Psychologising and Neurologising

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Psychologising and Neurologising about
Religion   Facts, Fallacies and the Future
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• "men go out and gaze in astonishment at... the
  stars in their courses. But they pay no
  attention to themselves".
• I'm not now investigating the tracts of the
  heavens or measuring the distance of the stars...
  I am investigating myself, my memory, my mind."
• "What then am I my God? What is my nature?
  
  
• St. Augustines Confessions.

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"What we are studying is not the stars in the
universe but the stars within ourselves, our own
nature"   Sir Martin Evans 2007 Nobel
laureate BBC Today Programme on
December 31, 2007  
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Robert Boyle   Viewed his theological
interests and his work in natural philosophy as
forming a seamless whole and constantly used
results from the one to enlighten matters in the
other   Macintosh J.T. and
Anstey P., 2007
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• ..fundamental changes in our view of the human
  brain cannot but have profound effects on our
  view of ourselves and the world David Hubel,
  Scientific American, 1979.
• "The idea that man has a disembodied soul is as
  unnecessary as the old idea that there was a Life
  Force. This is in head-on contradiction to the
  religious beliefs of billions of human beings
  alive today. How will such a radical change be
  received? "Francis Crick, The Astonishing
  Hypothesis, 1994
• what is arguably the major cultural question
  of our times can the humanistic and even
  religious view of human nature be reconciled with
  science? John Horgan, 2003.
• In the fullness of time educated people will
  believe there is no soul independent of the body,
  and hence no life after death. Francis Crick.
  The New York Times, April 13th 2004. "After the
  Double Helix Unravelling the Mysteries of the
  State of Being"

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Lead Article Nature 14th of June 2007   With
deference to the sensibilities of religious
people, the idea that man was created in the
image of God can surely be put aside   "Scientifi
c theories of human nature may be discomforting
or unsatisfying, but they are not
illegitimate."  
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WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONTOURS OF THE CONTEMPORARY
SCIENTIFIC LANDSCAPE?
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Neuropsychology-the product of converging streams

• The cognitive revolution
• experimental psychology
• brain imaging techniques

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Archives of Neurology, 2003
The case of the Virginia schoolteacher.
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Change the mind and you change the brain
effects of cognitivebehavior therapy on the
neural correlates of spider phobia     Vincent
Paquette et al., NeuroImage, 18 (2003) 401-409
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• "The distinction between diseases of "brain"and
  "mind", between "neurological" problems and
  "psychological or "psychiatric" ones, is an
  unfortunate cultural inheritance that permeates
  society and medicine. It reflects a basic
  ignorance of the relation between brain and
  mind.
• Antonio Damasio, Descartes Error,1994.
• We should talk of psychiatric illness or
  disorders rather than of mental illnesses, and if
  we do continue to refer to mental and
  physical illnesses, we should preface both with
  so-called, to remind ourselves and our audience
  that these are archaic and deeply misleading
  terms.
• R. Kendell, B.J. Psychiatry. June 2001

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• We may regard mental activity and correlated
  brain activity as inner and outer aspects of one
  complex set of events that together constitute
  conscious human agency.
• Interdependence characterised by an irreducible
  intrinsic duality without dualism of substance.

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Robert Boyle   Viewed his theological
interests and his work in natural philosophy as
forming a seamless whole and constantly used
results from the one to enlighten matters in the
other   Macintosh J.T. and
Anstey P., 2007
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TENSION AT THE SEAMS ?
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The theologians of the early church began to
use ideas from Greek philosophy, and the
conception of immaterial and immortal soul found
its way into Christian thinking and has tended
to stay there ever since. Leslie
Stevenson, Ten Theories of Human Nature, 4th
Edition, 2004
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• the question of how the transcendental
  soul acted upon the physical body became replaced
  by the question of how the immaterial mind could
  arise out of fleshly matter. It still remains a
  central question for the science of mind.
• Kenan Malik, Man, Beast and Zombie, 2000

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" In the fullness of time
educated people will
believe there is no soul independent
of the body, and hence no life after
death."

