Discoveries in Neuroscience are changing the way that people view faith, and Youth Ministers are faced with a new challenge.
As science advances, humans are increasingly aware of the way our physical and chemical makeup shape who we are – the way that genes shape temperament, brain chemicals shape behavior, assemblies of neurons seemingly create consciousness, and so on.
Some, especially over the last decade have been drawing from this information conclusions that free will is an illusion, human beings are “hard-wired” to do this or that, and that it’s inconceivable that a soul survives the death of the body.
In a shift that some deem as much more significant, or threatening, as the Darwinian revolution, the revolution in neuroscience is having an effect on how people see the world.
The newest publications of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have put the faithful on the defensive regarding the existence of God. However, some are arguing that “the real challenge [of the neuroscience revolution] is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits.”
“The cognitive revolution is not going to end up undermining faith in God, it’s going end up challenging faith in the Bible. This new wave of research will not seep into the public realm in the form of militant atheism. Instead it will lead to what you might call neural Buddhism” or what some are calling the new wave of the New Age Movement.
“In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other.”
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
What can Youth Ministers do to help their students engage well with a worldview influenced by neural-scientific discovery? Do you find the discoveries of neuroscience hopeful or threatening? Why?
FULL NYT ARTICLE Youth Culture Update online is an article summary compiled by Damien O’Farrell