Dr. David Comings, an internationally renowned physician, human geneticist and neuroscientist, proposes that spirituality is genetically hardwired into a specific part of the brain, is pleasurable, is critical to the evolution and survival of man, and will never go away. It strives to allow readers to develop a rational spirituality in which the fact-based rational brain and the faith-based spiritual brain can live in peace. In an era when politicians are judged on the basis of the strength of their belief in God, when schools are urged to teach Intelligent Design, and when religious terrorists threaten the existence of Western civilization it is critical to dispassionately examine the question - Did man create God? A wide range of issues are examined including intelligent answers to intelligent design; the relevance of modern cosmology to the existence or non-existence of god; the role of genes in spirituality; innate morality, the problem of evil, and many others. Michael Shermer called this the most detailed and up-to-date science ever generated on the subject of religion and suggested it will be the definitive scientific reference on religion for some time to come. This book is for those who have also questioned any part of their faith but treasure their spirituality and want answers that are not hostile to spirituality or religion.
Dr. David Comings, an internationally renowned physician, human geneticist and neuroscientist, proposes that spirituality is genetically hardwired into a specific part of the brain, is pleasurable, is critical to the evolution and survival of man, and will never go away. It strives to allow readers to develop a rational spirituality in which the fact-based rational brain and the faith-based spiritual brain can live in peace. In an era when politicians are judged on the basis of the strength of their belief in God, when schools are urged to teach Intelligent Design, and when religious terrorists threaten the existence of Western civilization it is critical to dispassionately examine the question - Did man create God? A wide range of issues are examined including intelligent answers to intelligent design; the relevance of modern cosmology to the existence or non-existence of god; the role of genes in spirituality; innate morality, the problem of evil, and many others. Michael Shermer called this the most detailed and up-to-date science ever generated on the subject of religion and suggested it will be the definitive scientific reference on religion for some time to come. This book is for those who have also questioned any part of their faith but treasure their spirituality and want answers that are not hostile to spirituality or religion.
Did Man Create God?: Is Your Spiritual Brain at Peace with Your Thinking Brain?
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Overview
Dr. David Comings, an internationally renowned physician, human geneticist and neuroscientist, proposes that spirituality is genetically hardwired into a specific part of the brain, is pleasurable, is critical to the evolution and survival of man, and will never go away. It strives to allow readers to develop a rational spirituality in which the fact-based rational brain and the faith-based spiritual brain can live in peace. In an era when politicians are judged on the basis of the strength of their belief in God, when schools are urged to teach Intelligent Design, and when religious terrorists threaten the existence of Western civilization it is critical to dispassionately examine the question - Did man create God? A wide range of issues are examined including intelligent answers to intelligent design; the relevance of modern cosmology to the existence or non-existence of god; the role of genes in spirituality; innate morality, the problem of evil, and many others. Michael Shermer called this the most detailed and up-to-date science ever generated on the subject of religion and suggested it will be the definitive scientific reference on religion for some time to come. This book is for those who have also questioned any part of their faith but treasure their spirituality and want answers that are not hostile to spirituality or religion.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781878267726 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hope Press |
| Publication date: | 05/05/2008 |
| Pages: | 694 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d) |
| Age Range: | 10 Years |
About the Author
Dr. Comings is a physician, neuroscientist, behavioral and molecular geneticist who was the Director of the Department of Medical Genetics at the City of Hope National Medical Center for 37 years before retiring in 2002. He is an internationally known scientist-physician who has written more than 450 scientific articles and three books including Tourette Syndrome and Human Behavior. His research areas included cytogenetics, human behavioral and molecular genetics, and he ran a large behavioral medicine clinic specializing in Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, and oppositional defiant behavior in children. He was past editor of the American Journal of Human Genetics and past president of the American Society of Human Genetics.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 50 The Problem of Evil
One of the most difficult conundrums that religion has had to face over the centuries is the "problem of evil." If God is a loving and compassionate being why does he let so many evil things happen? Why does he let children die of cancer and be killed in accidents? Take away a young father of five children by a heart attack? Kill hundreds of thousands in a tsunami? Allow horrendous wars? Allow genocide? The "problem of evil" has been characterized as the single greatest challenge to religious faith.
