Neuroscientific Explanations of Religious Experience are Not free from Cultural Aspects

TY - JOUR

T1 - Neuroscientific Explanations of Religious Experience are Not free from Cultural Aspects

AU - Runehov, Anne Leona Cesarine

N1 - Paper id:: www.jirrs.org

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - We cannot disregard that the neuroscientific research on religious phenomena such as religious experiences and rituals for example, has increased significantly the last years. Neuroscientists claim that neuroscience contributes considerably in the process of understanding religious experiences, because neuroscience is able to measure brain activity during religious experiences by way of brain-imaging technologies. No doubt, those results of neuroscientific research on religious experiences are an important supplement to the understanding of some types of religious experiences. However, some conclusions drawn from neuroscientific research on religious experiences are arguable. For example, one such conclusion is that religious experiences are actually nothing but neural activity, i.e. there is nothing ‘religious' to the experiences at all. Another such conclusion is that a person's religious experiences actually derive from some ultimate reality, meaning that religious experiences are real. It is the latter assertion that will be analyzed in the present paper. The question is asked whether neuroscience alone is able to affirm that religious experiences are real or whether there are, besides neuroscientific issues, also cultural-religious assumptions that underlie this conclusion. Key Words Culture, Neuroscience, Religious Experience, Meditation. Udgivelsesdato: January

AB - We cannot disregard that the neuroscientific research on religious phenomena such as religious experiences and rituals for example, has increased significantly the last years. Neuroscientists claim that neuroscience contributes considerably in the process of understanding religious experiences, because neuroscience is able to measure brain activity during religious experiences by way of brain-imaging technologies. No doubt, those results of neuroscientific research on religious experiences are an important supplement to the understanding of some types of religious experiences. However, some conclusions drawn from neuroscientific research on religious experiences are arguable. For example, one such conclusion is that religious experiences are actually nothing but neural activity, i.e. there is nothing ‘religious' to the experiences at all. Another such conclusion is that a person's religious experiences actually derive from some ultimate reality, meaning that religious experiences are real. It is the latter assertion that will be analyzed in the present paper. The question is asked whether neuroscience alone is able to affirm that religious experiences are real or whether there are, besides neuroscientific issues, also cultural-religious assumptions that underlie this conclusion. Key Words Culture, Neuroscience, Religious Experience, Meditation. Udgivelsesdato: January

M3 - Journal article

SP - 141

EP - 156

JO - Journal for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Science

JF - Journal for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Science

IS - no. 2

ER -