I recently read that Richard Dawkins underwent an experiment in 2003 where magnetic fields were applied to his head.
It was meant to stimulate the temporal lobes and create a religious experience. It failed on Dawkins; apparently his temporal lobe sensitivity is much lower than average. On others, however, the same treatment had triggered a sense of an invisible presence or out-of-body experiences.
What does this mean for religion? The discussion of such experiments usually follows similar lines. Could it be that the reason an atheist (such as Dawkins) doesn’t believe is simply because he or she is incapable of religious experience? Or, alternatively, that the only reason people do believe is because their brains are out of whack?
Euthanasia debate: Autonomy at all costs?
The founder of the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying has recently written on what he calls …