The Greek skeptic Epicurus of the fourth century BCE was the first known thinker to spell out the dilemma of the "problem of evil." He wrote, "Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot he is impotent. If he can but does not want to, he is wicked." Either way, for God and those who believe in him, it is a lose-lose dilemma.
This chapter addresses the many different answers that priests, rabbis, clerics, imams, theologians and other keepers of the faith have proposed for one of the most problematic of the questions that religion has to deal with.
The Gnostics
This was such a difficult question that one early religious group, the Gnostics, (from gnôsis, meaning "knowledge"), answered it in a uniquely creative fashion. They were a group of quasi-Christian mystics who were popular in the first few centuries after the death of Christ. Instead of developing a massive set of circumlocutions based on a perfect, all-knowing, loving, and compassionate God, they simply suggested that God never had these qualities in the first place. They proposed that he was a seriously flawed, evendemonic and malicious, being whom they called the Demiurge. This name was originally coined by Plato to represent the creator of the base world, as opposed to the world of the sublime. While most of the religious mystics of the world were optimists whose faith claimed that despite all the evil, the world was basically "all right," the Gnostic mystics were supreme pessimists and felt the world was basically "all wrong." Instead of viewing the cosmos and nature as essentially neutral, they envisioned the cosmos and nature as fundamentally hostile to human endeavor. They also believed there was a true good God called the "the True Father," who could be held blameless for the evil of the Demiurge. Part of the appeal of the Gnostics was their claim that there was a higher, less flawed world to which the soul will return, an "all right" heaven. This concept was adopted by many other religions.
The Deists
Another creative variation that was less extreme than Gnosticism was Deism. This religious philosophy affirms the existence of God the creator, but proposes that once he finished creating the early universe he retired or went off to create other universes. Deism allowed a peace treaty between Darwin's theory of evolution and creationism by providing for the existence of "old earth" creationists. God created the universe but the creation of the earth and all life on earth was the result of cosmic and biological evolution. This also got God off the hook for evil in the world. Basically he could say, as humans tend to do, "It's not my fault." God got things started, but what happened after that was due to the forces of nature he created. The trouble with the Deism solution is that the vast majority of humans are not Deists but Theists and believe in a hard-working, personal, unretired God whom they tend to hold responsible for evil.
Theodicy
Another solution is to attempt to explain away the coexistence of evil and a personal, caring God. This is called a theodicy. The term is derived from the Greek theós, meaning God, and dikê, meaning justice. The following are some of the common theodicy-type solutions to the "problem of evil."
The free-will solution. God gave man free will. This in itself suggests that God is very intelligent since it freed him from being responsible for the second-to-second action of every person on earth. Wise move, God! This also means that when man is responsible for evil, such as Hitler's killing of the Jews, it is not God's fault. Blame the ability of man to do what ever he wishes, to exercise his own free will. In this form evil occurs because God allowed man to have free will. The inverse form holds that God allows evil to occur so man can have free will. Both forms have the same result. This human form of evil is termed "moral evil." Of course the free will solution does not excuse "natural evil" in the form of tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other acts of nature that God should be able to control.
Inanimate free will solution. One of the natural disasters that posed a great challenge to understanding the problem of evil occurred in Lisbon in 1755. Because it was All Saint's Day, people were attending church. An earthquake caused the stone structures to collapse killing over 100,000 people. This was a particularly onerous example of God's failure to prevent evil. To explain natural evil some have suggested the "free process solution."?1 This is based on the assumption that if humans have free will, then all of nature in general, including tectonic plates should also have free will. Thus, earthquakes and tsunamis are not God's fault; the disasters they produce are the fault of the free will of nature. This does not really explain why an all-powerful God could not have compromised just a little bit. For example, couldn't he have delayed the Lisbon earthquake by one day to Monday, when all the churches were empty?
