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The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God | 
 enlarge | Author: Matthew Alper
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $9.35
You Save: $5.60 (37%)
New (22) Used (6) from $8.73
Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 50098
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1402214529
Dewey Decimal Number: 612
EAN: 9781402214523
ASIN: 1402214529
Publication Date: September 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Acclaimed by a wide range of experts, The "God" Part of the Brain is a classic. Matthew Alper presents a stunning argument: that our brain is hardwired to believe in a God. He offers a scientific explanation that we inherit an evolutionary mechanism that allows us to cope with our greatest terror - death. The author also evokes his personal odyssey as he sought to understand why mankind created the concept of a higher power to deal with the fear and terror we experience due to our species' unique awareness of the inevitability of death. The "God" Part of the Brain has sparked praise by scientists such as E.O. Wilson, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner; E. Fuller Torry, "the most famous psychiatrist in America"; and Arnold Sadwin, former Chief of Neuropsychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. The book has been adopted by universities across the country. Praise for The "God" Part of the Brain "This cult classic in many ways parallels Rene Descartes' search for reliable and certain knowledge...Drawing on such disciplines as philosophy, psychology, and biology, Alper argues that belief in a spiritual realm is an evolutionary coping method that developed to help humankind deal with the fear of death...Highly recommended."
- Library Journal "I very much enjoyed the account of your spiritual journey and believe it would make excellent reading for every college student - the resultant residence-hall debates would be the best part of their education. It often occurs to me that if, against all odds, there is a judgmental God and heaven, it will come to pass that when the pearly gates open, those who had the valor to think for themselves will be escorted to the head of the line, garlanded, and given their own personal audience."
- Edward O. Wilson, two-time Pulitzer Prize-Winner "This is an essential book for those in search of a scientific understanding of man's spiritual nature. Matthew Alper navigates the reader through a labyrinth of intriguing questions and then offers undoubtedly clear answers that lead to a better understanding of our objective reality."
- Elena Rusyn, MD, PhD; Gray Laboratory; Harvard Medical School "What a wonderful book you have written. It was not only brilliant and provocative but also revolutionary in its approach to spirituality as an inherited trait."
- Arnold Sadwin, MD, former chief of Neuropsychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania "A lively manifesto...For the discipline's specific application to the matter at hand, I've seen nothing that matches the fury of The 'God' Part of the Brain, which perhaps explains why it's earned something of a cult following."
- Salon.com "All 6 billion plus inhabitants of Earth should be in possession of this book. Alper's tome should be placed in the sacred writings' section of libraries, bookstores, and dwellings throughout the world. Matthew Alper is the new Galileo...Immensely important...Defines in a clear and concise manner what each of us already knew but were afraid to admit and exclaim."
- John Scoggins, PhD "Vibrant ... vivacious. An entertaining and provocative introduction to speculations concerning the neural basis of spirituality."
- Free Inquiry Magazine
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| Customer Reviews: Read 81 more reviews...
 Interesting December 31, 2008
Brad (Mississippi, USA)
The book is quite interesting and does a great job of keeping the reader entertained. The author provides many great ideas about the brains functionality in creating a god. Most of the book was scientifically based until the end where the author reveals his opinion on the negative effect of religion in society. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and plan on reading the book again.
 this is a dangerous book November 3, 2008
Ma. Ma.
this is one of the most interesting books i have ever read. I have to say that at the beginning it does a good work by explaining how the universe evolved after the big bang. No matter which academic book i would read, i pretty much understood the process in this book which is something i didn't expect. The author presents his points in a very well structured way, a very rational way. His writing was so efficient that it convinced me for a while that there is no God outside our brain. This thing made me sad and depressed, it took away my zest for living.I guess 6 months have passed since i read the book and sometimes i still feel this nothingness. Seriously i would never want to give this book to a person i love because it is so convincing.
However, miracles do happen. And strange phenomena do happen. The author simply dismisses them. And what about those persons who say things that come true in the future? I am sure that there are a lot of charlatans fortune tellers and performers that claim they have magical powers, but i cannot explain how a medium or a monk can know things about me from my past or predict part of my future without even knowing me. I did have this experience and i am very skeptic.
