Why God Won't Go Away

Brain Science and the Biology of Belief

De: Andrew Newberg, Eugene d'Aquili, Vince Rause

Narrado por: Joe Barrett

Why have we humans always longed to connect with something larger than ourselves? Even today, in our technologically advanced age, more than 70 percent of Americans claim to believe in God. Why, in short, won't God go away?

In this groundbreaking new book, researchers Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili offer an explanation that is at once profoundly simple and scientifically precise: The religious impulse is rooted in the biology of the brain. In Why God Won't Go Away, Newberg and d'Aquili document their pioneering explorations in the field of neurotheology, an emerging discipline dedicated to understanding the complex relationship between spirituality and the brain. Blending cutting-edge science with illuminating insights into the nature of consciousness and spirituality, they bridge faith and reason, mysticism and empirical data. The neurological basis of how the brain identifies the "real" is nothing short of miraculous. This fascinating, eye-opening book dares to explore both the miracle and the biology of our enduring relationship with God.

©2001 Andrew Newberg, MD; Epilogue copyright 2002 by Andrew Newberg, MD (P)2018 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[A] fascinating and thought-provoking book by two neurologists and a veteran journalist... Their arguments are cogent, and their observations and questions should keep readers seriously involved." (Booklist)

Excellent!

This work is a great introduction to the subject of neural theology! It will challenge you both scientifically and theologically, and in many ways deepen your approach to both!

My opinion

The narrator talks a little too fast and sounds like a tv ad for Smuckers. I much preferred listening to Andrew Newberg himself in other Audible selections.

Misleading Title written by Religious Mystics.

I should have read the Book’s description more carefully. I would have seen that the Author’s “scientific” area of interest is Neurotheology! While the naming of this pursuit would probably be helpful for grants from the Templeton Foundation and its ilk, it camouflages the real subject of his studies.

Using the terminology of Brain Science, bowing before every Religious Mystic they could find, and sprinkling quotes from C.S. Lewis, Einstein, and William James. Newberg & Co. build their silly and often contradictory case.

Simply put, the Brain constantly seeks to make sense of the Sensory inputs bombarding it. Ultimately, when all else fails, it shuts itself off from all the Senses, disappears up its own “you know what” and achieves a meeting with “A Transcendent Unitary State of Being”. Since that Brain had been raised in the warm, friendly Culture of a bunch of Theists, it immediately understands that it has found “God”. Their Mommy and Daddy should have taught them better.

Newberg claims to have stumbled on this fabulous, and I use that word in its root meaning, theory because every Mystic and Religious Writer he knows told him that’s what happens. Why he thinks that his theory is any different from one that claims that our Neanderthal Ancestors heard Thunder and found God is beyond me.

After that earthshaking discovery he has to try to convince us that this moment of enlightenment is different from the ones we all, Believers and Unbelievers alike, have experienced listening to a Beethoven Sonata or walking through the Woods. I know, I know: “St. Teresa of Avila told him so”!

He also tries to redeem himself in his closing Chapters by recommending that if all of us would just meet, his book in hand, at the Crossroads of Neuroscience and Religion, all Wars would end, competing beliefs and their Holy Books would fade away, and we would walk hand in hand, singing Kumbayah.

Sorry, not buying it. God and I have parted ways a long time ago. I prefer to walk in the Rain, listen to Babies giggle, and savor the flavor of a Fine Bourbon. My ideas of Transcendent States of Being.

Finally, while I enjoy Joe Barrett’s narration of Murder Mysteries or Horse Racing Books, his voice is less suited to works about Spirituality or Transcendence! Two or Three Stars. **

Thought provoking

This book is an intersection of science and religion. Helps you challenge your own assumptions and beliefs.

Very interesting material

very academic. I thought it would reveal more about the relationship between mind & God. I have more questions now than when I started.

Tripe

Very disappointing. This book is complete sophistry with a conclusion built on wild speculation couched in scientific language.