The character-building solution. A good example of this is when a couple has a child with Down syndrome. This chromosome abnormality causes mental retardation and in previous years parents were advised to deal with this form of evil by placing the child in an institution. Over time, people stopped doing this and found that Down syndrome children are friendly, loving, and often a delight to raise, and provide true character-building for the parents. Another example is being born deaf. Some deaf people find such identity and character-building from their deafness that they refuse treatment with a cochlear implant. This solution suggests that evil helps to build man's character and to become the noble souls that God can be proud of. Of course if you are killed by the evil event, it is a bit late for character building.
The Yin and Yang solution. The Taoist religion speaks of yin and yang representing the many opposites in the universe, such as male and female and good and evil. They illustrate this concept with the following symbol of interlocking curves.
The yin and yang hypothesis suggests that one extreme of anything cannot exist and cannot be fully defined without the other extreme. If there was only divine perfection there would be no evil, but nothing exists in a single isolated pure state. As soon as there is some subtle variation to perfection, some dimensionality, there is automatically a window for the presence of evil. This view suggests that if there is good there must also be evil. That is just the way things are. Accept it. Don't blame God. The fifth century theologian Augustine of Hippo mounted the same solution. He couched it in terms of privatio boni, or a privation of good-an evil thing can only be referred to as a negative form of a good thing. In a similar vein, to the Hindu Vedantist the question of "Why does God permit evil?" is as meaningless as "Why does God permit good?" The fire burns one man and warms another, and is neither cruel nor kind.?2
A variant of this is that in order to do good deeds, one needs individuals in need of good deeds. One cannot give alms to the poor if there are no poor, or tend to the lepers if there are no lepers, or rescue the buried victims of a powerful earthquake if there are no powerful earthquakes.
The "God's mysterious plan" solution. By far the most common explanation for God allowing evil to occur is that it was part of God's mysterious plan. God knows exactly what he is doing and in the long run the evil that happens is all part of "God's plan." We mere mortals are just too stupid to understand his long-term plans. This is the common fodder of movies where a Spencer Tracy-like priest comforts a sobbing mother after her child has died with the words, "It is all part of God's grand plan," or its variant, "He is now in a better place."
The "God is also suffering" solution. Christians believe that God has shared the suffering of humans by living a truly human life in the body of Jesus Christ on earth. This gives comfort in that God is not above our misery, but along side us in the darkness. John Polkinghorne?1 gives the example of a concentration camp in World War II. A young Jewish boy was hung and was twisting and dying in a Gestapo noose. From the crowd of his fellow Jews, forced to witness the execution, came the cry "Where is God now?" One of them tells us that he reached inside himself for the answer. "He is there, hanging in the noose." There are, of course, two ways to interpret this: either God is suffering along with us or God also just died. Polkinghorne chooses the former stating "This insight, of God as the fellow sufferer, that Christians believe was historically acted out in the cross of Jesus Christ, meets the problem of suffering at the profoundest possible level." This explanation leaves unanswered the question of why would a rational, all-powerful God want to flagellate himself?