On the other hand the mind is so powerful that it can blind you. it is truth that whatever you believe is the truth.
I would rather believe that there is something after I die, or at least that there is something divine, because believing that everything came out of luck can drive me crazy.
Extremely captivating, yet difficult to accept October 22, 2008
Amogh Belagodu (Atlanta, Georgia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The captivating title draws the individual in, asking if God can really be a product of the brain. The author brings to light many interesting facts; however there are a few logical fallacies which are painfully obvious, causing the book to lose some credibility. The book did, however, prove to be a very interesting read. It takes a new approach to the concept of God, one which not many people have viewed, or even considered. The presumption that God can be explained by signals in the brain is bound to deter people; however this book should not be passed over so lightly. It provides some very provocative arguments which any open individual should explore at some point.
The book is a quest and Alper is the guide who shows the reader one path to take to solve the question of God. It begins with Alper's reason for questioning the existence of God and progresses with the steps he took to come to a resolution. He begins not at the beginning of humankind, but at the beginning of time. The book first talks about the origin of the universe with a physics basis, then goes on to talk about the planet and chemistry; following this is an explanation of early life and evolution and biochemistry, extending into biology and finally finishing with philosophy and neuroscience. It is here that the book begins to address the God aspect in society. Alper then uses a combination of philosophy, backed by biological data, to begin explaining aspects of human culture and the mind which cause us as a species to believe in a higher power. As the book progresses, it takes a turn from a philosophical view to a more neuroscience view, though the first real mention of any real neuroscience does not occur until halfway through the book. It is here that the core scientific evidence begins; addressing drugs, psychosis, genetics, and exceptions to his theory, atheists.
The beginning of the book, though mostly not relevant, does provide good information which serves mainly to solidify the author's credibility by stating and explaining in layman's terms many fields of science. That was when I first noticed the main qualm I had with the book. Alper has a tendency to make a point, reiterate it, create an unnecessarily long list of examples, and then reiterate the point yet again. While this reinforcement is good, showing that a lot of research was conducted and that the facts are solid, it resulted in a large amount of excess reading which got to be very tedious.
However, despite this literary problem, the information was quite interesting, especially the biological reasoning Alper addressed. He spoke of universal traits and how humans are only animals and thus can be studied just as we study other animals, using the same logic. This outlook was quite refreshing and interesting. During the psychological analysis of humans, I felt Alper made some generalizations which were hard to accept. Though his logic and the path taken to address his main points are sound on a rudimentary level, there is some uneasiness in trying to accept his suggestions. Only later does the book really take off, when the author begins to address the neuroscience behind his theories, even though his is a simplistic interpretation. Here he uses theories formed by prominent neuroscientists and reinforces his own theories with experiments conducted throughout the world.
There were two sections during the more heavily scientific part of the book that were relatively weak, the explanation of the spiritual gene and the reason for atheists. Throughout the entire book Alper kept referring to how the concept of God was hardwired into our genetics, yet when the time came to address it, he merely stated a few experiments which were conducted with identical twins suggesting belief in God was genetic. Since this was his main thesis, it seemed that the chapter should have been longer, explaining the experiments in greater depth, particularly the science behind each experiment. The chapter about atheism also left something to be desired. His reasoning for atheism contained two parts, outliers on a bell curve and nature versus nurture. Alper suggested that the human race's belief in God can be expressed as a bell curve with the lower tail expressing no belief, representing the atheists. To address the vast number of atheists in the world, he explained that the nurture these individuals experienced would cause them to change their beliefs. These rationales seem to be more of an evasive maneuver, rather than a fully solidified theory, especially since he does not back up his claims with experiments or other theories as he did in sections before.
"As is true for all of the Earth's creatures, whenever there is a behavior that is exhibited by every individual (or as in the case of humans, among every culture), we can presume that such behaviors must represent an inherent characteristic of the species, that is, a genetically inherited instinct." -pg. 57
This was one of the most thought provoking quotes from the book which I contemplated for a long time. I feel that this is a valid argument, and Alper does spend time dwelling on this to further solidify his view.
