Are we really designed for Spirituality? Neurotheology can teach us something revealing (Part 1)

The city of New York, otherwise known as, “The Capital of the World”, is perhaps one of the most controversial cities ever known. This is due to the city’s liberality, freedom of expression, and its ethnic diversity. On a recent trip to Manhattan, while in the subway heading to the University of New York located near “The Village”- its name connotes the similarity to Paris-style city, for its resemblance - something interesting was witnessed. There I was, on Train number 1 when I was addressed on the 33rd Street station, under the Madison Square Garden.

In the path when the train stopped at 23rd Street, was a nun who sat in front of me. It was obvious that she was a nun by the characteristic manner of attire. To the right side sat a young college student between 21 to 23 years old. It was a safe assumption to say that she was a college student because I was able to briefly catch a glimpse of the book’s title: 'Principles of Neurotheology'. This is undoubtedly an excellent book written by Andrew Newberg, as Newberg was able to effectively address this sensitive issue in such a didactic way.

The student was in awe when she saw the nun, and stopped reading. Subsequently, the student casted a gaze on her without even blinking, and it lasted for several minutes. This certainly began to get very uncomfortable for the nun, as if an X-ray machine was exploring her soul. The nun, at the end, chose to ask the young woman, with a rather frightened voice, – Has something happened my dear child? - The young woman saw the door open to its latent curiosity, and then asked, - Nun, do you believe that God is within us? - The nun replied with a bit of fear, - Of course my child. God is always within us at all the times - Is God within us before birth or after we are born? - The student subsequently asked. The nun responded hesitantly, - God is inside us before we are born - Consequently, this sparked a new question into the mind of the young woman, - Then when we die, that means God dies too? -

The nun certainly did seem rattled, but responded by saying the following; - Of course not my dear child! God does not die when we die. God lives because he is eternal - The student replied with an abundance of questions, - If God is eternal, then why if we were made to his image and likeness, are we not eternal as well? Or does God only live in us when we are alive and leave us when we die? Are we genetically predisposed to believe in God, or are we maybe designed by nature to believe in God to compensate for our fears? - At this point, the nun was upset after being inundated with questions, and that all the passengers eyes were on her. Her response to the student’s question was. - I think I reached my station, I'm sorry child, but I have to leave you -and got off the train with incredible speed.



Subsequently, the young woman then drew her attention towards me. There I was as I thought to myself, what??? oh no!!!, here we go again!!! The student then went on to bloviate. - What happens to these religious people is that they do not know that God is a product of our nervous system, and according to Neuroscience we have a neuronal quality - Of course I could not tell that student that this was where I had to get off because the train had already passed my destination. As the student left, she said goodbye, and told me - Thank you for the conversation. It was interesting - I obviously did not respond back as I was only the witness to what had just transpired.

After this experience in the city, one could understand that our youth is in search of materials and scientific answers rather than religion. It is known that neuroscience is making great strides and discoveries while creating a new dimension(s) that have yet to be totally explored. Also, just to elucidate the argument that was disseminated in the beginning of this article, the questions that the student asked were certainly not aimed at the nun, but rather to herself.

Perhaps the questions were being directed to a different field, physics. Physics is the natural science that studies the properties, behavior, energy, matter, time, space, and interrelationships of these four concepts together. Maybe it was directed to philosophy which is the study of a variety of fundamental questions about issues such as existence, knowledge, truth, morality, beauty, language, and of course, the mind. But just maybe it was neuroscience, which is a set of scientific disciplines that studies the structure, function, development of biochemistry, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system. Neuroscience also studies how different elements interact with the nervous system, and results to the biological basis of behavior.

Any question, made ​​by the young student, of course, was not directed to religion, as it seemed rather like questions that put the nun in an awkward position.



In this article we want to inform you, dear reader, of something quite interesting and certainly cover the field of neuroscience. This article will try to clarify some concepts such as, how our brains being “connected”to worship, and explore the exciting new field of Neurotheology. Neurotheology is a discipline that tries to comprehend the connections between our brains and the different types of religious phenomena. But before going into this controversial field, we will try to refresh the basics of neuroscience, which after all is the mother of Neurotheology.

What is Neuroscience?:

This science is also known as the 'Neural Science’, which is the study of how the nervous system develops, how its structure had been created, and ultimatley what it does. Neuroscientists focused their research on the brain, and its impact on behavior and cognitive functions. Neuroscience is not only responsible for studying the normal functions of the nervous system, but also what happens to these functions when people have neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental disorders.
This science is often identified in plurality, which, sometimes, can be called the “Neurosciences”.

Neuroscience has traditionally been classified as a subdivision of biology. These days, neuroscience takes the role of an interdisciplinary science that is in closely connected with other disciplines such as mathematics, physics, linguistics, engineering, computer science, chemistry, philosophy, psychology, and medicine.

Many researchers say that neuroscience is synonomous with neurobiology. However, neurobiology is the observed biology of the nervous system, while neuroscience relates to everything that has to do with the nervous system.

Neuroscientists are involved today in a much broader scope in existing fields than in the past. They study the cellular, functional, evolutionary, computational, molecular, cellular, and medical aspects of the nervous system. Neuroscience is the “science of the future, that is in the present.”

A Brief History of Neuroscience:

The ancient Egyptians believed that the headquarters of the intelligence was located in the heart. During the process of mummification, the brain was removed, but the heart was left in the body.

Herodotus (484-425 BC), an ancient Greek historian, once said:
"The most perfect practice is to remove the brain as much as possible, with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is mixed with drugs."

