Biological Basis for Belief? Woke at the University | Jeff Zweerink and Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Рет қаралды 2,467

Күн бұрын

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Biological Basis for Belief?
As human beings, our religious nature defines us. Treating it as a scientific question, many scientists wonder, how do we account for human spirituality and religiosity? Are there brain structures and processes that explain this behavior? Using lesion mapping, a research team from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently determined the brain regions and neural circuits that account for religiosity and spirituality.
This study (amongst others) raises troubling questions for Christians.
- Is our spirituality and response to religion based on our brain’s biology?
- Is there a materialistic, mechanistic explanation for religious acceptance?
- Do people really experience God?
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana addresses these questions and presents a model that accommodates these scientific findings, while retaining a biblical view of human nature.
Woke at the University
During the 2023-2024 academic year, Rice University offered a course called “Afrochemistry” that claimed to “apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the US.” From January 16 to May 16, 2024, AcademicJobsOnline.org advertised a job for the University of Victoria’s physics and astronomy department that was only open to an indigenous person. Both examples show how a worldview subversive to the scientific enterprise is spreading into the scientific community. This view of contemporary critical theory sees the world in terms of oppressors and oppressed. In contrast, the Judeo-Christian worldview sees all people as valuable and worthy of God’s and our love. Additionally, the Judeo-Christian worldview buttresses and supports the foundation needed for the scientific enterprise to flourish.
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LINKS & RESOURCES -
Michael A. Ferguson et al., “A Neural Circuit for Spirituality and Religiosity Derived from Patients with Brain Lesions,” pubmed.ncbi.nl...
Fazale Rana, “Is There a Biological Basis for Belief?," reasons.org/ex...
Fazale Rana, “Is There a Biological Basis for Belief? A Follow Up,”
reasons.org/ex...
Fazale Rana, “Does Oxytocin Cause Spiritual Experiences?," reasons.org/ex...
PLAYLIST - Star, Cells, and God
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HOST: Jeff Zweerink
GUEST: Fazale “Fuz” Rana
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Пікірлер: 57

@DuelScreen 4 ай бұрын

Twice in Luke and Mark we read, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength." Modern psychology describes a human as a personality housed in a body and a personality as interactions between emotion, cognition, and volition. Emotion = Heart, Cognition = Mind, Volition = Soul, and Strength = Body. It's all there in those verses. Modern psychology has only uncovered what the bible already taught. I find this compelling.

@chekideh 2 ай бұрын

🌷Thank you both for the very interesting topics.🌷

@ShaniaSuperFan 4 ай бұрын

I attended UVic as an undergrad astro-physics major in the early 1990s.... Even back then it was hopelessly "woke".

@peterm488 4 ай бұрын

This vague definition of “religiosity” seems biased or over- influenced by Christianity: ““So what they discovered again is that, again, it was this paraactiductal gray area. And this particular area of the brain, interestingly enough, is involved in fear conditioning, pain modulation, altruistic behavior, unconditional love, and pair bonding. So those are interesting.” In some religions, hatred is an important part of belief and practice! That definition seems to measure religion by degrees of “niceness”. Some secular manifestations of religious motivation drive hatred and justify violence. Religious motivation is not just a manifestation of belief in the supernatural, but can be an ideological commitment to a set of beliefs.

@pierreabbat6157 4 ай бұрын

Where do you get the AT|GC shirt?

@brudit 2 ай бұрын

When I think of those not-just-nominal christians that I know.. some of them have been from early age more "aware" of spiritual reality and able to feel religious feelings. Some others again don't feel much anything and don't have or have need to have "a sixth sence" but find reason important and express religiousity mainly by making well informed decisions in their lifes. So is this connected with so called god-gene..? I don't myself find it significant if people are more or less ready to feel some religious type of feelings etc since there are many ways to understand Jesus' significance and follow him. Would be interesting thou to have like a massive research where a lot of born again- christians would be checked if they really have that god-gene or spesific brain function or would it just point to spesific type of "religiousity".

@timkretzer 4 ай бұрын

I’ve only listened to this episode once so my questions may have been answered, but I missed hearing them. My apologies if that is the case. How do the studies define “spirituality”? I kept hearing they were doing things in their experiments they believed were driving the individual’s spirituality, the individuals spirituality was decreased/increased, etc., but how do the different studies define the “spirituality” they believe is being affected, increased, decreased, etc.? Another thing I’m wondering is if they have their programs designed so they can determine if the individuals spirituality, however the researchers are defining it, is actually being affected by the experiments or if the experiments are being affected by the individuals’ spirituality.

