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Key research themes
1. How do neural mechanisms and brain activity underpin religious belief, rituals, and experiences?
This theme investigates how specific brain regions and neural pathways are involved in processing religious beliefs, participating in rituals, and experiencing spirituality. Understanding these neurophysiological underpinnings sheds light on the cognitive-affective basis of religion, highlighting how belief systems are embodied and neurologically instantiated. This line of research integrates neuroimaging, cognitive psychology, and anthropology to uncover how religion is represented and maintained in the brain, which is critical for grasping the biological foundations of religious phenomena.
Key finding: This paper synthesizes anthropological and cognitive science data to propose that religious beliefs arise from social referencing, mentalizing, and emotion perception processes that form cognitive-affective schemata. It... Read more
Key finding: Using fMRI, the study shows distinct neural activation patterns in Catholics versus atheists during moral dilemma judgments. Catholics activate regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and temporoparietal... Read more
Key finding: The paper identifies brain structures, including the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and cingulate cortex, as critical for processing religious beliefs, both testable and non-testable propositions. It... Read more
Key finding: The study reviews neuroimaging and cortical stimulation evidence that spiritual and religious experiences correlate with activity in the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. Pioneering experiments with the 'God helmet'... Read more
Key finding: This review highlights Andrew Newberg's work demonstrating that deeply contemplative prayer and meditation engage brain regions overlapping with common cognitive functions but also produce unique neural correlates of... Read more
2. How do cognitive, cultural, and evolutionary factors shape the emergence and variation of religious capacity and belief?
Research within this theme explores the neurocognitive evolutionary origins of religious capacity, the role of culture and cognition in constructing religious belief systems, and the variability of religious expression including nonbelief. This approach blends anthropology, cognitive archaeology, neuroscience, and evolutionary theory to understand why religion appears universally yet varies individually, and why unbelief or atheism emerges as a cognitive and evolutionary outcome.
Key finding: The authors propose an evolutionary neurocognitive model where religious capacity emerges from complex brain networks (notably involving the precuneus) enabling altered states and numinous experiences. They analyze how... Read more
Key finding: This study introduces 'cultural neural reuse' whereby cultural processes influence brain anatomy and function beyond genetic evolution, proposing culture as a driver of human brain uniqueness. It asserts that neural learning... Read more
Key finding: By examining motivation for explanation, control, and meaning, the paper finds both science and religion fulfill key existential psychological functions, with religion uniquely providing ultimate explanations (e.g., God as an... Read more
Key finding: The paper argues that cultural transmission and social cognition mechanisms (mentalizing, social referencing) solidify religious beliefs and rituals, linking cognition and culture with evolutionary processes. It explains... Read more
3. What are the implications of neuroscience findings for theological, educational, and philosophical understandings of religion and human nature?
This theme covers interdisciplinary dialogue between neuroscience, theology, and education, focusing on how neuroscientific insights challenge or inform traditional theological concepts such as the soul, religious experience, and human uniqueness, and how such knowledge can inform applied fields like education and cognitive development within religious contexts.
Key finding: The paper critiques dualistic and reductive physicalist views of the soul using neuroscientific evidence and clinical cases, advocating for non-reductive physicalism or weak dualism compatible with Abrahamic faiths. It... Read more
Key finding: The study illustrates that cognitive developmental exercises grounded in neuroscience can significantly improve cognitive capacities and academic performance in learners with neurodevelopmental disorders, including those with... Read more
Key finding: Analyzing Sherrington’s Gifford Lectures reveals his shift from assumed theism to a more humanist or atheist stance grounded in neurophysiological understanding. The work compares historical neurological perspectives with... Read more
Key finding: Beyond evolutionary biology, the concept of cultural neural reuse prompts a reconsideration of human uniqueness central to Christian anthropology. The integration of neuroscience with theology offers fresh perspectives on... Read more
Key finding: This work critiques purely reductionist scientific approaches to religion, advocating for neurophenomenology which combines cultural, embodied, and neurological dimensions of religious experience. It argues that incorporation... Read more