Hardwired for God

Temporal-lobe-epilepsy (TLE) patients, who suffer from seizures of the brain's frontal lobe, frequently experience intense mystical episodes. Neurologists at the University of California in San Diego have noticed that about 25% of patients with TLE become obsessed with religion.

Researchers believe that the seizures experienced by TLE patients may affect a pathway that connects two areas of the brain: one that takes in sensory information, and another that gives that information emotional context. This could explain why these patients often find exaggerated significance in every small thing that occurs. To test their theory, the scientists hooked up both TLE patients and healthy controls to electrical monitors capable of detecting activity in the brain's temporal lobes. Then, they showed both groups neutral words, sexually evocative words, curses, and religious words.

In healthy volunteers, even the religiously devout, there was no increase in brain activity in response to neutral or religious words. The curses and the sexual words, however, did set off a reaction in their temporal lobes. When TLE patients were given the test, their brains did not react to either the curses or sexual words, but did respond to the religious words.

It seems that the temporal lobes of human beings are naturally hardwired for religious experience, and an individual's potential for religiousity may depend on the genetic predisposition or the health of that area of their brain. What we see in some epileptics is probably a disease-induced exaggeration of a capacity that we may all have to a greater or lesser degree.

A belief in God is found in all societies worldwide and throughout history. Some scientists believe that this capacity may be designed into the brain's circuitry through evolution to facilitate altruism and cooperation between individuals, and bring order and stability to society.   Based on information in: Skeptic, Vol 5 #4, 1997; Psychology Today, Mar/Apr 1998