Church: No Brain Activity Required

It seems that all major religions share the experience of transcendence. Personally in my religious indoctrination as a child, I never felt it. But lots of people have. It's a feeling of being one with god where you lose your sense of self. I would guess if you ever felt like you were one with your god, that would strongly increase your faith. Right?

Well, now scientists at the University of Missouri have shown what happens during such experiences. When a person experiences transcendence, there is decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of  the brain. This area has to do with your senses, such as orienting yourself in space.



Note that people who have injuries to the right parietal lobe also report increased levels of spiritual experiences, which would further substantiate the findings of this study.

So, what does this mean? Of course, more studies should be done to further the research. But if parts of the brain shut down to give you that feeling of "old time religion", that means it's all in your head.

Science again proves that there is no such thing as the supernatural. (Of course there's not. By the very definition of the word, it's impossible. If something supernatural actually existed, it would be natural, by definition!)

Oh, I almost forgot some other stuff I learned! This part of the brain is also important for being able to do math. So I guess that's why some religious folks can't tell the difference between 4.5 billion and about 6,000? HA!

Well, what a great way to start the xmas holiday celebration. Now I'm off to eat spaghetti with fish sauce (some weird catholic thing, I have no idea why they do that) and drink eggnog, and watch people pray to their god. Let's see if they provoke me to bring this study up over dessert.