Using modern technology and ancient evidence, they attempt to explain how a 19-year-old managed to overcome many hardships and obstacles to become a legendary saint.
A friendly touch buffers the physiological consequences of stress.
Stephen Pinker on The President’s Council on Bioethics: The general feeling is that, even if a new technology would improve life and health and decrease suffering and waste, it might have to be rejected, or even outlawed, if it affronted human dignity. The problem is that “dignity” is a squishy, subjective notion, hardly up to the heavyweight moral demands assigned to it.
Religious leaders have always known that human beings, despite our best intentions, can and will be led astray by temptation. A recent journal article offers
Many Christian apologists–most notably C.S. Lewis (and more recently Francis Collins) have argued that our unique human innate sense of morality is itself evidence of the existence of God. Some recent experiments with chimps and twins suggests that at least one feature of this moral law–our notions of fairness–may have a biological explanation.
Does religious belief have origins in neuroscience? Can we pinpoint the location of a mystical experience? Using the tools of modern neuroscience, several scientists are attempting to explore the biological origins of faith.
The evolving and growing complexity of the human brain allowed our ancestors the ability to question, wonder, and consider new possibilities—to be creative. Life altering advances were the result. Is unconditional adherence to dogma (whether religious or secular) at odds with this evolved capability and our full potential as creative beings?