Table of Contents
Table of ContentsPreface - About Reading this Book ix
Introduction 1
Part I. Evolution 13
Chapter 1. The Evolution of Evolution 15
Darwinian Evolution 15
Self-Criticism 18
Genetics and Neo-Darwinism 20
Molecular Genetics 21
Evolutionary Developmental Genetics 26
Chapter 2. The Tree of Life 27
Extinctions 31
Tree of Life 32
Horizontal Gene Transfer 34
Preparation for the Cambrian Explosion 35
Chapter 3. The Cambrian Explosion 37
Evolution is Not Directed 44
Part II. Intelligent Answers to Intelligent Design 45
Darwinian Evolution 'Just a Theory' 46
Chapter 4. Does The Cambrian Explosion Disprove Darwin's Theory? 49
Gene Duplication and Unequal Crossing Over
Homeotic Genes 55
HOX Genes 56
How Do the HOX Genes Work? 58
Switches and Evolution 59
Other Homeotic Genes 59
Top-Down versus Bottom -up 60
Lysyloxidase 60
Hemoglobin 61
A Universal Cambrian Genome 61
The Environment 61
Evidence there was Plenty of Time for the Cambrian Explosion 61
Chapter 5. No Intermediate Fossils Anywhere? 65
Speciation by Geographic Isolation 67
Acceleration of Speciation by Diversity 68
Horse Evolution 68
The Burgess Shale 71
Diatoms 72
Mollusks and Species Extinctions 73
Trilobites 74
Sea to Land 75
From Meat Eater to Leaf Eater 76
Chapter 6. Not Enough Time? 79
SNPs and SNMs 80
STRPs and STRMs 81
Microsatellite DNA 81
Implications for Evolution 84
Proof of the Role of STRPs in Evolution 86
The Face of a Dog and Homopeptides of the RUNX2 Gene 86
Darwin's Finches and Rapid Evolution 87
The Role of Gene Splicing and Evolution 88
Other Mechanisms of RapidGenetic Change 90
Endosymbiosis 90
Whole Genome Duplication 90
Gene Duplication 90
Hybridization 90
Gene Displacement/Gene Opportunism/Cooption 90
Chromosome Rearrangement 91
Horizontal Gene Transfer 91
Jumping Genes 91
Sexual Recombination 91
Alu Sequences 91
Exon Shuffling and Domain Exchange 91
Repetitious Peptides 92
Chapter 7. Complexity - Introduction 95
Complexity and Cellular Automata 96
Computer Models of Evolution - Avida 99
Computer Models of Evolution - EV 101
The Real Thing 102
Monkeys and Typewriters 102
Basic Argument from Improbability 105
Modularity 106
Chapter 8. Complexity - Eyes 109
A Computer Model of the Evolution of the Refractory Index 110
Chapter 9. Complexity - Ears 115
Evolution of the Mammalian Jaw 115
Chapter 10. Complexity - Citric Acid Cycle 119
Chapter 11. Complexity - Blood Clotting 123
Chapter 12. Complexity - Cilia 131
Chapter 13. Complexity - Flagella 137
Chapter 14. Evolution Now: Introduction 145
Definition of a darwin 145
Chapter 15. Evolution Now: The Peppered Moth and Industrial
Melanism 147
Attacks on the Peppered Moth Story 151
Defense Against the Attacks 152
Chapter 16. Evolution Now: Darwin's Finches 157
Studies of the Grant's 159
The Drought 160
The Flood 162
Principle of Divergence 162
Speciation by Hybridization 163
Death Knell to Anti-evolutionist 164
The Creationist Anti-evolutionary Spin 164
Chapter 17. The Evolution of Man 167
Lemurs - Our Earliest Ancestors 168
The Human tree
African Mitochondrial Eve 170
Increase in Brain Size in Human Evolution 172
The Evolution of Brain Complexity 172
Role of specific genes 173
Role of Nutrition 174
Origin of Speech 175
Larynx 175
Brain 175
The FOXP2 Gene 176
General Screen for Genes Involved in the Evolution of Man 176
Examination of proteins 177
Examination of mRNA expression 177
Examination of DNA Segments 179
Changes in Promoter Regions 180
Changes in Copy Number 181
Changes in Non-coding RNA 181
Changes in HARs 181
Sex for All Seasons 182
