The Neuroscience of Prayer


Disconnect, for a moment, from the argument of whether prayer is real. That’s for another time and another place. The fact remains that it is an ancient, powerful, and widely practiced behavior. What is it about the human brain that encourages so many to appeal to a higher power? And what is happening inside the brain when people pray?

When we look at prayer through the lens of neuroscience, we can make an interesting observation: Talking to God is not really different from talking to one’s friends and neighbors.

The brain’s evolution was a highly social process and involved complex problem solving. Yet, invisible entities are not a force of natural selection. Check out this fMRI study of religious folks, and you’ll see that religious people’s brains view prayer as communication with an actual physical entity.

Believer or not, it’s good conversation fodder for your next cocktail party. For sure, it appears that religion is far more than illusion for the religious.

Perry’s God Strategy May Be Effective. Science Explains Why Social psychologists from Duke found that the when devout people view their government as in turmoil, they turn to God to fill the gaps in trust: “Although there are undoubtedly multiple causes of religious belief, one cause may be that when people perceive their government as unstable, they turn to God or other religious deities to fulfill a need for order and control in their lives,” says Aaron Kay, an associate professor at Duke University. Rick Perry and his prayer rally (which was well-received among attendees) is likely be capitalizing on those feelings, inadvertently or not. When religious Americans view the nation’s problems as “beyond our power to solve”, their psychology points them to candidates that share their trust in a higher power. (via The Intersection)
Pop-upView Separately

Perry’s God Strategy May Be Effective. Science Explains Why

Social psychologists from Duke found that the when devout people view their government as in turmoil, they turn to God to fill the gaps in trust:

“Although there are undoubtedly multiple causes of religious belief, one cause may be that when people perceive their government as unstable, they turn to God or other religious deities to fulfill a need for order and control in their lives,” says Aaron Kay, an associate professor at Duke University.

Rick Perry and his prayer rally (which was well-received among attendees) is likely be capitalizing on those feelings, inadvertently or not. When religious Americans view the nation’s problems as “beyond our power to solve”, their psychology points them to candidates that share their trust in a higher power.

(via The Intersection)

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com