© insights.dice.comCritical Thinking or Religion: thought processed or processed thought
The opposition between religious beliefs and scientific evidence can be explained by difference in brain structures and cognitive activity. Scientists have found critical thinking is suppressed in the brains of people who believe in the supernatural.
Published in PLOS One, their study examines how
the parts of the brain responsible for empathy and analytical reasoning are linked to faith and spiritual thinking. It suggests religious beliefs and scientific thinking clash because different brain areas are involved in both cognitive processes.
People who believe in the supernatural appear to suppress areas associated with critical thinking. "From what we understand about the brain, the leap of faith to belief in the supernatural amounts to pushing aside the critical/analytical way of thinking...", says lead author Tony Jack, a professor of philosophy at Case Western Reserve.
More empathy, more religionIn previous research, Jack and colleagues had identified, thanks to fMRI scans,
two networks of neurons that competed with each other to let individuals see the the world either in religious or in scientific terms. They say the brain has an
analytical network of neurons which triggered critical thinking and a
social network which enabled empathy towards other and spiritual thinking. Participants who went through the scans were
presented with a physical or ethical problem. To solve it, the brain appeared to
boost activity in one of the two networks, while suppressing the other.
For the latest study, the scientists conducted a series of eight experiments, involving between 159 and 527 adults. Their purpose was to
compare belief in God with measures of analytic thinking and moral concern.In each experiment, the researchers found that both
spiritual belief and empathic concern were positively associated with
frequent religious practice. The more a person was religious, the more he or she is likely to suppress the analytical network in the brain, and to show empathy.
Scientists say that when an individual is conflicted between a scientific or religious view of the world, his brain structures will determine how he will address this opposition between beliefs and science.
Engaging with both networksThe study also points out that some of the great scientists of our times were also very spiritual men. "Far from always conflicting with science, under the right circumstances
religious belief may positively promote scientific creativity and insight," says Jack "Many of history's most famous scientists were spiritual or religious. Those noted individuals were intellectually sophisticated enough to see that there is no need for religion and science to come into conflict."
According to the scientists, the
individuals who manage to use both networks and avoid suppression of one or the other are better equipped to understand the world and come up with scientific discoveries.
Comment: In conjunction with our religious practices and spiritual beliefs, whatever we define those to be, we can easily find ways to boost our awareness, increase cognitive thinking, study and apply scientific concepts while appreciating life and what it offers on a spiritual level. In a normal person, both religious practices and scientific thinking can reside equally unsuppressed as one tempers the other, creating a balance.
As part of
the PLOS One study (but not mentioned in this article), psychopathy is identified as 'callous effect'โan absence of emotional response to pain and suffering in others, with serious deficits in: interpersonal connection, prosocial behavior, moral reasoning. A psychopath
does not have the conflict between moral concern and analytical thinking because
there is no moral concern. This suggests that
the psychopath does not have two neuron networks operational. While normal people may have an 'either/or' choice of neuron networks dependent on need and circumstances, the psychopathic brain utilizes only one.
For more on this topic from the PLOS One study, see also:
Study of thinking patterns and religious beliefs indicates non-believers report same personality traits as psychopaths
The core message of every religion Is for humanity to pursue a way of living that is socially sustainable and harmonious and to understand that there is an elegant purpose in the greater design of life. Science is like the microscope that studies the exact nature of that purpose.
Religion and science are not mutually exclusive; they are one.
Nature is the pinnacle of scientific achievement; it is the Totality's tool for manifesting reality; it is source code. Without nature there would be no life.
The Totality is the sum total of all existence and is as sentient as the sum total of everything. The Totality of existence is most accurately described as God. The Totality has many attributes, for it is the accumulation of all attributes that have ever and will ever exist.
The Totality is sufficiently sensitive to prefer to pursue more harmonious ways of social living. Harmony has more potential than discord.