Warning - May prove nonexistence of god - Warning - May prove nonex....
While making a Barnes & Noble excursion with nerdimusprime and roadster_guy , I decided I needed some reading material for the plane ride back to SF (since my nintendo DS got stolen some time ago, I needed stimulation for the 4+ hour ride). So what section should catch my eye, for a change, other than the Science section. I'd lately been feeling that I needed something a bit more... involving... than just a storybook, and had no idea what kind of topic I wanted to read about. One book in particular caught my eye - Matthew Alper's "The GOD Part of the Brain - A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God".
Alper has, for some years, been on a difficult journey in which he has been trying to find god. It appears nobody told him that he was hiding behind the couch the entire time.
Seriously though, I'm intranced by this book. I'm a slow reader, and haven't finished it yet, but I'm pretty close to done.
The book is fascinating, as it discusses a topic that Alper calls "Neurotheology", or the study of the human brain's perception of spirtuality. It starts off with Alper's back story, and how he had done just about anything one can do to "find god", including psychadelic drugs, which later sent him into a great bout of depression.
After being placed on a steady MAOI, he was slowly restored to his "normal" self, and started questioning why he had not put his faith in science before.
"Science had saved my life. I was indebted to it. God didn't save me. I didn't save me. Science, the tool of reason, had saved me; I was my own living proof that science worked" Alper describes his fascination with how the MAOI helped him snap back to reality and get his life back on track.
So thus began his journey into the human brain, to find out "Is god in here?".
The book took me through a fascinating journey in which I learned about the "Big Bang" theory, how the earth was made by fusing helium atoms, how fish eventually turned into people, and how natural selection has made us neither the fastest, nor largest, nor most venomous animals on the planet, but rather the most versatile, thanks to our large brains. The book then goes on to describe certain genetically inherited traits of animals, including those of humans, and further suggests that spirituality is a genetically inherited trait.
Without ruining the rest of the book for you, I will say that Alper gives some very compelling arguments supporting his theories, and has quite the roster of believers, from Karen Armstrong to Neurologists at UCLA, backing him up.
If you're looking for something cerebral, and are willing to take a venture into another person's mind, then I highly suggest Matthew Alper's "The GOD Part of the Brain"
Alper has, for some years, been on a difficult journey in which he has been trying to find god. It appears nobody told him that he was hiding behind the couch the entire time.
Seriously though, I'm intranced by this book. I'm a slow reader, and haven't finished it yet, but I'm pretty close to done.
The book is fascinating, as it discusses a topic that Alper calls "Neurotheology", or the study of the human brain's perception of spirtuality. It starts off with Alper's back story, and how he had done just about anything one can do to "find god", including psychadelic drugs, which later sent him into a great bout of depression.
After being placed on a steady MAOI, he was slowly restored to his "normal" self, and started questioning why he had not put his faith in science before.
"Science had saved my life. I was indebted to it. God didn't save me. I didn't save me. Science, the tool of reason, had saved me; I was my own living proof that science worked" Alper describes his fascination with how the MAOI helped him snap back to reality and get his life back on track.
So thus began his journey into the human brain, to find out "Is god in here?".
The book took me through a fascinating journey in which I learned about the "Big Bang" theory, how the earth was made by fusing helium atoms, how fish eventually turned into people, and how natural selection has made us neither the fastest, nor largest, nor most venomous animals on the planet, but rather the most versatile, thanks to our large brains. The book then goes on to describe certain genetically inherited traits of animals, including those of humans, and further suggests that spirituality is a genetically inherited trait.
Without ruining the rest of the book for you, I will say that Alper gives some very compelling arguments supporting his theories, and has quite the roster of believers, from Karen Armstrong to Neurologists at UCLA, backing him up.
If you're looking for something cerebral, and are willing to take a venture into another person's mind, then I highly suggest Matthew Alper's "The GOD Part of the Brain"