Where Do “Sacred” Values Live in the Brain?
by Arri Eisen
from Religion Dispatches
What role does science play in what we believe and in how we understand belief? I teach a college course called “Science & the Nature of Evidence,” in which that question is considered at length. Few of my students (few of any of us, perhaps) have thought about it, and they love the chance to take it on.
It matters what we believe and why we believe it. Not just in terms of religious identification, not just for deciding what and how we do things in our day-to-day lives, but also in relation to politics. Take such monumental policy decisions as those regarding health care, or the military. Do we go with what we feel is right and wrong, or—as is the more commonly understood basis for such policy decisions—do we do what will be best for the most people? How about suicide bombers? Why are they willing to lose their lives for their beliefs? Now, we can begin to better understand the mechanisms of such decisions by combining expertise in religion, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, economics, and even genetics.
Comment
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Comment by Ron Krumpos on February 10, 2012 at 8:30pm -
A professor friend of mine once said "I am less interested in what people believe than why they believe what they believe." Whenever someone makes a dogmatic statement I ask them "why do you believe that is true?" A few of them have very specific, and often quite logical, explanations. Many others, however, seem caught off-guard, cannot provide a clear-cut answer, and seem upset that I should even ask.
© 2012 Created by The Parliament of Religions.
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