Subject: [AthofSV] CNN article "Are humans hard-wired for faith?"

From: "Walter Hecker" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 15:01:27 -0700

NEW YORK (CNN) -- "I just know God is with me. I can feel Him always," a
young Haitian woman once told me.

"I've meditated and gone to another place I can't describe. Hours felt like
mere minutes. It was an indescribable feeling of peace," recalled a CNN
colleague.

"I've spoken in languages I've never learned. It was God speaking through
me," confided a relative.

The accounts of intense religious and spiritual experiences are topics of
fascination for people around the world. It's a mere glimpse into someone's
faith and belief system. It's a hint at a person's intense connection with
God, an omniscient being or higher plane. Most people would agree the
experience of faith is immeasurable.

Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of "Why We Believe What We
Believe," wants to change all that. He's working on ways to track how the
human brain processes religion and spirituality. It's all part of new field
called neurotheology.

After spending his early medical career studying how the brain works in
neurological and psychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
disease, depression and anxiety, Newberg took that brain-scanning technology
and turned it toward the spiritual: Franciscan nuns, Tibetan Buddhists, and
Pentecostal Christians speaking in tongues. His team members at the
University of Pennsylvania were surprised by what they found.
.....

Find the whole article at
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/04/04/neurotheology/index.html