Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

The phantom God : what neuroscience reveals about the compulsion to believe / John C. Wathey.

by Wathey, John C., 1953-

View full image

Prometheus Books, c2022.

Experience (Religion)

Religion and science.

Neurosciences -- Religious aspects.

Neurosciences -- Research.

Biology -- Religious aspects.

Computational biology -- Religious aspects.

9781633888067 (hc.)

xii, 291 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Insights from neuroscience about religious and spiritual feelings."

"Does neuroscience have anything to say about religious belief or the existence of God? Some have tried to answer this question, but, in doing so, most have strayed from the scientific method. In 'The Phantom God,' computational biologist and neuroscientist John C. Wathey, Ph.D., tackles this problem head-on, exploring religious feelings not as the direct perception by the brain of some supernatural realm, nor as the pathological misfiring of neurons, but as a natural consequence of how our brains are wired. Unlike other neurobiological studies of religion and spirituality, 'The Phantom God' treats mysticism not as something uniquely human and possibly supernatural in origin, but as a completely natural phenomenon with deep biological roots. (...)"--Jacket.

John C. Wathey, Ph.D., is a computational biologist whose research interests include evolutionary algorithms, protein folding, and the biology of nervous systems. Previously, he was a senior applications scientist at Biosym Technologies (now named Biovia), a company that develops molecular modeling software for the pharmaceutical industry. He then founded his own business, Wathey Research, and since that time most of his scientific research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Wathey has published his peer-reviewed research results in distinguished scientific journals, including Biophysical Journal, Journal of Neuroscience; Brain, Behavior and Evolution, and Neuroscience Letters, among others. He is the author of The Illusion of God’s Presence: The Biological Origins of Spiritual Longing and has published popular articles in the Huffington Post, Skeptic Magazine, and The Jonestown Report.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal