researchers are asking: are our brains hard-wired to believe in God?

M.A. Persinger (2009). Are our brains structured to avoid refutations of belief in God? An experimental study Religion, 39 (1), 34-42 DOI: 10.1016/j.religion.2008.05.005

I ran across an interesting article via ResearchBlogging.net this morning: a project (albeit, one needing some serious follow up & certainly open to alternate interpretations) indicating that the human brain is structured (inherently 'hard-wired') to believe in God. Basically, that statements refuting God's existence confound parts of our brain.

From 'http://ResearchBlogging.net':

"Michael Persinger is a behavioural scientist at Laurentian University in Canada who is most famous for studies where he uses transcranial magnetic stimulation to induces feelings of God in ordinary people (even, on one occasion, Richard Dawkins!).

Persinger thinks that we're hardwired to believe in God, and his latest research on this has just been published. His experiment was rooted in the theory that parts of your right-brain are involved in detecting potential upsets in a logical chain of thought, before passing this information over to decision-making parts of your left hemisphere."

From exploring Persinger's work, I'm left wondering: is it harder for some to experience a transcendent God than others? It certainly wouldn't be surprising--even within Christians we see a striking continuum of 'belief & experience of God' styles--from pentecostal to quite liturgical. In the end, I do believe it is possible to experience God without that 'fluffy feeling': is He not embedded within human love & compassion? Within our very struggle against selfishness & pride? Within higher degrees of consciousness? Surely Science cannot answer these questions, but I find the attempts intriguing.

If you watch the video, do be sure to make it to the end.