Will Neurological Research disprove the Existence of God?

Question

It reinforces atheistic assumptions and makes religion appear useless," said Nancey Murphy, a professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. "If you can explain religious experience purely as a brain phenomenon, you don't need the assumption of the existence of God."

This quote comes from a field of research on the forefront of neurological studies.

It has found that stimulation of certain parts of the brain (known as the god spot) as well as certain froms of epilepsy will give the subject a religious experience.

If you do a search on the subject you will find more information on the issue.

What does this mean for your faith?
Could anything ever offer evidence to you that there could infact be no God?
What does it mean to the atheist?

Answer 1

I think that ultimate it will help. As the years have gone by society has taken advantage of all that we have learned using the hindsight of history. We can look back to how religions evolved from paganism, polytheistic, monotheistic, we can even look at specific people such as Constantine who helped mould the Christian beliefs to better suit his empire. Even now we can note changes such as the abolition of the concept of limbo, an attempt to make the religion more ‘user friendly’.
We look back and can now explain how religion was used in the past as a social control, a way to give hope in exchange for the adherence to a moral code or series of beliefs. A way of ensuring people live life by certain rules or else risk some kind of eternal damnation or punishment.
But as we have advanced, many of the questions that religion created answers for in the past can now be explained using logic and scientific principles. Much of what the bible and the Koran etc say can now be refuted using simple scientific knowledge however even in spite of the vast amount of evidence against some religious beliefs, many people seem unwilling to even entertain such thoughts as evolution, plate tectonics or even the age of the universe.
Now with this added research into the brain we could finally be seeing an answer for why this is so. If we can explain where these beliefs come from, and why it is so easy for people to be exploited because of them, then perhaps from this greater understanding we could educate people and try to end the ignorance that some religious belief creates.
So it seems that science and reason could not only help explain the physical world better than religion, but also the intricacies of the human mind and why we belief things beyond reason.
Hmmm, interesting


Also, in response to a previous answer, this is not atheistic research; it is scientific research which has turned up answers you don’t want to know. Anyhow, isn’t all scientific research by religious definition atheistic because it seeks to understand how things truly work, not merely using the blanket term of “God made it so”?

Answer 2

Well see that's the thing, first a god has to have definable attributes. Not one deity has clearly definable attributes that can be scientifically proven or disproved. However, because I am stubborn and I think this is a good question... I'll take the bait just for fun. Omnipotence is an attribute many theists claim their deity has. Omnipotence leads to paradoxes. If God knows everything, he knows what he will do in the "future" (in any dimension, not necessary the time dimension). He must have known that from the very start of his own existence. Thus god's actions are predestined. God is tied by faith, he has no free will. If God has no free will God is not omnipotent. Another way to put it is that to be able to make plans and decisions one must act over time. If God stands above time he can not do that and has no free will. Indeed, if god stands above all dimensions god is dimensionless - a singularity, nothing, void! Besides there can exist no free wills at all if a God is almighty. If you had a free will, such a God wouldn't know what you would do tomorrow and wouldn't be omnipotent. Also, I shall cite Occam's razor, formulated by William of Occam which states "Non est ponenda pluralites sive necessitate" or in English: "Do not multiply entities unless necessarily". It is a principle for scientific labor which means that one should use a simple explanation with a few explanatory premises before a more complex one. Let's say that everything must be created, and that was done by an omnipotent god. A god which stands above time, space, moral and existence, which is self containing and in it self has it's own cause. This entity can surely be replaced by the known world. The world stands above time, space, moral, existence, is self containing and in it has it's own meaning. Most theists agree that god has a nature. Then we must raise the question, who created God's nature? If we just accept that god has a nature and exists without a cause, why not say that the known world just is and that the laws of physics are what they are, without a cause? God is not really an explanation, only a non-explanation. It is impossible to gain information from non-information so God as an explanation is a dead end. When we have said that the reason for something is that 'God did it that way' there is no way to understand it any further. We just shrug our shoulders and accept things as they are. To explain the unknown by God is only to explain how it happened, not WHY. If we are to investigate the world and build our views of life from the world, we cannot assume a God. Because adding God as an explanation leaves as many, if not more questions than it explains, God has to be removed with Occam's razor if we are serious in investigating the world.

Answer 3

I am an atheist and have heard this before, as well as evidence that being religious might be linked to a certain genome in the DNA structure.

I believe that this evidence that God is created by man will convince few people already religious, but future generations will be more likely atheists when they have been presented with these kind of findings. Most of the religious will accept nothing that is proof against the existence of god.

Answer 4

I am somewhat familliar with Murphy but am surprised by this quote - is it out of context? Murphy is involved with psychology as well as philosophy...

She's saying that if we can explain religious feelings as brain phenomenon then God doesn't necessarily exist as the source of those feelings.

But God still may exist as the prime mover or source of the universe or as our creator, etc.

Even if there's a God spot in our brain that causes religious experiences, God might be the one tickling it.

Answer 5

Any research that starts with the word Christian, is biased towards that subject, and any thing from a theology seminary has to be considered biased, simply because of the climate in which the thesis is developed

Answer 6

How about those mushrooms with psilocybin that cause people to have a religious experience. Yeah neurological research will disprove the existence of god. Come to think of it, most scientific based research does the same.

Answer 7

i've seen much physical evidence that supports the existence of god. I'm referring of course to miracles. Although most unbelievers just chalk up miracles to coincedence (The man's heart started beating again conveniently at the same time when the christian started trying to raise him form the dead, etc) But there is just too many occurences like this to be considered coincedence.

Answer 8

You're absolutely right. There is a God spot in the brain. Many people that have seizures have religious experiences and or become religious. Great point..

Answer 9

All branches of science consistently expand our knowledge and experience, leaving less and less space for mythologies. There is no purpose to disprove anything; it is just a process of finding out about our world. Science also does not try to disprove something that have never been clearly formulated and never had any evidence.

Answer 10

Never. Why does God threaten you so much if you dont' believe in HIs existance? Your fear of Him perhaps??? Put this topic to bed and give it a rest. It's old and starting to smell like a dead horse. God is real, He is our creator, He sent His one and only son to die on the cross for our sins so we can have eternal life by accepting Jesus as our savior. Get over it.