The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

Since my initial reading of "The 'God' Part of the Brain" over eight years ago, I've witnessed the steady stream of others who have tried to tackle this hotly debated subject though I would have to say, all these years later, that none have replicated the depth, clarity or passion of this particular work. Alper's writing is not only clear and concise but it also elegant making this book not just an educational read but a pleasurable one as well. For those who might be intimidated by the subject matter, rest assured in that the author does a brilliant job of making complex concepts completely accessible. A perfect merger of science, theology and philosophy--all without being insulting to anyone--this book has secured a place among my all-time favorites.

I first came across this new science being coined "neurotheology" or what the author more aptly refers to as "bio-theology" when I read Newsweek's cover story several years ago titled "God and the Brain: Are we 'wired' for spirituality?" Finding this subject fascinating, I did a search on all books related to this field and worked my way through a great deal of them. From the works of Newberg, Albright and several others, I found their writings bland and incomplete. They were all apparently onto something, but they didn't seem to know what this was. Then I found Matthew Alper's The God Part of the Brain and found what I was looking for. Here, the author in a relatively small (though amazingly dense) work has pulled together every aspect of the scientific study of religion. Not only that, but he advances the most convincing explanation I've yet to come across as to why we evolved such a trait as spiritual consciousness. The book is then capped with a philosophical commentary as to how we, as a species, need to address this new research in order to advance mankind. Bio-theology, the evolutionary science of spirituality and religion, I predict will be the most relevant sociological and philosophical study of this coming century. While the world is engaged in religious war, this author provides answers and explanations that may be pivotal in resolving our modern conflict, something I agree with the author that if we don't come to terms with, we may very well destroy ourselves. Let me also note that those who might feel intimidated by the topics of cognitive and evolutionary science will find the book easy to read and brilliant in its lucidity and logic.

The thesis here is that spiritual and religious experience is essentially something the brain *does*, not something that comes from 'God'/'external being'. The author argues that spirituality and religious impulses have emerged in the evolving brain by default amongst evolving social organisms- in this particular book relatively recently in hominid evolution. Key processes include the growing hominid awareness of death, which, when coupled with an innate anxiety function necessary for survival, ultimately led to spirituality, religious and mystical experience. The author ties together his own spiritual journey with ideas strung together from the likes of Jung, Kant, Plato, Freud, Darwin and E.Wilson, but unfortunately, in my view, leaves out many ideas concerning group conflict-something with which 'groupish' primates are very much affected. One trouble with emphasising 'awareness of death' in the evolution of religious impulses, is just how relevant the 'fear of death' is to say, teenagers-and yet teenagers can have a quite developed 'spiritual impulse'. (eg The average age of 'religious conversion' quoted in the book is 15.2 years, from a study of 15,000). The association of prayer with healing is discussed, (ie essentially placebo, but also stress reduction), 'near death experiences' (neurochemistry evolved to reduce anxiety), 'speaking in tongues' (glossolalia-not explained here, but possibly, in my view, an infant/childhood mechanism overlapping into adulthood-like crying tears), and others such as guilt, morality, etc are discussed in the light of evolutionary theory as applied to human behaviour. One major point I think the author misses though, is that like consciouness itself, 'spirituality' is likely a holisitic and/or emergant brain function, there may in many cases therefore be no specific 'part' as such. Another problem I had is that he vastly under-rates 'thinking' in other biological organisms. For example, in describing pantheistic mysticism "one feels that totality of the world is the greatest power and one can see themselves as part of that totality. During this experience a person has a sense that he is part of all that is around him" (p111). Why couldn't this be a kind of territorial instinct?-it could therefore be in other animals. In describing monastic mysticism-"a person experiences a surrendering of personal identity to a singular or central point of consciousness" (p110)-again why can't this be present amongst other social, hirearcheal organisms? Also, theistic mysticism-"seeng or feeling the presence of a personification or a named force which intones a higher power" (p110). There is no discussion of the possiblility of any of these experiences having biological origins more ancient than recent hominid evolution. There may be a difference between the ability to be 'spiritual', and to ability to formulate abstract concepts. (How does a bat really 'think'?). His argument against spirituality in other animals is wholly th

Evolution invests every organism with the physiology, drives and strategies for survival. Every child born possesses strong motivation to achieve clarity, resolution and understanding of the world in order that it may prosper. If nothing else, man is a learner and problem solver, pitting his highly evolved intellect against a dangerous and confusing reality. The ability to understand and thereby control his environment is the hallmark of man's evolutionary niche. This recently published work theorizes, however, that man's brain also contains a region hardwired not for understanding or rationality but self-delusion. While "surviving" consumes man's impressive physical and mental energy, survival is, as we know, impossible in the long term. Every man and woman is guaranteed to lose his genetically motivated quest to survive among the fittest. According to Matthew Alper's, "The `God' Part of the Brain," this existential dilemma faced by sapient man alone, spurred the evolution of structures in the human brain which generate a cross-cultural predisposition for the metaphysical. This brain structure gave man the capacity to believe certain things existed even though none of his senses could confirm their reality. Why? Because belief in an alternate "spiritual reality" gave humans hope and consequently enabled our species to survive its unique and otherwise debilitating awareness of death. Religion provides a way to die, without actually dying. It creates "Death-Lite." Alper theorizes that as man's intellectual evolution crossed the threshold of self-awareness, with it came the paralyzing knowledge of his own certain death. He was faced, as no animal before, with the problem of reconciling his innate arsenal of survival strategies and drives, with the debilitating insight that life was not survivable. The situation was dire. Life was like a fixed casino game. Why would anyone put his money on the table with no chance of winning? How could you play seriously? What was the motivation? Similar to cross-cultural drives as unlikely as those for music, humor, sport, dance, math, and language, Alper speculates that normal mutations formed rudimentary brain structures which allowed man to believe in an invisible world. Life for individuals with more highly developed "God Parts" in their brains was a lot easier. Unlike the others, they did not live life like cornered animals, constantly facing the withering finality of their own demise. Constantly hopeless. Constantly in a nerve-racking, exhausting, fight or flight mode. Religion, the ultimate survival strategy, allowed man once again to focus his formidable intellectual capacity with purpose, toward prospering and with this, continued evolution. With further evolution and the advent of society, however, came language, science and greater understanding of the physical forces governing the world as well as the psychologica

Just as I did, as a teenager Matthew Alper asked the big questions: Who is "God" and what is my relation to him? Which, if any, of the hundreds of religions and sub-religions is correct? Why do religions change so much over time? How come every person's religious view is different from everybody else's? Just as I did, Alper began a personal search for the answers to these questions. He looked everywhere. Like me, he found that the answers to the big questions of "faith" lie not "out there" but within us. He then continued his search far beyond mine, came to many well-reasoned conclusions, then documented and explained his findings in 'The "God" Part of the Brain'. This work draws on many scientific disciplines, including evolution, psychology, anthropology and history, to put into clear perspective the origin of the human need to seek a higher power and, more important, the effect this need has on humanity and its cultures. I found the book to be a "revelation" of sorts in that it finally makes sense out of the din of competing religious views. In this book Matthew Alper shows an enviable commitment to truth, exacting logic and scholarly research as well as a vast intelligence as he explains his search and the answers he found. I did not want the book to end! It explains a very important part of what it means to be human. 'The "God" Part of the Brain' has already made a very great, very positive impact on my life.