| [ Christian ] in KIDS 글 쓴 이(By): imnot (반이정) 날 짜 (Date): 2001년 6월 20일 수요일 오전 07시 36분 18초 제 목(Title): [펌] "종교체험은 두뇌현상인가?" -- Washi * 19일자 중앙일보에 실린 기사를 보셨는 지 모르겠습니다. 제가 한 2년전부터 관심을 갖고 있던 내용이 기사화되서, 퍽 반가왔습니다. 하물며 전 이과(理科)적 자질이 없는 터라, 누가 요렇게 싹~ 요약해주길 바랬었고, 그 동안 영미 분석철학이나 그 분파(심리철학), 혹은 인지과학 전공하시는 분들께 몇 차례씩이나 서면 질의를 한 적이 있었는데, 변변한 답을 구하지 못하던 터에 반가운 일입니다. ^-^.. 왜냐면, 분명 신경생리학/신경과학에서 종교나 예술과 같은 형이상학에 대해 연구해놓은 결과물이 있을거라고 생각해왔었거든요. 서론이 길었는데, 중앙일보에서 외신(Washingtonpost) 6월 17일자 기사를 인용하면서, 종교현상과 경험--종교를 통해, 영감을 얻거나, 접신(接神)하는 경험 따위(* 아시다시피 이런 '형이상학적' 경험이야말로, 신앙인들이 비신앙인들에게, 신존재는 검증될 수 있는 성질의 것이 아니라고 주장 최후의 보루였지요)--이 뇌(brain)의 밖에서 일어날 순 없다(즉 종교현상이 온전히 두뇌의 작용 그 이상이 아니다)는 연구결과를 보도를 실었습니다. 음... 종교현상인 바에야, 굳이 기독보드에 올려야할 글은 아니지만, 중첩적으로 연관되는 부분도 있는 듯해서, 여기에 올려봅니다. 저는 개인적으로 종교체험이나, 예술 작품을 접한 후의 감동들이 (극단적으로 말하면)무의미한 것이 아닐까하고 몇 년 전부터 '막연하게만' 생각해온 터여서, 앞서 적은대로, 많은 관련 전공자들께 질문을 드린 적이 있었거든요....^^;; 근데, 원문을 편집 인용한 국내 신문이나, Washingtonpost 역시, 보수적 민심(民心)을 고려하지 않을 수 없었던 모양입니다. 아래 퍼다놨지만, 원문을 보시면, '강경한' 입장의 신경생리학자/신경과학자 neuroscientist인 Persinger 와 Alper의 입장은 간단히 소개한 반면에, 결론부에 해당할 수 있는 마지막에는, 심리학자나, 신학자들을 대동시켜서, 신경생리학의 주장이 허황되다는 걸로 끝맺고 있으니 말입니다. 근데, 그 사람들이 허황되다고 비판하는 것에 대해, 이미 신경과학자들이 입장을 본문에서 밝힌 거 같은데.... 마땅히 반론으로 인용할 말이 궁했던 모양입니다. 암튼 원문과 국내 인용문 퍼옵니다. ============================================= 원문출처: http://search.joins.com/news_content.asp?id=20010618175416&keyword=%C1%BE%B1%B3&tablename=NEWS2001&srccode= ▶ 게 재 일 : 2001년 06월 19일 08面(10版) ▶ 글 쓴 이 : 이상언 "종교는 뇌의 현상" 미국·캐나다 교수들 주장 --------------------------------------------------------- 무아의 경지에 이르거나 신의 목소리를 듣는 등의 인간의 영적(靈的) 체험까지 과학으로 설명할 수 있을까. 최근 미국에서는 종교적 체험을 두뇌활동의 한 현상으로 해석하는 연구가 활발하게 진행 중이며 이들 연구진은 "인간의 두뇌가 뇌 신경계의 화학적 변화나 특별한 정신적 활동에 의해 영적인 체험을 할 수 있도록 설계돼 있다고 주장한다" 고 워싱턴 포스트가 17일자에서 보도했다. 펜실베이니아대 앤드루 뉴버그 교수는 티베트 불교 명상가들에게 추적용 방사성 물질을 주입해 두뇌활동을 촬영한 결과 깊은 명상에 빠졌을 때 대뇌의 한부분인 두정엽(頭頂葉)의 활동이 줄어든다는 것을 확인했다. 두정엽은 자아 인식과 신체적 방향감각을 담당하는 부위다. 뉴버그 교수는 "두정엽의 활동이 정지되면 사람들은 우주와 하나가 된 듯한 몰아(沒我)의 경지에 빠지게 된다" 며 "인간의 두뇌에 근본적인 변화가 발생하지 않는 한 종교는 영원히 존재할 것이고 사람들은 신을 믿을 것" 이라고 주장했다. 그는 최근 자신의 주장을 `왜 신은 사라지지 않는가`라는 책으로 펴냈다. 캐나다 서드베리 로렌시아대의 마이클 퍼싱어 교수는 사람들의 두뇌에 약한 전자기를 흘려 보내는 실험에서 다섯명 가운데 네명이 종교적인 체험을 했다고 주장했다. 그는 "이들 중 일부는 흐느꼈고, 일부는 자신이 신과 접촉하거나 악마와 대화를 나눴다는 느낌을 받았다고 밝혔다" 며 "이 실험으로 종교적 체험은 두뇌와 관련 있는 것이며 두뇌 이외의 것과는 연관이 없다는 사실이 드러났다" 고 말했다. 워싱턴 포스트는 이와 함께 샌디에이고 캘리포니아대에서는 종교적 체험과 간질 발작의 관계를, 듀크대에서는 환각제와 영적 체험의 관계를 조사하는 등 두뇌와 종교적 현상에 대한 다양한 연구가 이뤄지고 있다고 소개했다. 물론 종교적 체험을 `과학적` 으로 분석하려는 이같은 시도에 대한 비판도 만만찮다. 종교적 체험이 두뇌활동과 관련돼 있다 하더라도 이러한 체험을 가능하게 하는 원동력은 두뇌의 바깥에 있다는 것이다. 캔자스대 대니얼 뱃슨 교수는 "두뇌가 종교를 만든다고 주장하는 것은 피아노가 음악을 만든다고 강변하는 것과 다름없다" 고 말했다. 이상언 기자 <joonny@joongang.co.kr> ******************************************** 원문출처 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8545-2001Jun15.html Tracing the Synapses of Spirituality In an experiment to recreate a spiritual experience in the brain, a volunteer wears headgear that produces an electromagnetic pattern on a computer program. (Laurentian University Neuroscience Research Group) By Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 17, 2001; Page A01 In Philadelphia, a researcher discovers areas of the brain that are activated during meditation. At two other universities in San Diego and North Carolina, doctors study how epilepsy and certain hallucinogenic drugs can produce religious epiphanies. And in Canada, a neuroscientist fits people with magnetized helmets that produce "spiritual" experiences for the secular. The work is part of a broad new effort by scientists around the world to better understand religious experiences, measure them, and even reproduce them. Using powerful brain imaging technology, researchers are exploring what mystics call nirvana, and what Christians describe as a state of grace. Scientists are asking whether spirituality can be explained in terms of neural networks, neurotransmitters and brain chemistry. What creates that transcendental feeling of being one with the universe? It could be the decreased activity in the brain's parietal lobe, which helps regulate the sense of self and physical orientation, research suggests. How does religion prompt divine feelings of love and compassion? Possibly because of changes in the frontal lobe, caused by heightened concentration during meditation. Why do many people have a profound sense that religion has changed their lives? Perhaps because spiritual practices