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March 10, 2009
Not Quite the 'God Spot'
I just read an article in the Independent about a paper by Dimitrios Kapogiannis, Aron K. Barbey, Michael Su, Giovanna Zamboni, Frank Krueger, and Jordan Grafman on the biological foundations of religious belief in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The title of the paper is "Cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief." I tend to be very skeptical of these kinds of studies. I haven't read the actual paper. It costs $10.00 and I'm feeling cheap today. I may pick it up at the library tomorrow. However, the supporting information that describes their experiments is free online. I found some of this from the Independent article abnormally interesting.
The researchers said their findings support the idea that the brain has evolved to be sensitive to any form of belief that improves the chances of survival, which could explain why a belief in God and the supernatural became so widespread in human evolutionary history.[snip]
The latest study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved analysing the brains of volunteers, who had been asked to think about religious and moral problems and questions. For the analysis, the researchers used a functional magnetic-resonance imaging machine, which can identify the most energetically-active regions of the brain.
They found that people of different religious persuasions and beliefs, as well as atheists, all tended to use the same electrical circuits in the brain to solve a perceived moral conundrum – and the same circuits were used when religiously-inclined people dealt with issues related to God. The study found that several areas of the brain are involved in religious belief, one within the frontal lobes of the cortex – which are unique to humans – and another in the more evolutionary-ancient regions deeper inside the brain, which humans share with apes and other primates, Professor Grafman said.
I do have several concerns. Did Jordan Grafman and company really find the biological foundations of religious belief or did they find part of the neurological system that supports moral activity, behaviors that humans may have wrapped up with religious constructs and beliefs? There is a growing body of evidence for a biological foundation, and therefore, an evolutionary foundation, for moral behaviors that other apes and some other primates exhibit. I guess I'm convinced from the Independent article and the supporting material that the researchers found something, I'm just not so sure what it is. And then, my prejudices rather than the evidence may well govern my own views and worries on this subject.
What they didn't find was "the brain's 'God spot'" as the title, "Belief and the brain's 'God spot'," of the Independent article seems to claim. In fact, the article specifically says,
"There is nothing unique about religious belief in these brain structures. Religion doesn't have a 'God spot' as such, instead it's embedded in a whole range of other belief systems in the brain that we use everyday," Professor Grafman said.
So why did they go with that headline? The same reason that journalists report finding Noah's ark or that some ancient building complex in Jerusalem is David's palace. It sells.
Update March 11, 2009:
Fixed PNAS paper link
Posted by Duane Smith at March 10, 2009 7:45 PM | Read more on Evolution |
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Comments
What no G-spot? Or is this something different?
(Your comments page finally remembered me!)
Posted by: Aydin at March 11, 2009 10:28 AM
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