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Apr 8, 2007

"[Faith is] an act, an intention, a project, something that makes you, in leaping into the future, go so far, far, far ahead that you shoot clean out of time and right into Eternity, which is not the end of time or a whole lot of time or unending time, but timelessness, the old Eternal Now." --Joanna Russ

Are We Hard-Wired For Faith?

Most people would agree that the experience of faith is immeasurable. Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of "Why We Believe What We Believe," begs to differ. He's working on ways to track how the human brain processes religion and spirituality, all part of new field called neurotheology. Newberg took brain-scanning technology and turned it toward the spiritual: Franciscan nuns, Tibetan Buddhists, and Pentecostal Christians. The results were surprising, says Newberg, "When we think of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices, we see a tremendous similarity across practices and across traditions." The frontal lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention in prayer and meditation. The parietal lobe, located near the backs of our skulls, is the seat of our sensory information; Newberg says it's involved in that feeling of becoming part of something greater than oneself.