Religion and brain-mind science: Dreaming the future

Abstract

Now that we are a few years beyond the “Decade of the Brain�? (so proclaimed by the first President Bush in 1991), we can see how thoroughly the recent findings of brain-mind science have revolutionized our knowledge of human nature.Researchers have made astonishing discoveries about the workings of memory, language, vision, emotion, rationality, imagination, and many other basic features of psychological functioning. The implications of these findings are dramatic for many different fields of study, nowhere more so than in religious studies. Contemporary brain-mind science is giving us new insights into the evolved nature of our species, and this makes it directly relevant to the world’s religious traditions insofar as they seek a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.The time has long since come when the abundant discoveries of brain-mind science and the extensive history of human religiosity should be compared, evaluated, and, where possible, integrated.