The first writings about the brain were by Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, from 1,700 B.C. The word "brain" of the likely outcomes of two people mentioned eight times, when writers were describing symptoms and diagnosis, probably of two peoples that had head injuries with skull fractures. Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian form of paper made ​​from the papyrus plant. The plant grows wild on the banks of the Nile River, as it was cultivated for the production of paper. Mr. Edwin Smith (1822-1906) was an American antique dealer and collector. He gave his name to this particular papyrus.



Hieroglyphs the word "brain" in the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, 1700 BC

Around 500 BC, different views on the brain began to emerge in ancient Greece. Alcmeón, who was a student of Pythagoras, wrote that the brain is where the mind is. Alcmeon was probably the first person in history to express that exact idea in writing. Hippocrates later went on to say that the brain is the seat of intelligence.



Later, Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek scholar and philosopher, was a bit out of place saying that the brain is a cooling mechanism of the blood, and that the heart is the seat of intelligence. He argued that human beings behave in a more rational way than animals because our brains are bigger and cools down the hot blood, thus preventing blood warming.

Herophilus (330-250 BC), Greek physician, and Erasistratus Kea (300-240 BC), a Greek anatomist and royal physician, were known to be helpful in making ​​important contributions to the anatomy of the brain and nervous system. Unfortunately, their writings were lost and only information that we know about their contributions is through secondary sources.

Galen of Pergamum (129-circa. 200), Greek anatomist who worked in Rome, said the brain was where the senses are processed because it is soft, while the cerebellum controls muscle because it is denser than brain.

With the advent of the microscope which presumably was invented in the Netherlands in 1590, allowed for a much deeper understanding of the brain.

During the 1980s, Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) an Italian physician, pathologist and scientist, used the silver chromate salt to show how individual neurons look liked. Santiago, Ramon, y Cajal (1852-1934), Spanish pathologist, histologist, and neuroscientist, took the job of Golgi and formed the neuron doctrine. (Hypothesis that the neuron is the functional unit of the brain) In 1906, Golgi and Cajal were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their extensive works and categorizations of neurons in the brain.



Towards the end of the 19th century, Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) German physician and physicist; Hohannes Peter Müller (1801-1858), German physiologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist; and Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896) German physician and physiologist demonstrated the electrical excitability of neurons and how the electrical state of adjacent neurons were likely to be affected by an electrically excited neuron.

At the same time, Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880) French physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist, worked on patients who suffered from brain injuries. After concluding his studies, he induced that different brain regions were involved in specific functions.

Hughlings John Jackson (1835-1911), an English neurologist, conducted observations and studies on patients with epilepsy. Jackson worked to understand how the motor cortex was organized watching seizure progression through the body.

Carl Wernicke (1848-1905), German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist, and neuropathologist, believed that certain parts of the brain were responsible for understanding the flow of languages.

From the 1950’s onwards, the scientific study of the nervous system made ​​great progress, especially based on other related fields such as computational neuroscience, electrophysiology and molecular biology. Neuroscientists have been able to study the structure of the nervous system along with its functions, development, abnormalities, and the multitude of ways to conduct alterations.

The main branches of neuroscience, based on the areas of research and study, can be broadly classified into the following disciplines (neuroscientists usually cover several branches at the same time):

Affective Neuroscience

- Observations on how neurons behave in relation to emotions. In many cases, the investigation are carried out on animals.

Behavioral Neuroscience.

– The study of the biological basis of behavior, and how the brain affects behavior.

Cellular Neuroscience

– Is the study of neurons, including their forms and physiological properties at cellular level.

Clinic Neuroscience

- Looks at disorders of the nervous system while the psychiatry, for example, sees disorders of the mind.

Cognitive Neuroscience

- Is the study of higher cognitive functions that exist in humans, and their underlying neural basis. Cognitive Neuroscience is based on linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and the cognitive sciences. Cognitive neuroscientists can take two directions in modeling behavior; Experimental or Computational. Both directions have been employed in order to assimilate the nature of cognition from a neural point of view.

Computational Neuroscience

- Tries to understand how the brains computed by using computers to simulate and build model brain functions. The field also applies mathematical techniques, physics, and other computational information to study the brain function.

Cultural Neuroscience

- Analyzes how our beliefs, practices, and cultural values ​​are shaped by the brain, the mind, and genes in different periods.

Developmental Neuroscience

- Analyzes how the nervous system develops over a cellular base, and what underlying mechanisms are in the neuronal development.

Molecular Neuroscience

- Thee study of the role of the molecule and individual particles in the nervous system.

Neuroengineering

– Is the use of engineering techniques to better understand, replace, repair, and/or improve neural systems.

Neuroimaging

- Is a branch of the medic 'image' that focuses on the brain. Neuroimaging is used to diagnose the disease and evaluate brain health. It’s also useful in the study of the brain, how it works and how the different activities affect the brain.

Neuroinformatics

- Integrates data to all areas of neuroscience, to help assimilate, and treat brain diseases. Neuroinformatics involves the acquisition, data exchange, editing, and information storage for analysis, simulation, and modeling.

Neurolinguistic

- The study of how neural mechanisms in the brain control the acquisition, comprehension or understanding of the language.

Neurophysiology

- Examines the relationship between the brain and its functions, and how the sum of the parts, of the body, is interrelated. Studying how functions of the nervous system, uses physiology techniques.

Social Neuroscience

- An interdisciplinary field devoted to the understanding of how the logical or biological systems implemented the social and behavioral processes. Social Neuroscience reunites all the biological concepts to inform and refine the social behavior theory. It uses concepts and social behavioral data to refine the theories of the organization of neuronal functions.

Part 1 of 2

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