activate the temporal lobe, which weights experiences with personal significance. "The brain is set up in such a way as to have spiritual experiences and religious experiences," said Andrew Newberg, a Philadelphia scientist who authored the book "Why God Won't Go Away." "Unless there is a fundamental change in the brain, religion and spirituality will be here for a very long time. The brain is predisposed to having those experiences and that is why so many people believe in God." The research may represent the bravest frontier of brain research. But depending on your religious beliefs, it may also be the last straw. For while Newberg and other scientists say they are trying to bridge the gap between science and religion, many believers are offended by the notion that God is a creation of the human brain, rather than the other way around. "It reinforces atheistic assumptions and makes religion appear useless," said Nancey Murphy, a professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. "If you can explain religious experience purely as a brain phenomenon, you don't need the assumption of the existence of God." Some scientists readily say the research proves there is no such thing as God. But many others argue that they are religious themselves, and that they are simply trying to understand how our minds produce a sense of spirituality. Newberg, who was catapulted to center stage of the neuroscience-religion debate by his book and some recent experiments he conducted at the University of Pennsylvania with co-researcher Eugene D'Aquili, says he has a sense of his own spirituality, though he declined to say whether he believed in God because any answer would prompt people to question his agenda. "I'm really not trying to use science to prove that God exists or disprove God exists," he said. Newberg's experiment consisted of taking brain scans of Tibetan Buddhist meditators as they sat immersed in contemplation. After giving them time to sink into a deep meditative trance, he injected them with a radioactive dye. Patterns of the dye's residues in the brain were later converted into images. Newberg found that certain areas of the brain were altered during deep meditation. Predictably, these included areas in the front of the brain that are involved in concentration. But Newberg also found decreased activity in the parietal lobe, one of the parts of the brain that helps orient a person in three-dimensional space. "When people have spiritual experiences they feel they become one with the universe and lose their sense of self," he said. "We think that may be because of what is happening in that area ?if you block that area you lose that boundary between the self and the rest of the world. In doing so you ultimately wind up in a universal state." Across the country, at the University of California in San Diego, other neuroscientists are studying why religious experiences seem to accompany epileptic seizures in some patients. At Duke University, psychiatrist Roy Mathew is studying hallucinogenic drugs that can produce mystical experiences and have long been used in certain religious traditions. Could the flash of wisdom that came over Siddhartha Gautama ?the Buddha ?have been nothing more than his parietal lobe quieting down? Could the voices that Moses and Mohammed heard on remote mountain tops have been just a bunch of firing neurons ?an illusion? Could Jesus's conversations with God have been a mental delusion? Newberg won't go so far, but other proponents of the new brain science do. Michael Persinger, a professor of neuroscience at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, has been conducting experiments that fit a set of magnets to a helmet-like device. Persinger runs what amounts to a weak electromagnetic signal around the skulls of volunteers. Four in five people, he said, report a "mystical experience, the feeling that there is a sentient being or entity standing behind or near" them. Some weep, some feel God has touched them, others become frightened and talk of demons and evil spirits. "That's in the laboratory," said Persinger. "They know they are in the laboratory. Can you imagine what would happen if that happened late at night in a pew or mosque or synagogue?" His research, said Persinger, showed that "religion is a property of the brain, only the