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elfsWhen we engage in quiet, moral reasoning about what we would do under certain situations, a particular pattern appears in our brains under functional ("live") magnetic resonance imaging. fMRI records what parts of our brain experience a jump in glucose consumption, indicating what parts are doing work. Whatever the underlying mechanism, the pattern is reliable across individuals and across cultural differences: when you think about what you would under a giving circumstance, the same parts of your brain light up, regardless of age, national origin, or ethnicity.
When we engage in quiet, moral reasoning about what other people would do under those same circumstances, other parts of the brain light up. The mental toolkit for modeling what other people might think, do, and how they might behave, is maintained in different locations of the brain from how we reason about ourselves.
Now comes a study out of Stanford that indicates that when we reason about what God might do, the first section lights up: we reason about what God might do by first assuming that God would do what we would do. Unlike "other people," who we know do not have thoughts aligned with our own, our brains operate as if God's thoughts are aligned with our own.
When we engage in quiet, moral reasoning about what other people would do under those same circumstances, other parts of the brain light up. The mental toolkit for modeling what other people might think, do, and how they might behave, is maintained in different locations of the brain from how we reason about ourselves.
Now comes a study out of Stanford that indicates that when we reason about what God might do, the first section lights up: we reason about what God might do by first assuming that God would do what we would do. Unlike "other people," who we know do not have thoughts aligned with our own, our brains operate as if God's thoughts are aligned with our own.
