How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings From A Leading Neuroscientist (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
I think that the title is a bit misleading. It really should be called something like "The Neurological Benefits of Meditation" or something similar. Part of the point of the book is that God can't be proven neurologically/scientifically, but they use this as an excuse to only treat the concept of God in the broadest of strokes. When they do talk about the specific "gods" of different religions, it is typically based on people's opinions from survey data. So, the chapters pertaining to God specifically were underwhelming from both an intellectual and spiritual standpoint.That said, the chapters on meditation and brain exercises were quite interesting and helpful. All of the stuff on meditation was purposefully secularized, in order to appeal to the greatest common denominator, which is fine, but I wonder about the implications of striping all of the spiritual meaning out of the exercises. I feel bad rating/reviewing this books without having completely finished it. We read this book as a home group and I was hit and miss with a few of the chapters. But I believe I got the gist - and while the book was interesting it was just too much like a college textbook read for me to recommend it - unless a college text read sounds good to you. (Hence me leaving the 3 chapters unfinished!) The idea that our brains may actually need the "idea" of God was compelling enough to get me through the chapters I did finish, though. And in addition to learning new concepts about meditation the subject matter made for good discussion material for a "church" group.
What do You think about How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings From A Leading Neuroscientist (2009)?
Really fascinating to see the physical effects of spirituality and religion. Enjoying it so far!
—tadi268
One of the best read- very nicely relates the worldly matters with godly decisions.
—abiranii
Sounds interesting; has anyone read it/heard of it?
—annamaria
