Is God (just) a manifestation of the human brain?

Question

All humans perceive God - even the ones who don't 'believe'. To construct an argument either way we must perceive God. Is that where it stops?

Answer 1

I think that the more intriguing question is: How did the ever so complex human brain come to existence?

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Accepting your arguement that God is just a manufestation of human brain answer me:

How come the different cultures worldwide, even where one group was not aware of others, were worshipping a power as their creator in some form or the other?

If it is a manufestation of human mind - there must be atleast few communities who would not have got entangled in God believing circle. Is there any? If yes, which are they?

Is it possible that all groups - scattered around the world without knowing each other - conlude at a single point that leads to the concept of God?

Answer 4

It's self-evident to me that the ground of being existed before the emergence of human beings. In perceiving that ground, we are certainly perceiving something which exists independently of us, and is therefore not just a manifestation of our consciousness.

Rational argument can open the way to theistic faith, but can't establish it. That requires a decision of the whole person, not just intellectual assent to an argument. IMHO.

Answer 5

No. The brain is the physical manifestation of the human mind. The human body including the brain is the physical manifestation of our spiritual, emotional and mental dimensions--our soul. The spiritual dimension comes from God and God himself--his image and likeness. Our task is to "..make man in our image, after our likeness." Let it happen then as we believe.

Answer 6

Yes. You're hitting on a key point of perception vs reality. Perception could be better described as, perhaps, a Subjective Reality. We all live most of our life in a state of perception. This reality is dominated by our previous experiences of what we believed to be real. We in turn incorporated these beliefs (or disbeliefs) in to our current beliefs. The brain manufactures any missing pieces, thus preserving order. God is a missing piece and is definitely a part of most people's subjective reality. It is irrelevant if God exists in Objective Reality; we live in perception.

Answer 7

No. Brain as itself is just a cinema screen for but a little part of the mind.
On other hand it is true that what mind is perceiving is nothing but a concept. Mind will never be able to really know God. To know him our soul must merge in him (her/it).

Answer 8

Hell yeah.

If arguing I only need to respond to your perception not hold any perception of my own. I have many perceptions of what people think it is. Or even what i think, they think. I can't say what MY perception of god is.

Does god have a plan for us? Is god like the Force from star wars? Is there many of them? Did it die? Is it male? Am I god?

"Is that where it stops?" Yip. Don't worry yourself about it any more. It's all in peoples minds. Sometimes it does good (nice placebo). It can be comforting but so can taking veins full of drugs. So I don't recommend it. Better to do something meaningful with our time. We only get one shot.

Whatever your perception is, it doesn't exist.

Answer 9

I think to come to an understanding of your question of "Is God (just) a manifestation of the human brain?" we have to remember a little of human history.
We must remember that it was Fuerbach and Freud who posited that God was a manifestation of the mind in the late 1800's. To them all that we hold as value we project to a concept we call God. However, the flaw in this argument can be simply demonstrated. If Freud and Fuerbach are certain that God is a projection of human thought, can we be sure they are right? Is not this theory just their own projection? So, the argument cannot reach a certain and unbiased state to be true because it is too subjective and has no ground for objectivity. They are caught in the vicious cycle of their own accusation. They can say that God is only a Christian projection and the Christian can say to Freud and Fuerbach, "That's just your personal projection." And all the while no one is sure they are right.
However, the beginning of a Christian life of faith starts with the virtue of humility. Now humility is not self-sabotaging or "cutting" yourself down. That is false humility. Humility is the true estimation of self. As Christians we know we are not all there is in reality and there are things even more powerful than us. We know who we are and where we are in reality and do not propose to be so arrogant as to either believe there is no God or we are God. We did not arrive at this because it was a concept we invented. It is the culmination of the wisdom we have arrived at due to our experience of the grandness of life and the world around us. Since, it is not of our own making we cannot be accused of invention or delusion.
We as human beings regularly encounter things in life that are outside our subjectivity. To use a crude example, have we all percieved our own existence in order to exist? Did we not exist first and then as we grew older come to self-awareness and preceive the world and its people? And so, since we are not our own creator, then how did we come into existence?
Obviously, there must be a source that has no beginning in order to create us. If the souce did have a beginning like us, then it would be beholding to the same nature and circumstances as us. So the source must be without beginning and outside our nature and circumstances. I am referring to the first of the five proofs of God that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the Summa Theologica.
And so, the quote "perception is reality" (as some who have answered your question seem to suggest) does not hold. Allow me to offer a couple of examples that bear this out.
My old philosophy teacher, Doc D..., who is from New Jersey, admitted that he had never seen a deer before until he was an adult. It happened one night as he left campus a deer ran in front of his car. "The first thought that entered my mind was," he said, "That dog had horns!" So, you see he perceived a dog with horns, but was that the reality he encountered?
Another example was when I was in the first Gulf War. A three legged dog followed our platoon for 46 miles. I dug in for the night and saw the dog walking towards my fighting hole. I opened one of my MRE's to feed the poor animal. It was thin and you could see its ribs. I laid the food before the animal. The dog sniffed it and continued to walk. I perceived the dog was hungry, but was that the reality I encountered? And so, perception is not reality. Perception aids us in learning about reality, but not all we perceive is reality. Therefore, we must continually educate and inform ourselves and not think we know all there is to know.
The final thing to understand about God is that God is discerned from creation. Created things lead us to the understanding that there must have been something outside nature and beyond our perception to create all this and have it work. For example, the Honey Bee should not fly due to the proportion of its body and wings, and yet it does. There are atoms that ocupy two spaces at once (a little Quantum Physics explains this). Did we perceive this or discover this?
Yet, creation does not give us intimate knowledge of God. It only makes us aware of His power, effects, and presence. It is the ascent of the mind to accept the gift of faith that gives us intimate knowledge of God (all that has been taught for over two thousand years).
It is within faith that we come to know that God is not a logical concept, He is not an equation to solve, or a riddle to answer. He is a being to experience just as we all experience one another. Therefore, God is an experience. Is it not said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there." And so, God is within our own experience of friendship. God is that bonding experience that exists between peoples. Therefore, God is not a personal experience alone, God is better experienced and understood within a community. Now I can tell you what faith is, but I feel that I have said enough for now. If you wish to continue this dialogue then e-mail me at [e-mail].
May the Lord bless and keep you. May He let the light of His face shine upon you.
God's and your beast of burden
Fr. john

Answer 10

The best way to explain is, when we didnt understand how a plant grew we prayed to the sun god when we found out how a plant grew we stopped praying to a sun god. We killed off that god, as we learn more about ourselves we kill off the gods. a god is just a thing we put when we dont understand something