brain and has little to do with what's out there." Those who believe the new science disproves the existence of God say they are holding up a mirror to society about the destructive power of religion. They say that religious wars, fanaticism and intolerance spring from dogmatic beliefs that particular gods and faiths are unique, rather than facets of universal brain chemistry. "It's irrational and dangerous when you see how religiosity affects us," said Matthew Alper, author of "The God Part of the Brain," a book about the neuroscience of belief. "During times of prosperity, we are contented. During times of depression, we go to war. When there isn't enough food to go around, we break into our spiritual tribes and use our gods as justification to kill one another." While Persinger and Alper count themselves as atheists, many scientists studying the neurology of belief consider themselves deeply spiritual. James Austin, a neurologist, began practicing Zen meditation during a visit to Japan. After years of practice, he found himself having to re-evaluate what his professional background had taught him. "It was decided for me by the experiences I had while meditating," said Austin, author of the book "Zen and the Brain" and now a philosophy scholar at the University of Idaho. "Some of them were quickenings, one was a major internal absorption ?an intense hyper-awareness, empty endless space that was blacker than black and soundless and vacant of any sense of my physical bodily self. I felt deep bliss. I realized that nothing in my training or experience had prepared me to help me understand what was going on in my brain. It was a wake-up call for a neurologist." Austin's spirituality doesn't involve a belief in God ?it is more in line with practices associated with some streams of Hinduism and Buddhism. Both emphasize the importance of meditation and its power to make an individual loving and compassionate ?most Buddhists are disinterested in whether God exists. But theologians say such practices don't describe most people's religiousness in either eastern or western traditions. "When these people talk of religious experience, they are talking of a meditative experience," said John Haught, a professor of theology at Georgetown University. "But religion is more than that. It involves commitments and suffering and struggle ?it's not all meditative bliss. It also involves moments when you feel abandoned by God." "Religion is visiting widows and orphans," he said. "It is symbolism and myth and story and much richer things. They have isolated one small aspect of religious experience and they are identifying that with the whole of religion." Belief and faith, argue believers, are larger than the sum of their brain parts: "The brain is the hardware through which religion is experienced," said Daniel Batson, a University of Kansas psychologist who studies the effect of religion on people. "To say the brain produces religion is like saying a piano produces music." At the Fuller Theological Seminary's school of psychology, Warren Brown, a cognitive neuropsychologist, said, "Sitting where I'm sitting and dealing with experts in theology and Christian religious practice, I just look at what these people know about religiousness and think they are not very sophisticated. They are sophisticated neuroscientists, but they are not scholars in the area of what is involved in various forms of religiousness." At the heart of the critique of the new brain research is what one theologian at St. Louis University called the "nothing-butism" of some scientists ?the notion that all phenomena could be understood by reducing them to basic units that could be measured. "A kiss," said Michael McClymond, "is more than a mutually agreed-upon exchange of saliva, breath and germs." And finally, say believers, if God existed and created the universe, wouldn't it make sense that he would install machinery in our brains that would make it possible to have mystical experiences? "Neuroscientists are taking the viewpoints of physicists of the last century that everything is matter," said Mathew, the Duke psychiatrist. "I am open to the possibility that there is more to this than what meets the eye. I don't believe in the omnipotence of science or that we have a foolproof explanation." ?2001 The Washington Post Company |