"...Dr. V.S. Ramachandran of UC San Diego's Center for Brian and Cognition Research found that twenty-five percent of those who suffer from a form of epilepsy that involves activity within the temporal lobes experience a distinct religious fervor..." -pg. 113
Just an example of Alper's more solidified arguments, when he pulls in experiments and theories from other neuroscientists, rather than basing the arguments on his logic.
Over all this was a very interesting read. Despite the logical flaws and excessive reiteration of facts and concepts, the book had some very thought-provoking ideas. I would suggest this book as an introductory read for any individual who is willing to question the existence of God.
 Interpretation more than scientific October 10, 2008
D. Bachelor (Iraq)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book will appeal to those who already believe that religion is a product of the human mind. This is neither a scholarly work nor a scientific treatise but rather Alper's interpretation of data from various unconnected studies and experiments that support his world view. On the back cover of the book, one of the reviewers described Alper's work as "a lively manifesto." That is a perfect summary of this book.
 Recipe to achieve piece on Earth: Just remove a tiny part of our brains.. September 14, 2008
A. Panda (Guadalajara, Mexico)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I did not like this book at all and I feel a bit ashamed that this negative review is longer than the positive ones that I have written. Ideas flow to my mind of why I find this book so bad and I am always lacking words to praise the good ones. The author does not write how perception, language or any brain function could "create" our perception of God, but limits himself to state that a region of the brain seems to be related with it by mentioning a few examples of brain injuries that could point towards this conclusion. For a deeper, more complete and far better explanation of these clinical cases and their probable conclusions read Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind. You can find an excellent anthropological study of why people tend to believe in a superior godlike all-knowing being and why we tend to perform religious rites in Religion Explained, both are first-hand accounts of the respective studies.
The book is very easy to read and it contains one interesting chapter, namely the one in which the author explains his perception of all the sciences being one only science, but focused on a different section of the space-time scale. Particle physics studies the origin of matter and of the universe; Cosmology studies its further development, Astronomy studies the stars and planets, Geology concentrates on the earth, Chemistry studies the composition of substances, Biochemistry studies the origins of life, Biology studies life on earth, then follow Paleonthology, Anthropology, etc.
I consider the rest of the book completely unscientific. The author jumps to conclusions, that for me lack even basic logic: If two human groups with different religious beliefs live close together and there is a food shortage in the region, they will kill each other for religious reasons. If there is no food shortage they will coexist pacifically. Therefore religion is the source of our evils. Excuse me??? Am I missing something? Is this a new science of parallel or indeterminated causality?
The author claims that if we could precisely localize the "God part of the brain", we could remove it with a brain surgery (he mentions that he would not recommend it because of cost and risk reasons, but otherwise it would be possible and highly desirable to improve peace on earth).
Wouldn't it be easier to improve food supply or energy supply or whatever the tribes are fighting for? Otherwise we would have to identify and remove with surgery the "race identity part of the brain", the "nation concept part of the brain", the "left and right wing parts of the brain", the "class fight part of the brain" and maybe even the "liberte, egalite e fraternite parts of the brain". For all of these some more and some less good reasons, blood has been shed on earth. It has happened frequently that initially noble concepts like "liberte, egalite e fraternite", bringing a "liberating" faith to some people, liberating others from the "opium" of it or even liberating an "oppressed" nation from its tyrant are imprinted on battle flags and a lot of suffering is brought to the people that apparently were going to be "liberated". Isn's this another form of "atheist fundamentalism"? At least, there is no need to kill all those naughty believers, just remove a tiny little part of their brains...
I will dare a bold conclusion in the author's style: Once we have removed all these parts of the brain and after no more brain is left, humanity will be as pacific as an oak tree (desireless and completely zen).
After reading this book, I would like to read an anthropological, psychological or biological explanation of the "mine is the only truth" part of the brain or why do we tend to go to extremes. Any suggestions?
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