Will neurotheology cause faith to wane? Not likely, experts say

Posted: 11/23/07

Will neurotheology cause faith
to wane? Not likely, experts say

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—If science asserts that prayer is more neurological than metaphysical, will it cause the believers to abandon their faith? It’s highly unlikely, experts in the field of neurotheology agree.

Neurotheology is the study of the correlation between neurological and spiritual activity. Its aim is to find a neurological basis for belief-based experiences like trances, perceived oneness with the universe and altered states of consciousness. Proponents say it can also help explain the daily habits of religious life, namely prayer, meditation and senses of the presence of God.

Some observers worry the emerging field may affect the faith of countless churchgoers. Others are not so worried.

“The ordinary person who attends church will dismiss this as a minor blip on the screen,” said Paul Simmons, a clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. “It will make them angry at the world of science in a way that they should not be, but it’s understandable.”

For Christian fundamentalists, it likely will be a call to arms, he said.

“It proves what they are saying—(that) science is their enemy,” said Simmons, a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “And it’s true, science is their enemy. There is an irreconcilable conflict there.”

Despite the disapproval of some, neurotheology pioneer Brian Alston said he is hopeful for the future of the discipline he has devoted himself to forming. Neurotheology will help scientists and theologians alike navigate through a world that is increasingly becoming a single community, “a backyard,” he said.

“It has tremendous implications in how we see and interact with others in the world, tremendous for how we do our politics, tremendous for how we look at the environment…,” Alston said. “When people study these things and know what people believe around the world, they’re less likely to be caught off guard.”

Alston, who started looking at the correlations between the brain and belief in the 1980s at Yale Divinity School, is now pursing a doctorate in clinical psychology from Argosy University. His book, What is Neurotheology?, was published this spring.

A large component of the field is the impact it can have on ideas, and when Christians study their ideas, they can better understand other religions, he said. Eastern psychologists and religions traditionally have encouraged the study of meditation and mind-body wholeness, Alston continued, citing the success of a book by the Dali Lama about Buddhism and the brain.

Indeed, Eastern religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, have long respected the connections between the mind and the body. And a lot of Muslim intellectuals will be “turned on” by the interest in neurological activity, Simmons added.

Among intellectuals, some scientists will give up what they call “infantile” beliefs in favor of believing that religion is fabricated by chemicals in the brain, but other scientists will continue “an emotional attachment” to religion, Simmons said.

That’s fine by him. Good theology always stays in touch with the insights of science, but it never simply accepts the conclusions some scientists reach in religious matters, Simmons said. And it never tells people what to think or believe.

“Science does not give us religious conclusions. If a scientist says there is no God—now wait a minute, that’s not your province,” Simmons said. “As the same time, science can tell us about some people who make claims about God. You cannot prove religious assertions one way or another, but you can say something about the corollary assertions.”

Neurotheology, for instance, can help determine the difference between someone who is mentally unstable and someone who is a visionary, Simmons said. Joan of Arc heard God, or at least she thought she did. But there are too many bizarre things in her life to think she had a direct line to God, he added.

“We cannot just say, ‘Now you’ve got the answer, sure.’ No. The same activity that gives one person a religious experience gives someone else a breakdown,” he said.

On the other hand, Martin Luther King Jr. never claimed to have a vision from God, Simmons pointed out. He never claimed “direct insight into God. He had a strong God-consciousness but never made claims to the bizarre or the unusual, as you get with some people who claim to be prophets,” Simmons said.

Simmons, who wrote Freedom of Conscience: A Baptist/Humanist Dialogue in 2000, said his first reaction to someone who says they have “a direct word from God” is “extreme skepticism and maybe cynicism.”

He noted that Jesus warned that some people would make claims about being the savior, so “someone has to stand up and say, ‘Wait a minute, we know too much about the brain’s chemistry to be taken in by charlatans.’”

“Those are dangerous people,” he added. “Sincere? Well, yes. But sincerity is no test for truth.”