Other Distinguishing Features of Homo sapiens 182
Chapter 18. The Origin of Life 187
The Narrow Origin of Life Window 187
The Miller-Urey Experiment 187
Creationists Objections to the Miller-Urey Experiment 189
There was Virtually No Oxygen in the
Early Earth's Atmosphere 190
There was a Hydrogen-rich Early Earth Atmosphere 190
Comets and Meteorites Provide Prebiotic Organic Compounds 190
Hydrothermal Systems 191
Theories of the Origin of Life 191
Protometabolism - A Chemical World 193
The Co-evolution of RNA and Proteins 196
Are We Alone? 199
Chapter 19. Evolution: Conclusions 203
Is Darwinism Poison to Religion? 206
Part III. Cosmology 211
Chapter 20. Quantum Physics 213
Interference 213
Entanglement 220
Is Quantum Weirdness Relevant to Human Spirituality? 223
Chapter 21. The Big Bang 225
The Forces of the Universe 225
Particles of the Universe 227
History of the Big Bang
Background Micro-radiation 230
Current Version of the Big Bang 231
Inflation and the Speed of Light 234
The Rate of Expansion of the Universe is Accelerating 234
Dark Matter and Dark Energy 235
Black Holes 236
Origin of the Solar System and the Earth 237
Is the Big Bang Relevant to Theology and Human Spirituality? 237
Chapter 22. String Theory: A Cosmic Symphony 239
Strings 239
String Theory 240
M-theory 241
Multiple Universes - Darwinian Selection of Universe 242
Branes, Parallel Universes and Cyclic Cosmology 242
A Universe from Nothing 243
Implications of String Theory for Theology and Spirituality 243
Chapter 23. The Anthropic Principle 245
1. Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP) 245
2. Strong Anthropic Principle (SAP) 246
3. Participatory Anthropic Principle (PAP 246
4. Final Anthropic Principle 246
What are the Constants that Must be Exactly as they are for Life
To Exist? 247
N, u', ?, uf, Q, D 247
A More Complete List of Anthropic Constants 248
Comments by Various Scientists 250
Strong Selective Effect
Is Life in the Universe Rare? 251
Religious and Spiritual Implications of the Anthropic Principle 251
Chapter 24. Cosmology and Spirituality 253
1. Quantum Physics 253
Does the Uncertainty Principle Mean We Have Free Will? 253
Does Quantum Physics and Entanglement Support the
Eastern Religious View of a Cosmic Consciousness
Where All Parts of the Universe are Interconnected? 257
Quantum Physics and Metaphysics 259
2. The Big Bang 259
Is God Required to Stabilize the Universe? 261
3. String Theory
Does String Theory Eliminate the Theological Advantage
of the Big Bang? 262
4. Does the Anthropic Principle Prove that God Exists? 262
The Participatory Anthropic Principle, Human
Consciousness and the Universe 264
Science and Mysticism 265
Part IV. The Neurology of Reason and Spirituality 269
Chapter 25. Consciousness, the Spirit and the Soul 271
Damasio and Consciousness 272
Edelman and Consciousness 276
Crick and Consciousness 279
Imaging Studies of Subjects in a Persistent Vegetative State 280
Information Integration and Consciousness 281
The Spirit and the Soul 283
Chapter 26. The Frontal Lobes 287
Luria and the Frontal Lobes 291
The Frontal Lobes, Consciousness and Civilization 293
The Frontal Lobes and ADHD 294
The Dorsolateral versus Orbitofrontal Areas 295
The Dorsolateral Syndrome 295
Chapter 27. The Pleasure Brain 299
The Reward Pathways 299
Chapter 28. The Social Brain 305
The Limbic System 305
The Prosocial Hormones Oxytocin and Vasopressin 309
The Orbitofrontal Prefrontal Cortex and the Man Who
Who Borrowed Cars 312
The "Theory of Mind" 315
The Mirror System 317
Chapter 29. The Rational Brain 323
