Study Suggests Brain May Affect Religious Response

No one knows why humanity felt its first religious stirrings, but researchers at UC San Diego reported Tuesday that the human brain may be hard-wired to hear the voice of heaven, in what researchers said was the first effort to directly address the neural basis of religious expression.

In a provocative experiment with patients suffering from an unusual form of epilepsy, researchers determined that parts of the brain’s temporal lobe--which the scientists quickly dubbed the “God module”--may affect how intensely a person responds to religious beliefs.

They emphasized that their findings do not suggest religion is simply a matter of brain chemistry. “These studies do not in any way negate the validity of religious experience or God,” the team cautioned.