{"id":13978,"date":"2023-04-25T02:12:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T02:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/?p=13978"},"modified":"2023-05-06T20:20:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T20:20:56","slug":"2023-04-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanists.org\/blog\/2023-04-30\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phantom God: What Neuroscience Reveals About the Compulsion to Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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John Wathey<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

John Wathey<\/h3>\n

11 a.m., April 30, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.<\/p>\n

This Sunday John Wathey will be at Mountain View to discuss his book The Illusion of God\u2019s Presence: the Biological Origins of Spiritual Longing<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Science has only begun to make sense of religion\u2019s powerful grip on the human mind. Why do seven percent of members of the National Academy of Sciences believe in a personal god who answers prayer? The question is important because it probes the most irresistible essence of the appeal of religious and spiritual thinking. Using evidence from visual illusions, behavioral biology, and neuroscience, he will offer an explanation for this and other puzzles of religion in terms of a cognitively impenetrable illusion, one that science has largely overlooked.<\/p>\n

If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).<\/p>\n