Religion and the Brain

Here’s a piece from yesterday’s USA Today that explores more of the biology of religion. It’s by Andrew Newberg, associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the new book How God Changes Your Brain. His studies show that

spiritual practices, such as meditation and prayer … reveal significant improvements in memory, cognition and compassion while simultaneously reducing anxiety, depression, irritability and stress (even when done in a non-theological context). One might come to the conclusion, then, that being religious or spiritual is a good thing.

But his studies also show

when people view God as loving, forgiving, compassionate and supportive, this more likely results in a very positive view of themselves, and of the world around them. But when God is viewed as dispassionate, vengeful and unforgiving, this can have deleterious effects on one’s physical and mental health. Again, the research is clear: If you ruminate on negative emotions, they activate the areas of the brain that are involved in anger, fear and stress. This can ultimately damage important parts of the brain and the body. What’s worse, negative emotions can spill over into outward behaviors that generate fear, distrust, hatred, animosity and violence toward people who hold different or opposing beliefs.

In other words, it matters what we believe.

This should come as no surprise to Pagans. The modern Pagan view of the Great Mother Goddess – with all the nurturing, caring, and unconditional loving we generally associate with the best of mothers – arose precisely because of the dominant religions’ view of a God with all the stern, angry, punishing attributes generally associated with the worst of fathers.

We cannot know Ultimate Reality, therefore we cannot say one version of “God” is any more correct than another. But we can say that some versions are more helpful than others. Pagans have long argued that the concept of a Father God is meaningless without a Mother Goddess. Now we see there are clear, physical advantages to our beliefs.

Blessed be!