Apr 13, 2009 12:10 PM
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Fri Mar 19
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Science may not be able to prove the existence of God, but brain scans on human subjects praying can definitely prove that people who talk to God like him/her/it a lot, apparently.
Danish scientist Uffe Schjødt ran MRI scans on 20 devout Christians during different types of prayer, and found results that made everyone happy:
In the first task, they silently recited the Lord's Prayer, then a nursery rhyme. Identical brain areas, typically associated with rehearsal and repetition, were activated.
In the second, they improvised personal prayers before making requests to Santa Claus. Improvised prayers triggered patterns that match those seen when people communicate with each other, and activated circuitry that is linked with the theory of mind - an awareness that other individuals have their own independent motivations and intentions... He says the results show people believe they are talking to someone when they pray, an outcome that pleased both atheists and Christians: "Atheists said it shows that it's all an illusion," says Schjødt, while Christians said it was evidence that God is real.
Am I the only one who wanted to know what the results were like while they were talking to Santa?
Praying to God is like talking to a friend [New Scientist]
Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.
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