@pierreabbat6157 4 ай бұрын

I suggest an experiment: Put some people in a brain scanner and have them read the Bible, the Granth Sahib, a computer programming book, etc., and see what different parts of the brain are activated.

@jenna2431 4 ай бұрын

Pro editor problems with this: 1. No source credited with the pie chart showing religions, no date, nothing. You make an assertion of, oh, the numbers are basically the same without showing that. I found a similar chart. It's from 2007, but also UNATTRIBUTED. Long story short, though: your assertion is not shown by the available data. 2. No definition of "spiritual." REAL reporters know better than to assume an audience understanding of a term as YOU are using it. 3. Ditto "religious"/"religiosity." How does it differentiate from "spiritual"? 4. In the study cited concerning mapping the brain, how were the participants controlled for cultural influence? Meaning some people live in areas where there's literally a church on every corner. Some live where the corners instead have mosques, synagogues, temples, or Quik Marts. How were the studies controlling for that? And what the heck is that '80s Miami Vice look??? It's not working, by the way. I simply cannot listen to any more of this. I would kick this entire thing back to you, as your editor, and suggest that you try again.

@fuzrana894 4 ай бұрын

Actually, at about 9:25 minutes, I provide the definition of spirituality and religiosity used by the researchers who conducted the study. Because, we are describing their work, we used their definitions. In terms of your question about the study design, you can check out the link provided in the show notes that will take you to the original journal article. By the way, this is a podcast, not a research paper. Commenting on people's appearance is generally considered out of bounds, unless you are a member of congress. :)

@pierreabbat6157 4 ай бұрын

Indigenous to where? Would they take a Polynesian navigator who steers by the stars? An Australian who knows the Emu in the Sky? Or do they want specifically a North American indigenous person?

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

You struggle with the definition of the word "indigenous".

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

Maybe you would agree with the comments of anti-woke Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker at the commencement address of Benedictine College last weekend better: “I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” Butker said. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”

@Beardyoldsalt 4 ай бұрын

I absolutely agree with it.

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

@@Beardyoldsalt And where in the gospels did Jesus say any of that idiotic nonsense please?

@Beardyoldsalt 4 ай бұрын

@@ji8044 All Scripture is equally authoritative. What are you calling nonsense?

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

@@Beardyoldsalt Once again I ask you directly. Where did Jesus say ANY of the idiotic statements that Butker made? No, all scripture is certainly NOT equally authoritative. Where on earth did you get that idea?

@Beardyoldsalt 4 ай бұрын

@@ji8044 So you get to determine which parts of the Bible are true?

@malware_in_tn9008 4 ай бұрын

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the region that gave us The Frankfort School and Critical Theory, therefore Critical Race Theory and DEI, also obtained and established The Pergamum Museum and glorifies its presentation, as well as several of the worst offenders to humanity of the 20th century. Probably also no coincidence that the Frankfort school moved to the US and landed at Columbia, where it has continued to spread Marxism for almost a century. Rev 2:12-13

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

What on earth are you taking about? Do you mean the Pergamon Museum in Berlin?

@malware_in_tn9008 4 ай бұрын

Yes. The forces of darkness in this world have areas of dominion.

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

@@malware_in_tn9008 So there is some sort of evil hole in Berlin now?

@bradbarnett5464 4 ай бұрын

Fairness? Where?

@shirleyeckel 4 ай бұрын

We don't want to deal with the real problems, you mentioned stem, good educational system, and family, we have structure, significantly devalued our currency in the last hundred years this hurts every body family schools all branches of government and businesses social security a good example in 1950 a 15 to 1 ratio in workers to payee and about a couple percent of a pay check, it's very bad today, and the family structure is in poor shape today, and these conditions are worse for minorities, these problems are caused this country falling away from God, and loss of moral character, and a church that for the most part is in major decline, and we would rather engage in critical race theory the deal with the real issue, our relationship with God.

@shirleyeckel 4 ай бұрын

The problem with Marxism is it was founded in Christian Europe it seems attractive for that reason to many in the west, but Marx's solutions miss the mark greatly rejecting God and miss identifying the teal human problem, SIN ! He didn't see reforming capitalism as a solution either.

@ji8044 4 ай бұрын

You have created your own reality with the help of right wing nut job news organizations. For instance when you think this country had "moral character" black people couldn't even eat in the same restaurant or stay in the same hotel as white people. In fact many Christian churches had separate seating areas for black and white people, when they allowed black people to attend at all.