assumptions about the universal nature of human brain anatomy. While it is
reasonable to assume that human brains have been very similar across histor-
ical space and time, there are limits to this assumption and where those limits
are not yet entirely clear. Ongoing debates about the rate of genetic evolution,
the timeframe of the evolution ofHomo sapiensand its predecessors, and the
relevance of minor differences between lines of human genetic heritage as well
as gender differences might play a role that is not negligible.^2 A key element in
the diagram is“stimulation.”While the roles played by meditative techniques
and psychoactive substances (in particular, so-called“entheogens,”see section
7.7) have been addressed in the empirical research of religious experience,
these factors received less attention in the theoretical discussion. Further, there
has been little empirical research on the role of ritual practices in the emer-
gence of religious experience. Let us consider the latter aspect of religious
experience in some detail.
At one of the early Cognitive Science of Religion conferences held at Emory
University in 2003, Ken Livingston (2005) described a model that attempted
to bind religious practice, religious experience, and religious belief into a
complex whole. Livingston surveyed empirical studies about brain activity
and religious experience. He found that some religious experience strongly
correlated with changes in the temporal lobes, resembling the effect of
epileptic seizures in this area. He concluded (p. 84) that the resulting pro-
cesses in the temporal lobes“justify a neuroscientific account in which God,
angels, demons, and other supernatural agents are creatures born of temporal
lobes gone out of control.”Other scholars before Livingston sought a neu-
roscientific explanation of religious experience in temporal lobe epilepsy
(Persinger, 1987; Ramachandran & Blakeslee, 1998). Another type of religious
experience, Livingston observed, does not include gods and other superhuman
agents. Such experiences are concerned with the world as momentary events.
In terms of neurological correlates, these experiences typically show increased
activation in the frontal lobes (especially in the orbital and cingulate region)
and decreased activation in the superior parietal lobes (especially in the
posterior region). Livingston showed that these changes could be associated
with focused attention and the dissolution of the sense of the self. Further,
Livingston proposed that some religious traditions (such as Sufism or South-
ern Baptists in the United States) have practices that generate altered
brain states by high sensorimotor pageantry (such as rhythmic dance or
music), while others have practices leading to meditative states. Each of the
traditions tends to provoke changes in particular brain regions, which are
consistent with respective changes in conscious experience. Such experience,
in turn, is offered as evidence in support of the core beliefs of the religious
(^2) See Chapters 2 and 3 for discussions of some of these neuroanatomical and evolutionary
factors.
148 Cognitive Science and the New Testament