Your Brain on God. (redux from NPR)

Religion
Is This Your Brain On God?

http://www.npr.org/te...

More than half of adult Americans report that a spiritual experience has changed their lives.

[More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve.]

BRAIN PARTS: (Images with expandable explanations and story on line)

Brain Stem
Part 1: The God Chemical

Temporal Lobe
Part 2: The God Spot

Parietal Lobe
Part 3: Spiritual Virtuosos

Overall Brain
Part 4: The Biology of Belief

Frontal Lobe:
Part 5: Near-Death Experiences

ON LINE with image links.
http://www.npr.org/te...

Listener comment:
Statistics say about 85% of people have some belief in religion in the US. Unfortunately, that percentage is more than the inverse of scientific literacy. We are taught that tolerance is one of the most desirable of human traits. Unfortunately, we aren't taught that being tolerant of bad ideas can be destructive. More unfortunate, we don't sufficiently teach how we might determine the difference between good and destructive ideas. We don't teach the practical application of the scientific method in daily life and as such our population fails in critical thought processing. Even the media gives bad ideas tolerance - especially if there controversy - which promotes the sale of media. As much as I love NPR, you can see them bending over backwards in this article to cover with equal tolerance scientifically supported ideas and those that have zip scientific credence. This is intellectually and scientifically unethical and professionally irresponsible.