Why I'm an atheist and you may not be
Channel: CommandLineCowboy
Date: 2011-04-16

See the following for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomagraphy and electrical brain stimulation and the feeling of religious 'rapture'.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/behavior/brain-religion1.htm

a (rough) transcript.

Why I'm an atheist and you may not be.
When I think of why I'm an atheist I think about the talking snake, noahs arks and how did the koalas get there, how come the bible doesnt mention dinosaurs if it starts with the creation of the earth.
And I think "how dumb do you think I am".
Now for you believers who might infer that I think theists are therefore dumb. That just doesnt enter my brain, I'm thinking of me and how insulted I feel that someone would expect that I would fall for this con.
Like I said, I'm not thinking theists are dumb, I don't think theists are... all.. dumb. Honestly, swear to God... um... I don't respect the intellectual prowess of a lot of theists, at least the ones that make a lot of noise, the visable ones.
However I've met theists with perfectly acceptable mental facilties and I'm reminded of a scientist that Richard Dawkins may have mentioned that siad something like. "I know that a lot of the things in the Bible are unprooven and even unlikely scientifically but my wife and children brothers and sisters are all Christians. I don't wish to hurt them or distance myself from them in any way. Besides which I enjoy going to church, the fellowship and the feeling I feel when filled with his holy spirit. So If its a choice between science and God there is no competition", and I believe he gave up his area of investigation, perhaps it was paleontology. I could have that all wrong and its certainly not word for word I'm relying on my fallible human memory.
Ill put a link in the comments to an article about one reseacher who injected bhuddist monks and catholic nuns with a (mildly) radioactive tracer when the MOnks were medititating and the nuns were praying. And then imaged the blood flow in the brain using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomagraphy or SPECT.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/behavior/brain-religion1.htm
He found increased blood flow in the frontal lobe, because they were concentrating and decreased blood flow in the parietal lobe. This is the area of the brain that orients us in 3 dimensional space, that I'm 60 cm from the camera and a meter and half from the door. So to and extent these people lost the ability to sperate themselves from the ... universe. I think thats the 'holy spirit'.
Follow the next page from the link and it talks of another scientist who can stimulate that feeling by disrupting the brain with regular electrical pulses. Richard Dawking is said to have tried it and all he felt was a tingling in his leg. I suspect much that same would happen for me. 
I've never felt 'the holy spirit', so theres no dopamine reward for me when I'm in a church. It doesnt make me feel good, just out of place. But for most people there is that reward, the nice feeling from religion.  And I don't think your dumb because you are wired for a reward that I'm not.
It does perhaps make me more questioning, more able to accept an unpopular viewpoint. I'm a NZer & I quite like nuclear power, if thats not blasphemy what is.
Both types of brain are probably needed. Religion is a tribal thing a cohesion thing, I'm sure a lot of religeous people do it to be part and accepted by society. I suspect the people that feel the 'holy spirit' strongly are possibly the minority maybe the rest not so much but peer pressure can be a powerful motivator, look a children if one gets a iPhone then other must have one or will just die if they don't. Be honest a bit of that child still lives in you. Then theres the curmudgeons like me who don't give a damn that my cars 13 years old and my computer's a Pentium D or my cell phones and old Nokia 6880... ooh cool mandelbrots. I gain more pleasure from finding out how stuff works, learning how (as best I can) how the universe works, thats my kind of revelation, thats my jolt of dopamine. I read about giant bubbles of gamma rays above and below the galaxy and it gives me a micro-high, you might think ... meh. You may get your micro-high in church praying or singing hyms, I would feel ... meh.