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Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecture: Paul D. Simmons
(09/19/2013)

Neuroscience and the Spirit: Has Science proven the existence of God? The findings that religious impulses are related to chemical activity in the brain has raised the intriguing question as to whether people are hard-wired for belief in God. The issue for religion is whether brain activity is proof of divine activity in human life. Might God be the subject of scientific research after all? These and other questions will be posed in the light of new breakthroughs in brain imaging. "Proofs" are variable, of course, and amount to what makes of them. I find it incredible to believe that brain activity is, as such, evidence of God's invasion of human life and thought. I will bring illustrations from science and religion that pose profound questions for an easy reliance on such studies.

 

 

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