THAT a complex mind is required for religion may explain why faith is unique to humans. Now brain scans support this idea, revealing that the parts of the brain that process religious belief are those that evolved most recently and give us sophisticated cognition.
These regions include ones involved in our theory of mind. We share this ability to recognise that other people have intentions and thoughts independent of our own with only a few other species, including chimpanzees. Other regions involved in religious thought are ones used for language and metaphor.
of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues asked 40 monotheistic believers whether they agreed with statements relating to three core elements of belief: whether God intervenes in the world; how to interpret God鈥檚 emotional state; and how to relate to abstract doctrinal teachings or imagery. The researchers scanned the believers鈥� brains as they answered.
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While considering the first two statements, volunteers relied on areas such as the lateral frontal lobe and frontal gyri, which are required for a theory of mind. For the doctrinal statements, they used areas devoted to linguistics, decoding metaphor and recalling images (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ). 鈥淲e were particularly interested in determining which cognitive components of belief are stored in brain areas most evolved in humans,鈥� says Grafman.
Anthropologist of the University of Oxford says the results back his own theory that brain areas enabling the 鈥渉igher orders of intentionality鈥� shown by humans had to evolve before religion was possible. He suggests that religious people treat gods as 鈥渉aving essentially human mental traits, like characters in a novel or play鈥�.
鈥淩eligious people treat gods as having essentially human traits, like characters in a novel鈥�
Grafman stresses that the scans don鈥檛 shed light on whether or not God exists. 鈥淭hey only address how the mind and brain work in tandem to allow us to have belief systems that guide our everyday actions.鈥