The human brain is incredibly complex. Both Christian and secular scholars alike affirm this fact, yet the traditional view of humanity as spiritual beings made in the image of God has come under increased pressure from humanistic and materialistic thinkers who deny that humans are anything more than their physical bodies. Christians have long affirmed that humans are spiritual beings made by God to know and fellowship with him, while the humanist position views humans as merely evolved animals. Bradley Sickler provides a timely theological, scientific, and philosophical assessment of the human brain, highlighting the many ways in which the gospel informs the Christian understanding of cognitive science. Here is a book that provides a much-needed summary of the Bible’s teaching as it sheds light on the brain, with careful interaction with the claims of modern science, arguing that the Christian worldview offers the most compelling vision of the true nature of humanity.

God is great—for your mental, physical, and spiritual health. Based on new evidence culled from brain-scan studies, a wide-reaching survey of people’s religious and spiritual experiences, and the authors’ analyses of adult drawings of God, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg and therapist Mark Robert Waldman offer the following breakthrough discoveries: • Not only do prayer and spiritual practice reduce stress, but just twelve minutes of meditation per day may slow down the aging process. • Contemplating a loving God rather than a punitive God reduces anxiety and depression and increases feelings of security, compassion, and love. • Fundamentalism, in and of itself, can be personally beneficial, but the prejudice generated by extreme beliefs can permanently damage your brain. • Intense prayer and meditation permanently change numerous structures and functions in the brain, altering your values and the way you perceive reality. Both a revelatory work of modern science and a practical guide for readers to enhance their physical and emotional health, How God Changes Your Brain is a first-of-a-kind book about faith that is as credible as it is inspiring.

What are the basic understandings of the brain, the mind, and the soul of near-death experiences? In the first of three volumes, Christianity and the Brain, Volume 1: Faith and Medicine in Neuroscience Care delves into the fascinating aspects of the human brain-God's hidden treasure-and its development. Inspired by the Coptic Orthodox faith while growing up in Egypt, Christian neurological surgeon and anesthesiologist Ramsis F. Ghaly uses his experiences to reflect on spirituality and science and the ties between Christianity and the human brain. He also explores neuroscience and God, faith and medicine, the universe and heaven, and birth and life beyond death. Through Ghaly's innovative research, you will grow closer to the Creator and learn to understand Him like never before. A medical career is a sacred vocation with high ethical morals and values. In accordance with such standards, Ghaly illustrates the ideal neuroscience health-care structure in view of holism and patient empowerment, especially toward the dire need of modern care in the world, including the United States of America. Powerful and informative, Christianity and the Brain, Volume 1 takes a new perspective on a seldom-studied subject.

"The author provides a timely theological, scientific, and philosophical assessment of the human brain, displaying the many ways in which the gospel informs a distinctly Christian understanding of cognitive science"--

The joint effort [of two distinguished authors and scholars] is impressive. It manages to bring the experience and energy of both men together in one, pithy, provocative package.-Washington TimesWith economy, evidence and no little wit and elegance, Lionel Tiger and Michael McGuire look for the answer to religion''s ubiquity and persistence in the only place possible: the human brain. To say more would be to give away their answer, and that would spoil a great read and a serious and informative argument. This is easily the best book on the nature of religion to appear for a long time.-Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory, Rutgers UniversityIf God''s Brain sounds whimsically paradoxical, it is only because the authors believe that most people of faith have been looking for God in all the wrong places. The authors suggest that religious believers should look inward, rather than outward, to find God. The book is a well-written, easy to read, unique perspective on religion. Yes, God has a brain. The book will captivate all but the piously religious faint-of-heart.-Jay R. Feierman, Editor, The Biology of Religious Behavior: The Evolutionary Origins of Faith and ReligionTwo distinguished authors radically alter the fractious debate on the existence of God and the nature of religion. Taking a perspective rooted in evolutionary biology with a focus on brain science, renowned anthropologist Lionel Tiger and pioneering neuroscientist Michael McGuire-a primary discoverer of serotonin''s crucial role in brain chemistry-elucidate the perennial questions about religion: What is its purpose? How did it arise? What is its source? Why does every known culture have some form of it?Their answer is deceptively simple, yet at the same time highly complex: The brain creates religion and its varied concepts of God, and then in turn feeds on its creation to satisfy innate neurological and associated social needs.Brain science reveals that humans and other primates alike are afflicted by unavoidable sources of stress that the authors describe as brainpain. To cope with this affliction people seek to brainsoothe. We humans use religion and its social structures to induce brainsoothing as a relief for innate anxiety. How we do this is the subject of this groundbreaking book.In a concise, lively, accessible, and witty style, the authors combine zoom-lens vignettes of religious practices with discussions of the latest research on religion''s neurological effects on the brain. Among other topics, they consider religion''s role in providing positive socialization, its seeming obsession with regulating sex, creating an afterlife, how religion''s rules of behavior influence the law, the common biological scaffolding between nonhuman primates and humans and how this affects religion, a detailed look at brain chemistry and how it changes as a result of stress, and evidence that the palliative effects of religion on brain chemistry is not matched by nonreligious remedies.Concluding with a checklist offering readers a means to compute their own brainsoothe score, this fascinating book provides key insights into the complexities of our brain and the role of religion, perhaps its most remarkable creation.Lionel Tiger (New York, NY) is the bestselling author of Men in Groups, The Imperial Animal (with Robin Fox), The Pursuit of Pleasure, Optimism: The Biology of Hope, and The Decline of Males. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Harvard Business Review, and Brain and Behavioral Science. He is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University.Michael McGuire, MD (Cottonwood, CA), is the author or editor of ten books, including Darwinian Psychiatry (with A. Troisi). He is the president of the Biomedical Research Foundation, director of the Bradshaw Foundation and the Gruter Institute of Law and Behavior, and a trustee of the International Society of Human Ethology. Formerly, he was a professo

What you believe about God actually changes your brain. Psychiatrist Tim Jennings unveils how our brains and bodies thrive when we have a healthy understanding of who God is. This expanded edition now includes a study guide to help you discover how neuroscience and Scripture come together to bring healing and transformation to our lives.

Many skeptics label religious belief as a psychological crutch, a form of wish fulfillment, or even a brain spasm. But do recent developments in the study of the mind indicate a logic to faith? Kelly James Clark connects philosophy and science to explore complicated questions about the nature of belief and the human mind. Book jacket.