The Right Brain - Left Brain 324
Novelty versus Routine 325
Working Memory 326
What is Rational Thought? 327
Where is Rational Thought Localized? 328
Brain Imaging Studies 330
Chapter 30. The Spiritual Brain 335
Anatomy of the Temporal Lobe 335
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) - History 337
Wilder Penfield and Mapping of the Spiritual Human Brain 338
Stimulation of the Amygdala and Hippocampus 344
More Out of Body Experiences 345
Spiritual and Religious Experiences and Temporal Lobe
Epilepsy (TLE) 345
Feeling of a Presence 352
The Role of TLE in History and Religion 352
Near Death Experience 356
REM Dreams and the Right Temporal Lobe 364
Magnetic Brain Stimulation of the Temporal Lobes
and Spirituality 365
LSD, the Temporal Lobes and Spirituality 367
DMT and Spirituality 369
Psilocybin and Spirituality 374
Right Temporal Lobe or Both Temporal Lobes? 376
Persinger, Temporal Lobe Transients, and the God Experience 378
Speaking in Tongues (Glossolalia) 382
Julian Jaynes, God and the Bicameral Mind 383
The Temporolimbic Marker Model of Saver and Rabin 384
Chapter 31. The Meditating Brain 393
The Types of Meditation 396
Effects of Meditation 400
The Dalai Lama, Compassionate Meditation and Gamma Waves 401
The Effect of Meditation on Brain Function as Determined by
Imaging Studies 403
Brain Imaging during Religious and Mystical Experiences 409
Chapter 32. The Hopeful Brain 411
How the Placebo Effects Complicate Drug Studies 414
Pain Pathways 416
Placebo Effect, Pain and Endorphins 418
Placebo Effect and the Prefrontal Cortex 419
Placebo Effect and Acupuncture 421
Placebo, PET and Parkinson's Disease 421
Endorphins, PET and the COMT Gene 422
Nocebo Effect 423
Chapter 33. The Happiness Brain 427
Social Relationships 429
Being in Control 429
Helping Others 430
Chapter 34. The Biology of Faith versus Reason 431
Complex Decisions are made in the Unconscious, Simple
Decisions in the Conscious Brain 435
Man's Craving for Information and the Pleasure it Produces 436
Man's Resistance to Changes in His Belief System 439
Chapter 35. Neurology: Summary 443
Part V. The Genetics of Reason and Spirituality 445
Chapter 36. Polygenic Inheritance 447
A Threshold Model 449
How Many Genes? 450
Polygenes 450
Epistasis 451
Chapter 37. The Genetics of Bad Behavior 453
Conduct Disorder (CD) is a Life-long Condition 455
Family Studies of CD 458
Twin Studies of CD 458
Twin Studies of Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime 459
Adoption Studies of Antisocial Behavior 460
Adolescence Limited and Life-Course
Persistent Antisocial Behavior 461
Some Specific Genes - MAO 463
Chapter 38. The Genetics of Good Behavior 465
Altruism 467
Indirect Reciprocal Altruism and Reputation 468
Strong Reciprocal Altruism, Altruistic Rewarding and Punishing 468
The Genetics of Altruism 469
Unfairness, Emotion and Reason 470
Altruistic Behavior and Dopamine Reward Pathways 471
Altruistic Behavior and Dopamine Genes 471
Chapter 39. The Genetics of Reason 473
Intelligence Tests 473
What is Intelligence? 475
The Genetics of Intelligence 475
Importance of IQ to Success in Society 477
Chapter 40. The Genetics of Spirituality 479
Twin Studies of Religious Belief 480
Twin Studies of Spirituality 485
Twin Studies of Spiritual but not Religious 487
Church Attendance 488
The Role of Specific Genes 489
Part VI. Natural Selection 491
Chapter 41. The Evolution of Intelligence 495
What Parts of the Human Brain have Shown the Greatest
Evolutionary Increase in Size? 495
What Cognitive Skills are Unique to Humans? 497