Francis Crick. The New York
Times, April 13th 2004.
"After the Double Helix Unravelling the
Mysteries of the
State of Being"
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Should we continue, then, to speak of 'souls' at
all? I see no problem with the word in principle
(as Lewis Carroll suggested, you can use words
however you like as long as you pay them extra on
Thursdays) you can say 'soul', as long as you
are committed to meaning by that a whole human
being living in the presence of God
Soul-language, within a Christian context, is a
shorthand for telling a story of that sort, a
story about the way in which human beings as
wholes are irreducibly open to God. It is not,
within Christian theology, a shorthand for a
story in which a partitioned human being has a
soul in one compartment, a body in another, and
quite possibly all sorts of other bits and pieces
equally divided up. We can then continue to use
the word soul with fully Christian meaning but
we should be careful, because the language has
had a chequered history, and may betray
us. N.T.Wright (2000)
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...in the absence of "soul", what is it that
makes us authentically human? To speak in more
traditional terms, what does it mean any longer
to affirm that we are bearers of "the divine
image". Joel Green, 2004
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......to be in the image of God is at once to
be created as a particular kind of being - a
person - and to be called to realise a certain
destiny. Colin Gunton, The Promise of
Trinitarian Theology, 2nd edition, T. and T.
Clark, 1997
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Whatever therefore is to be said about the human
cannot be confined to general statements about
humanity apart from God. It cannot be said apart
from the discovery that in Jesus Christ we see
who we are and we also see God for us.   The
answer to the question about who we are is
finally eschatological, where tears are no longer
part of the human reality, where joy is the order
of eternity, and where our transience disappears
in the disappearance of death. We cannot see that
yet. But we do see Jesus. That will have to do. I
think it is enough.   Patrick Miller, Professor
of Old Testament. Princeton University, 2004
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What about the spiritual dimension?
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Times 2 April 16th 2006
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2007
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A New trend - Neurotheology
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• "a rest to his mind,
• a cheerer of his spirits,
• a diverter of sadness,
• a calmer of unquiet thoughts,
• a moderator of passions,
• a procurer of contentedness"
• Isaak Walton. The Compleat Angler.

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The Elusive God-Spot The
temporal lobe is considered "the God module,
the part of the brain that connects with the
transcendent. Willoughby Britton, 2004
Hypereligiosity may stem from increased activity
in the medial prefrontal cortex of the brain...
my theory is that the medial prefrontal cortex
plays the role of the conductor of an orchestra
in religiosity" Osamu Muramoto, 2004
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Robert Boyle   Viewed his theological
interests and his work in natural philosophy as
forming a seamless whole and constantly used
results from the one to enlighten matters in the
other   Macintosh J.T. and
Anstey P., 2007
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The Elusive God Spot Are We Hard-Wired
to Seek God?
All that may be new here is an analysis that
finds in the human brain a mirror of all these
imagines Dei - all these images of God - and thus
may suggest further ways of comprehending
them. Carol Albright and James Ashbrook
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• The image is not located in any of these but in
  our human vocation, given and enabled by God, to
  relate to God as God's partner in covenant. To
  join in companionship with the human family and
  in relation to the whole cosmos in ways that
  reflect the covenant love of God. This is
  realised and modelled supremely in Jesus Christ.
• Joel Green, 2004

