Sacred or Neural?: The Potential of Neuroscience to Explain Religious Experience

Anne Leona Cesarine Runehov

Abstract

Are religious spiritual experiences merely the product of the human nervous system? Anne L.C. Runehov investigates the potential of contemporary neuroscience to explain religious experiences. Following the footsteps of Michael Persinger, Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili she defines the terminological bounderies of "religious experiences" and explores the relevant criteria for the proper evaluation of scientific research, with a particular focus on the validity of reductionist models. Runehov's theis is that the perspectives looked at do not necessarily exclude each other but can be merged. The question "sacred or neural?" becomes a statement "sacred and neural". The synergies thus produced provide manifold opportunities for interdisciplinary dialogue and research.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
UdgivelsesstedGöttingen
ForlagVandenhoeck
Antal sider240
ISBN (Trykt)978-3-525-56980-1
StatusUdgivet - 2007
Navn<strong>Religion, Theologie und Naturwissenshaft/Religion, Theology, and Natural Science</strong>
Vol/bindBand 9

Citationsformater