The Brain on Religion: Says Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Meditation and prayer can improve your physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being and may even slow the brain's aging process. The entire article can be seen at: http://www.sfgate.com/columns/findingmyreligion/ The pertinent questions from the article:
Question: There was a statistic cited in your book showing that Americans mostly view God as authoritarian, critical, or distant -- only 23 percent of believers see God as gentle and forgiving ... Answer: That's one of the things that we really want to advocate for, that people have to be cautious about the beliefs they hold in terms of whether they focus on God and religion as something that's a positive influence in their lives and provides forgiveness and compassion or whether they're going to look at God and religion as exclusive and negative, because that really does have a detrimental effect. The good news is that the brain does have the ability to continually change and adapt, and therefore, even if you have gone down a fairly long path of negative emotions, you do have an opportunity, if you start to focus anew on the other side, so to speak, to bring about changes that are more positive. I don't mean to make it sound simplistic -- it's not like you are just going to flip a switch, most likely, and change your whole way of being. It does take effort. Question: When you talk about the effects of religious beliefs or activities on the brain, that's a very broad spectrum of possibilities to consider. Does it matter what you believe or what sort of practices you're doing? Answer: The particular beliefs and practices are very important. One major point is the difference between having a loving and compassionate view of God versus a God that is vengeful, angry, and exclusive. We know from other research that if you focus your mind on positive emotions, and if you have an optimistic outlook, then that is going to activate the areas of your brain that help you lower stress, which helps you to function better and ultimately to be healthier physically and mentally. And if you focus on a God that's angry and vengeful, that activates the anger centers of your brain, the strong emotional centers, which creates stress and anxiety. When that happens, your body releases hormones that can actually damage the way your brain functions which fosters more negative emotions and negative behaviors outwardly. That can be destructive both for the individual as well as on society as a whole. The entire article can be seen at: http://www.sfgate.com/columns/findingmyreligion/ Regards, GL
