaptations have been incorporated into the biological mechanisms of the brain. “Of course,” added Newberg, “if you’re a religious individual, it also makes sense that if there is a God up there and we’re down here that we would have a brain that’s capable of communicating to God, praying to God, doing the things that God needs us to do.”
In a recent article in Medical News Today written by Ana Sandoiu and entitled “How religious experiences may benefit mental health,” Sandoiu reported that not only does prayer impact our well being, but religious belief can also increase lifespan. She cites Newberg’s research that found the brain areas activated by prayer and meditation are linked with “increased focus and attention, planning skills, the ability to project into the future, and the ability to construct complex arguments.”
“In another study when participants were asked whether, and to what degree, they were ‘feeling the spirit,’ those who reported the most intense spiritual feelings displayed increased activity in the bilateral nucleus accumbens, as well as the frontal attentional and ventromedial prefrontal cortical loci. These pleasure and reward-processing brain areas are also active when we engage in sexual activities, listen to music, gamble, and take drugs. The participants also reported feelings of peace and physical warmth.”
“These findings echo those of older studies, which found that engaging in spiritual practices raises levels of serotonin, which is the ‘happiness’ neurotransmitter, and endorphins.”
Newberg feels that neuroscience can provide answers to age-old epistemological questions about the nature of reality, consciousness, and spirituality.
The scientific literature on health-related effects of spiritual experiences is growing, said Newberg, who wrote the book How God Changes Your Brain. “Generally, religious and spiritual beliefs and practices reduce depression, stress and anxiety and provide people a sense of meaning and purpose,” he said. “Additionally, it is also important to understand the potential negative consequences. … For example, would this study yield similar or different results if the subjects were members of ISIS and provided religious quotes and videos supporting those beliefs? That could be a fascinating study.”
In her article “Is There a God?” found at EveryStudent.com, Marilyn Adamson offers six reasons for the existence of God. “Just once wouldn’t you love for someone to simply show you the evidence for God’s existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of, ‘You just have to believe.’ Well, here is an attempt to candidly offer some of the reasons, which suggest that God exists. … If God does exist, would I want to know him? Here then, are some reasons to consider…”
“1. The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today. … Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.”
“The human brain processes more than a million messages a second. Your brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows you to focus and operate effectively in your world. The brain functions differently than other organs. There is an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action, and relate to other people.”
“2. The universe had a start — what caused it? Scientists are convinced that our universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which we now call the Big Bang. This was the singular start to everything that exists: the beginning of the universe, the start of space, and even the initial start of time itself.
“Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-described agnostic, stated, ‘The seed of everything that has happened in the Universe was planted in that first instant; every star, every planet and every living creature in the Universe came into being as a result of events that were set in motion in the moment of the cosmic explosion…The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen.’ … Scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter.”
“3. The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it? Much of life may seem uncertain, but look at what we can count on day after day: gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn’t change — on earth or in galaxies far from us. How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable? … Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said, ‘Why nature is mathematical is a mystery…The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle.’”
“4. The DNA code informs, programs a cell’s behavior. All instruction, all teaching, all training comes with intent. Someone who writes an instruction manual does so with purpose. Did you know that in every cell of our bodies there exists a very detailed instruction code, much like a miniature computer program?”
“Well, just like you can program your phone to beep for specific reasons, DNA instructs the cell. DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.
“Why is this so amazing? One has to ask…how did this information program wind up in each human cell? These are not just chemicals. These are chemicals that instruct, that code in a very detailed way exactly how the person’s body should develop.”
“5. We know God exists because he pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to him. I was an atheist at one time. And like many atheists, the issue of people believing in God bothered me greatly. What is it about atheists that we would spend so much time, attention, and energy refuting something that we don’t believe even exists?! What causes us to do that? When I was an atheist, I attributed my intentions as caring for those poor, delusional people…to help them realize their hope was completely ill-founded. To be honest, I also had another motive. As I challenged those who believed in God, I was deeply curious to see if they could convince me otherwise. Part of my quest was to become free from the question of God. If I could conclusively prove to believers that they were wrong, then the issue is off the table, and I would be free to go about my life.
“I didn’t realize that the reason the topic of God weighed so heavily on my mind, was because God was pressing the issue. I have come to find out that God wants to be known. He created us with the intention that we would know him. He has surrounded us with evidence of himself and he keeps the question of his existence squarely before us. It was as if I couldn’t escape thinking about the possibility of God. In fact, the day I chose to acknowledge God’s existence, my prayer began with, ‘Ok, you win…’ It might be that the underlying reason atheists are bothered by people believing in God is because God is actively pursuing them.”
“6. Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us. Why Jesus? Look throughout the major world religions and you’ll find that Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified themselves as teachers or prophets. None of them ever claimed to be equal to God. Surprisingly, Jesus did. That is what sets Jesus apart from all the others. He said God exists and you’re looking at him. Though he talked about his Father in heaven, it was not from the position of separation, but of very close union, unique to all humankind. Jesus said that anyone who had seen Him had seen the Father, anyone who believed in him, believed in the Father.”
Q: Reflecting upon the content cited above, with what parts do you identify?