The Time Frame for the Evolution of Human Intelligence 498
The Role of Social Skills in the Evolution of Human Intelligence 500
Chapter 42. The Evolution of Spirituality 503
Is Spirituality a Meme? 505
Spirituality Alleviates Man's Fear of his Own Death,
of his Mortality 506
Spirituality Gives Man Control over a Threatening World 508
Spirituality and Near-death Experiences 508
Spirituality, Religion and Societal Cohesiveness 509
Religion and Natural Selection 510
Spirituality as a Defense Mechanism 511
Inborn Spirituality as a Moral Watchdog 511
A Spiritual Mate 512
Part VII. Other Aspects of Spirituality and Reason 515
Chapter 43. The Origins of Religion 517
Animism and the "Primitive Religions" 517
Polytheism 519
Plato, Aristotle and the Ancient Greeks 519
Zoroastrianism 519
The Eastern Religions
Hinduism 520
Buddhism 522
Jainism 523
Sikhism 523
Taoism 524
The Origins of Monotheism and Judaism 525
The Origins of Christianity 527
Islam 528
Chapter 44. Mysticism 533
Plotinus 534
Kabbalah 534
St. Teresa of Avila 536
Sufi 537
Al-Ghazali 537
Mysticism for the Common Man 539
Chapter 45. Myth and Ritual 541
Myth 541
Ritual 543
Chapter 46. Psychedelics and Religion 545
Psilocybin Mushrooms and Mesoamerica 546
Ayahuasca and the Amazon Basin 550
Mescaline, Peyote and the Native American Church 552
Amanita muscaria, Soma and Hinduism 553
The Soma of Hinduism 556
The Amrita of Buddhism 557
The Soma of Siberia 557
Mushrooms and Western Religion 558
Chapter 47. Does God Play Favorites? 563
The Chosen People 563
The Rapture 564
Chapter 48. The Evils of Religion 569
The Old Testament 568
The New Testament 569
The Inquisitions 570
The Crusades 570
Cromwell's Slaughter of Catholics 571
The Qur'an and Islam 571
The Assassins 572
Wahhabinism 572
Suicide Bombings and Islam 573
Islam and the Selling of Nuclear Secrets 574
Belief in the Apocalypse 574
Eastern Religions 575
Recent Religious Wars 575
Negative Health Consequences of Religion 576
The Literal Interpretation of Sacred Texts 576
Fundamentalism and Politics 577
Chapter 49. The Benefits of Religion 579
Religion and Health 580
Does Prayer Work? 586
Petitionary Prayer 587
Intercessory Prayer 587
Chapter 50. The Problem of Evil 593
The Gnostics 593
The Deists 594
Theodicy 594
The "Man Created God" Solution 596
Chapter 51. Are the Sacred Books Literally True? 597
Inconsistencies in the Bible 597
Man Made Changes in Sacred Texts 599
Chapter 52. Is God Dead? Ask the Pentecostals 603
Pentecostalism 603
Origins of Pentecostalism 604
Part VIII. Summary: Did Man Make God? 611
Definition of God 610
The Creation Theory 611
The Theory of the Soul 612
The Prayer Theory 612
The Spiritual Brain 612
An Inborn Moral Law 613
Spirituality: An Evolved Trait 614
Other Aspects of Religion and Spirituality 614
Multiple Religions 614
Psychedelics and Religion 614
The Problem of Evil 614
The Inerrancy of the Sacred Books 614
Is God Dead? 615
The Problem of Postponement 615
Is Religion Necessary for a Moral Life? 615
Is Religion Necessary for a Happy, Meaningful or
Purposeful Life? 616
How do We Answer the Three Questions of Pope John Paul II? 616
Is Man Inherently Sinful and Evil? 617
Is Science Incompatible with Religion? 618
Is the Rational Brain Incompatible with Spirituality? 619
Is the Rational Brain Incompatible with Religion and Faith? 619
1. Maximally Compatible 619
2. Compatible with Minor Qualifications 621
3. Compatible with Major Qualifications 622
Spiritual but not Religious 622
4. Incompatible 622
Is Religion Doomed or is Science Doomed 623
Glossary 627
Index 640