The Phantom God: What Neuroscience Reveals About the Compulsion to Believe

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday John Wathey will be at the Mountain View to discuss his book The Illusion of God’s Presence: the Biological Origins of Spiritual Longing.

Science has only begun to make sense of religion’s powerful grip on the human mind. Why do seven percent of members of the National Academy of Sciences believe in a personal god who answers prayer? The question is important because it probes the most irresistible essence of the appeal of religious and spiritual thinking. Using evidence from visual illusions, behavioral biology, and neuroscience, I offer an explanation for this and other puzzles of religion in terms of a cognitively impenetrable illusion, one that science has largely overlooked.

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.

If you attend in person, full Covid vaccination and boosters strongly recommended, and mask wearing should be considered by those in higher risk groups. If you have symptoms that may be Covid, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, go to
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81653890712?pwd=QzN4MTVNbGEwQ0Zua3d1VG9tVE50UT09
No password is needed -- our host will admit you from the waiting room.
Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it's not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634
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Find an international phone number to call here:
https://zoom.us/u/afYkAuvE6

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Website: http://www.humanists.org/blog/2023-04-30/
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