APRIL 25, 2005

SCIENCE
Religion and the brain: Can science explain experience?

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Steven Pinker, psychology professor at Harvard University, formerly with the department of brain and cognitive sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the author of six books, including How the Mind Works (Norton, 1999) and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin, 2002). He says that seeing morality as a product of the brain is less dangerous than the idea that morality is invested in the commands of religious authority. Sept. 11, he says, is only a recent example of where morality derived from religion leads. Contact 617-495-0831, pinker@wjh.harvard.edu.
• David Wulff, Wheaton College psychology professor in Norton, Mass., is interested in the neurological underpinnings of spiritual and mystical experiences. Contact 508-286-3691, Dwulff@wheatoncollege.edu.
• The Rev. Nihal C. De Lanerolle is neurosurgery professor at Yale University of Medicine and chaplain-in-residence of the Episcopal Church at Yale in New Haven, Conn. A specialist in the analysis of human seizure foci, he believes that the dialogue between science and religion informs and clarifies assumptions of both endeavors. Contact 203-785-2597, nihal.delanerolle@yale.edu.
• Rebecca Sachs Norris, religion professor at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., argues that religious states are transmitted and learned through the body, that particular qualities of perception and memory are necessary for this process and that neurobiology and cognitive science provide material to support this claim. Scientific and experiential perspectives, she says, can coexist. Contact 978-837-5000 ext. 4521, Rebecca.Norris@merrimack.edu.
• Michael Gazzaniga, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., has lectured on "The Neurobiology of our Moral Compass." Contact Michael.s.gazziniga@dartmouth.edu.

IN THE EAST
• John Haught, a theologian at George Washington University, believes that spiritual experiences are connected to the brain processes and dependent on them, but not reducible to them. He says it is possible to distinguish between the chemical basis of experiences and the experiences themselves. Life and mind cannot be reduced to chemistry any more than the content of a written page can be reduced to the chemistry of ink and paper, he says. Contact 202-687-6119, haughyj@georgetown.edu.
• Matthew Alper, New York-based author of The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God (Rogue Press, 2001), proposes a biological basis for human perception and the spiritual realm. He believes that evolutionary adaptations account for the existence of regions in the brain that generate spiritual consciousness. These regions, he says, emerged through natural selection. Contact 718-638-3622, godpart@aol.com.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• George Graham, Wake Forest University philosophy professor, says it can be difficult to distinguish between signs of illness and religious insight, particularly when the purported insight raises doubts about the emotional health of the religious person. Contact 336-758-3328, grahamg@wfu.edu.
• Charles L. Raison, psychiatry professor at Emory University in Atlanta, has studied Tibetan Buddhism’s effects on the brain. Contact 404-727-8800, craison@emory.edu.

IN THE SOUTH
• Matt Rossano, Southeastern Louisiana University psychology professor, studies consciousness, the evolution of the brain and religion and science. Contact 985-549-5537, mrossano@selu.edu.
• Sohee Park, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has studied shamanism and the brain. Contact 615-322-2532, Sohee.Park@Vanderbilt.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Carol Rausch Albright of Chicago is co-author of The Humanizing Brain: Where Religion and Neuroscience Meet (Pilgrim Press, 1997). Albright believes that human beings' experience of God involves virtually every part of the brain. She is currently writing about the interface of neuroscience, spiritual growth and complexity studies. Contact 773-667-5342, albright1@aol.com.
• Antonio R. Damasio, University of Iowa neurology professor, studies fundamental mechanisms of cognition. He is the author of The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness (Harcourt, 2000) Contact 319-356-4296, Antonio-damasio@uiowa.edu.
• Gregory Peterson, philosophy and religion professor at South Dakota State University, is the author of Minding God: Theology and the Cognitive Sciences (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2002) His primary area of research is the dialogue of science and religion. Contact 605-688-4933; Greg.Peterson@sdstate.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Samuel Brinkman, neuropsychologist and psychology professor at Abilene Christian University in Texas, has lectured on how studying the brain can lead to insights about morality, spirituality and personal responsibility. Contact 325-677-3172, sdbrinkman@hotmail.com.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Kelly Bulkeley, a visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., is the author of The Wondering Brain: Thinking About Religion With and Beyond Cognitive Neuroscience (Routledge, 2004). He says there is great concern among theologians and scholars of religious studies about whether brain research destroys the notion of the soul. They will also continue to debate whether there is one core of religious experience or many different ways of being religious. Contact 510-528-7198, Kellybulkeley@earthlink.net.
• Warren Brown, psychology professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., has said that studies of neuroscience and religiousness have been simplistic and naive about religion. He wants neuroscience to get away from the idea that human behavior is nothing but the outcome of the laws of biology, chemistry and physics. Religion, he believes, needs to shed the idea of dualism, which says it is theologically necessary for humans to have a nonmaterial soul. Brown has written about the integration of neuroscience and Christian faith. Contact 626-584-5525, wsbrown@fuller.edu.
• Nina Azari, University of Hawaii psychology professor, considers religious experience in the context of neuroscience. She argues that religious experience cannot be reduced to either pure feeling or pure thought. Rather, religious experience is a matter of social-relational meaning, for which thought and feeling are inextricably bound together. She is designing functional neuroimaging studies to investigate further the neural basis of religious experience. Azari doesn't think the field can advance without a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to the topic of religious phenomena. Contact 808-933-3166, azari@hawaii.edu.
• Michael Arbib is professor of computer science, biological sciences, biomedical engineering, neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He believes that findings about brain function may challenge cherished religious assumptions. Contact 213-740-9220, arbib@pollux.usc.edu.