God on The Brain.

victorhadin · Post by **victorhadin** » 2003-07-26 07:46am

I was trawling the Horizon website and came across this program summary and transcript etc. I remember seeing it on TV some time ago and it is highly interesting. Links to more details are at the top of the page:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/20 ... rain.shtml

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-07-26 09:26am

His work raises the prospect that we are programmed to believe in god, that faith is a mental ability humans have developed or been given.

Interesting. IF this "programming" was done by a creator, it is interesting why even using this fact one couldn't conclude the existance.

The first clinical evidence to link the temporal lobes with religious sensations came from monitoring how TLE patients responded to sets of words. In an experiment where people were shown either neutral words (table), erotic words (sex) or religious words (god), the control group was most excited by the sexually loaded words. This was picked up as a sweat response on the skin. People with temporal lobe epilepsy did not share this apparent sense of priorities. For them, religious words generated the greatest reaction. Sexual words were less exciting than neutral ones.

UltraViolence83 · Post by **UltraViolence83** » 2003-07-26 01:28pm

Same old, same old.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-26 01:43pm

so basically if youre obsessed with god youre a fucking retard? as UV said, same old same old.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-26 02:28pm

kojikun wrote:so basically if youre obsessed with god youre a fucking retard? as UV said, same old same old.

Considering sexually loaded words caused the least amount of excitement in epileptics, this is not an apt choice of words.

But given the situation it's more, if you're mentally defficient, you're more likely to have a god obsession.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-26 02:57pm

SyntaxVorlon wrote:Considering sexually loaded words caused the least amount of excitement in epileptics, this is not an apt choice of words.

But given the situation it's more, if you're mentally defficient, you're more likely to have a god obsession.

Ok then if youre obsessed with god youre just a plain old retard :p

UltraViolence83 · Post by **UltraViolence83** » 2003-07-26 02:59pm

If you're mentally defficient you've [me] got more things to worry about (i.e., my invisible enemies) than silly ol' God.

*runs away to the saftey of his aluminium foil fortress*

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-07-26 03:47pm

kojikun wrote:
SyntaxVorlon wrote:Considering sexually loaded words caused the least amount of excitement in epileptics, this is not an apt choice of words.

But given the situation it's more, if you're mentally defficient, you're more likely to have a god obsession.
Ok then if youre obsessed with god youre just a plain old retard :p

Epilepsy is not a cause of learning difficulty. It causes physical seizures with or without memory loss.

TLE does however cause hallucinations, as the sense centres in the brain get all fucked up, and occasional seses of deja-vu, increased fear response, etc.

God is a trip, then..

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-26 03:50pm

vendetta, i was insulting the fundies by making a silly but still humorous generalization. we allknow that epilepsy is a common enough thing that doesnt cause retardation. sheesh.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-07-26 06:03pm

I say we hook up all those fundie leaders like Robertson, Falwell, and Phelps to a machine that stimulates the temporal lobes, blind them, and see what they feel when we crank the juice. That ought to cause a stir

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-07-26 06:30pm

If God programmed in belief in Him, He didn't do a very good job.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-07-26 07:46pm

Howedar wrote:If God programmed in belief in Him, He didn't do a very good job.

He didn't do a good job in creating Humanity, either. Any species with no natural mechanisms for self-defense deserves to have the shit beaten out of it.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-07-26 08:42pm

Vorlon1701 wrote:
Howedar wrote:If God programmed in belief in Him, He didn't do a very good job.
He didn't do a good job in creating Humanity, either. Any species with no natural mechanisms for self-defense deserves to have the shit beaten out of it.

We have quite a lot of self defence mechanisms, mostly on the micro scale, the human body is pretty damn good at defending itself from everyday infestations.

And we have opposable thumbs, with which we have fucked everything else over with our easy tool use. (not that humans, or even mammals are the only creatures to use tools, but opposable thumbs just makes things that much easier).

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2003-07-26 09:33pm

Vorlon1701 wrote:
Howedar wrote:If God programmed in belief in Him, He didn't do a very good job.
He didn't do a good job in creating Humanity, either. Any species with no natural mechanisms for self-defense deserves to have the shit beaten out of it.

Sure we do. Our natural defence mechanism is the intelligence to grab the nearest blunt object and beat the shit out of whatever is trying to beat the shit out of us.

Many animals lack this intelligence, like cows. Few things in the world are as easy as beating the shit out of a cow.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-07-26 10:25pm

Vendetta wrote:
Vorlon1701 wrote:
He didn't do a good job in creating Humanity, either. Any species with no natural mechanisms for self-defense deserves to have the shit beaten out of it.
We have quite a lot of self defence mechanisms, mostly on the micro scale, the human body is pretty damn good at defending itself from everyday infestations.

And we have opposable thumbs, with which we have fucked everything else over with our easy tool use. (not that humans, or even mammals are the only creatures to use tools, but opposable thumbs just makes things that much easier).

But all of these tools require other mechanisms to make! We don't have claws, or fangs, or quick legs, stuff that you can defend yourself with off the bat.

UltraViolence83 · Post by **UltraViolence83** » 2003-07-26 10:34pm

Nevermind that human offspring are totally helpless for two years, while a young steed is walking moments after birth.

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of things, we're pretty much useless, even for large apes.