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Recently Glenn Beck of Fox News reported that belief of God is under attack in the United States, with over 15% of the country's population having no religious belief, doubling since 1990. This leaves 85% of the country's population which does in God, still a large majority of our country. But to some, that 15% is the only portion of the cup, with the 85% meaning absolutely nothing. I would venture to guess one's opinion would depend on the point a person is trying to make and what side of the fence one stands on.

In a country that was originally founded on divine providence, we originally felt that God had a hand in the development of the United States, a country to be proud of. We did not have to use statistics on God to force our opinion on unsuspecting victims. A recent study has looked deep our brain scans for the relationship between our mind, religion and our belief in God, showing that those who believe in God have physical signs of higher thought patterns, emotions and thinking about metaphorical meanings behind religious teachings found in the person's actual brain scans. But it also suggests that religion is not an actual belief system but instead is something which evolves along with other belief and social cognitive abilities. 

"Religious belief and behaviour are a hallmark of human life, with no accepted animal equivalent, and found in all cultures," said Professor Jordan Grafman, from the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, near Washington. "Our results are unique in demonstrating that specific components of religious belief are mediated by well-known brain networks and they support contemporary psychological theories that ground religious belief within evolutionary-adaptive cognitive functions."

 

It is reported that the state of California has a higher proportion of Catholics than New England. To many, this is a surprise due to the many liberals who live there. But the 15% of people who do not believe in God may involve many different types of other people—those who do not attend church, those who practice hate speech, or those who have had recent emotional upheavals in their life and are presently at loss on every level. The reasons are many, but this latest study by Graftman confronts the fact that religious belief is very much divided amongst scientists regarding its biological basis.

The study, published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", analyzed the brains of volunteers, requesting them to think about religious, moral and questions about religion. The analysis of the brains was done by an MRI machine, with the results finding that there were several areas of the brain which showed connections regarding God and religious beliefs: frontal lobes of the cortex and deep inside the brain amidst the evolutionary ancient regions. These areas showed that God and God based thoughts were embedded within a whole range of belief systems that helps people function on a daily basis.

What is interesting is that these particular areas which showed activity within the MRI testing was the brain's temporal lobe, an area researched by Vilayanur Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, and Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the San Diego University of California. It was found that religious words caused an unusually high response in the volunteers as compared to a mixture of sexual and neutral words. Following up was another study within the temporal lobe area---stimulated by a rotating magnetic field. This study was done by Michael Persinger of the Laurentian University in Ontario. This second study involved artificially creating the presence of a spirit or a feeling of cosmic bliss in eight out of ten volunteers by wearing a "God Helmet" over the head which was activated. But when an atheist and evolutionist, Professor Richard Dawkins, wore the helmet to stimulate his brain area he stated he did not find God, only having his limbs affecting and breathing.

"When we have incomplete knowledge of the world around us, it offers us the opportunities to believe in God. When we don't have a scientific explanation for something, we tend to rely on supernatural explanations," said Professor Grafman, who believes in God.