نقد پژوهش‌های علم عصب‌نگر در حوزة دین و معنویت

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسنده

پژوهشکدة تحقیق و توسعة علوم انسانی «سمت»

چکیده

این مقاله به مرور نقادانة پژوهش‌های علم عصب‌نگر در حوزة دین و معنویت می‌پردازد. پژوهش‌ها براساس تکلیف به­ کار بسته‌شده دسته‌بندی و مرور شدند و به اشکال‌های هر یک از آن‌ها پرداخته شد. استفاده از نمونه‌های نابسنده و بسیار کوچک، مصنوعی بودن، غیرآزمایشی بودن، فقدان کنترل، و توجه نداشتن به متغیرهای مداخله‌گر از مشکل‌های روش‌شناختی رایج در بیشتر این پژوهش‌ها بودند. این مرور نشان داد که تجربه‌های دینی، معنوی، و عرفانی با عملکرد یک یا چند ناحیة خاص قشری یا زیرقشریِ مغز هم­بسته نبودند. به ­نظر می‌رسد این یافته نشان دهد که تجربه‌های یادشده از نظر پدیدارشناسی تجربة واحدی نیستند و احتمالاً ناحیه‌ای به نام «منطقة خدا» در مغز وجود ندارد. از میان مناطق مغز، لوب پیشانی در تعداد بیشتری از پژوهش‌ها درگیر تجربه‌های دینی، معنوی، و عرفانی بود که می‌تواند بیانگر اهمیت نسبی شناخت در مقایسه با هیجان در این تجربه‌ها باشد. علاوه بر این، امکان ایجاد مصنوعی تجربة دینی و اندیشة مرضی بودن دین به چالش کشیده شدند.

کلیدواژه‌ها


عنوان مقاله [English]

A critique of the neuroscience research on religion and spirituality

نویسنده [English]

  • Naser Aghababaei
The Institute for Research and Development in the Humanities (SAMT)
چکیده [English]

This article critically reviews the literature on neuroscience of religion and spirituality. Studies, based on the applied task, were categorized and reviewed and their problems have been addressed. Using insufficient and too small samples, being artificial, being non-experimental, lack of control, not addressing the intervening variables were among the most common methodological problems. This review showed that religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences were not associated with any particular cortical or sub-cortical region. This finding seems to show that such experiences phenomenologically are not of one single experience, and probably there is not such thing as “God zone” in the brain. The frontal lobe was more than any other lobes involved in religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences which may show the relative importance of cognition in such experiences, in comparison with emotion. In addition, the probability experimentally inducing religious experience and the idea that religion is pathological have been questioned.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • brain
  • neuroscience
  • religion
  • spirituality
  • religious experience
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