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"Neuroscience is now the largest area of
biomedical research, and new breakthroughs in
the field are likely to dominate the 21st
century. The major Neuroscience Prize will
salute outstanding achievements and encourage
further developments in a discipline with
infinite potential." Press release, 25th April
2004, Peter Gruber Foundation to Give Annual
International Prize in Neuroscience
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2004
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2005
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Sensitivity to Face View
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• The imago Dei as the capacity for moral behaviour
  and
• moral agency.
• ... herein does very much consist that image of
  God wherein
• he made man ...viz. in those faculties and
  principles of nature,
• whereby he is capable of moral agency.
• Jonathan Edwards
• "Aiding others at the cost or risk to oneself is
  widespread in
• the animal kingdom"
• Frans de Waal
• The fact that the human moral sense goes so far
  back in
• evolutionary history that other species show
  signs of it,
• plants morality firmly near the centre of our
  much maligned
• nature.
• (de Waal,1996)

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• Even if animals other than ourselves act in
  ways tantamount to moral behaviour, their
  behaviour does not necessarily rest on
  deliberations of the kind we engage in .It is
  hard to believe that animals weigh their own
  interests against the rights of others, that they
  develop a vision of the greater good of society,
  or that they feel lifelong guilt about something
  they should not have done'
• (de Waal,1996)

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• "From the beginning philosophers have agonised
  over the
• question of what makes a human, is there a
  difference in kind
• or merely a difference in degree between
  ourselves and other
• animals? Direct comparisons between people and
  animals
• are often seen as demeaning, even offensive
• Frans de Waal,1996

"It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how
much he resembles the beast, without at the same
time showing him his greatness, it is also
dangerous to allow him too clear vision of his
greatness without his baseness. It is even more
dangerous to leave him in ignorance of
both. Blaise Pascal, 17th century
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Special European Union Report

 
European citizens deliver proposals on brain
sciences   "The citizens panels from nine
European countries had come together to share
their recommendations for the future of brain
science marking the end of what is thought to
have been the largest ever public consultation on
science".  
The Psychologist March
2006
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• THE TIMES
•  
•  
• Dec. 8th
• BRAIN TRAINERA FIVE DAY WORKOUT TO EXPAND YOUR
  MIND
• Dec. 15th
• Autism may involve ATYPICAL NEURONAL
  DEVELOPMENT FROM THE EARLIEST STAGE SHOWING THAT
  IT IS NOT A REACTION TO PARENTAL BEHAVIOUR
•  
• GERMAN SCENTISTS CLAIM TO HAVE FOUND THE GENE
  LINKED TO SERIAL STUPIDITY, report in Science
• THE PINEAL GLAND MAY HOLD THE KEY TO THE
  HUMAN SOUL report from the National Taiwan
  University 
• Science Editor reports on PEACE GENE IN OUR
  TIME?

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• "from a neuroscientific perspective, it is now
  unnecessary to postulate a second, metaphysical
  entity, such as a soul or spirit, to account for
  human capacities and distinctives. Joel Green,
  2004
• "if the immortality of the soul and, hence,
  dualism are essential to Christian thought, then
  the church should be bracing for an encounter
  with science far overshadowing debates about
  creation and evolution." Lawson Stone, 2004

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"The idea that man has a disembodied soul is as
unnecessary as the old idea that there was a Life
Force. This is in head-on contradiction to the
religious beliefs of billions of human beings
alive today. How will such a radical change be
received? "Francis Crick, The
AstonishingHypothesis, 1994
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OCraven and Kanwisher

• Next slide shows activity when faces or houses
  are seen or
• imagined.

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Telling whether someone is imagining faces or
places raw fMRI signal 1 subject
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signal change in Fusiform Face Area
signal change in Parahippocampal Place Area
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Theories which depict experience and its neural
basis as inseparable aspects of a single process
may hold out the greatest promise. But we do not
have any clear understanding of how a single
process could have two such different
aspects. Making sense of their relationship may
require us to rethink the nature of matter,
mind, or both. Adam Zeman , Consciousness, a
user's guide, Yale University Press 2002 p.341.
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    ..I believe an understanding of how the
brain gives rise to the mind will require a
change at least as radical as relativity theory,
the introduction of electromagnetic fields into
physics-or the original scientific revolution
itself..  
Science and the Mind Body Problem
Thomas Nagel 2006