I return to throw a few questiona in your brainstorming machinery
prompted by an article in NATURE, where experiments on religious
persons are proposed in order to identify the chemical substance(s)
responsible for religious experience(s) such as prayer, the baptism of
the Holiy Spirit, etc. The article is to me alarming/disturbing and
even affensive since I am a Christian.
A bit more before the questions. I understand that the judeo-christian
religion has "evolved" in the last 5k years or so. Obviously to me
this type of "evolution" is short of being "naturalistic" since several
"supernatural" events plus the inspired revelation of the scriptures
ocurred, IMO, by interventions of the Divine in human affairs. Now.
Do you (teistic evolutionists) believe in the naturalistic evolution of
religion or religious experiences, in particular the judeochristian
one?
Would it bother you if scientists find a naturalistic explanation for
your faith to explain away your particular preference and devotion,
etc.?
Are they "wrong" for assuming a priori that there must be a
naturalistic explanation for religious experiences (faith)?
Is the Holy Spirit in you a chemical alteration that first took place
at conversion/baptism?
Did this alteration happened supernaturally or naturally,
mechanistically, as a meme propagation/replication?
Well those are enough for now. I will hang up and "listen" to your
comments. Thank you very much. And don't forget your mother this
weekend.
EGM
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