okay now i have almost finished 'the god part of the brain' and i'm conflicted. i think the science elements are spot on, there is a spiritual part of the brain, and it can be stimulated to simulate spiritual feelings, (but the brain can also be tricked into thinking eating an onion is like eating an apple, the onion is still an onion.)
it's not difficult to accept that, but what i have trouble with is the fact the author implies that this is somehow something that evolved from survival mechanisms, i don't fully believe that. sure the brain evolved but the survival mechanism comes from the future, not the past.
it's something we are evolving towards, a spiritual way of being. this will greatly increase our survival.
in fact the whole problem with his argument is he has taken spiritualism as something that is the opposite of science where as the two are very similar, both require discipline, laws, paradox and imagination. in fact it is the spiritual part of the brain that makes the quantum leaps in science, one cannot exist without the other. however his points on religious intrusion into spirituality are accurate.
he skims etheogens and reduces the experience down to chemical alteration of the brain but he makes no comments about the fact that scientists that use them have made massive breakthroughs, crick, watson spring to mind. i think that science operates within the frame work of the brain, it is logical and predictable, but spiritualism operated outside the confines of the brain, at some point the two will meet. there are many jewish, hindu, taoists physicists who reconcile their beliefs with science.