Some readers thought I was joshing the other day, when I posted a report of British scientists claiming they were able to delete (or dramatically reduce) a person’s religious beliefs by bombarding his brain with powerful magnetic stimuli ( http://leeduigon.com/2015/10/14/uk-scientists-claim-they-can-use-magnets-to-erase-belief-in-god/ ).
Well, it’s no hoax. In fact, we’ve got an update for you ( https://stream.org/scientists-claim-zapping-brains-with-magnets-can-treat-belief-in-god/ ) from The Stream.
See, it’s not that they’re going to erase religious belief. No, no–they’re going to treat it, like treating a disease, to make it go away. It’s all in a scientific paper entitled, “Neuromodulation of group prejudice and religious belief.” Note how “group prejudice” and “religious belief” are lumped in together. What does that tell you about their mind-set?
Or does it just tell you that atheism and political liberalism are evidence of brain damage?
As an added bonus, they say they’re also able to make you feel better about hordes of immigrants streaming into your country.
Some questions arise.
*Given that they were conducting their little science project in Britain, where did they find “volunteers” who had Christian religious beliefs in the first place? (You can take it for granted that they never tried to erase anyone’s Muslim or humanist beliefs. That would’ve been unscientific.)
*Now that they’ve deleted or reduced their volunteers’ religious belief, what happens next? Can they put it back, or do these poor souls have to spend the rest of their lives as artificially-produced atheists? What will happen if one of these persons sues to have his religious belief restored?
*If they can take beliefs out of your brain, can they also put beliefs in? Can they turn you into anything they want?
A Progressive dream come true!
I leave it to you to judge who is more respectful of our freedom, individuality, and dignity–Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, or a bunch of squirming little science vermin who want to mold your mind like Play-Doh?
A few more questions: is the treatment permanent, or do you have to keep going in for it every few months or so, otherwise you revert back to your previous religious beliefs?
OK, so we’re not allowed to treat homosexuals to change them, but we’re allowed to treat Christians?
These people make it sound like you go in to get treated … so is this for if you are a theist, but don’t want to be? Or are they going to just do it to everyone with a belief in God? (theoretical questions, by the way).
Good point. Here in New Jersey, it’s against the law, a crime, to treat for same-sex attraction, even if the patient very much wants treatment.
The question which concludes your post, IMHO, really puts this into perspective. Ecclesiastes 8:9 tells us: “All this I have seen and applied my mind to every deed that has been done under the sun wherein a man has exercised authority over another man to his hurt.” For my purposes, this explains a great deal about our sick world.
When we try to dominate others, we hurt ourselves as much as we hurt the other person. Jesus and Yahweh don’t force anything on us, but we seek our Creator out of something deep within which longs for a spiritual element in our lives.
I’ve often thought about the link between emotional pain and spiritual awareness and I believe it is very real. When we realize that we are in a fallen state, then we become aware that things are not as the Creator intended and we long for release.
TMS is said to change certain brain activity and I have no problem believing this. Medications can do the same. Taking prescription lithium for a few months can permanently end manic delusions. If drugs can do this, why not targeted magnetic pulses. The brain, after all, uses chemically generated minute electrical signals. Drugs alter the chemicals, magnetic stimulation deals with the electrical signals, which can alter the neurons.
I suspect that, ultimately, they are effecting a degree of disassociation from certain memories, feelings and habits by targeting specific locations in the brain. Disassociative drugs are used to treat the cough cycle, but these same medications will produces a spaced out sensation if used in greater doses. I can’t imagine the horror of doing this to oneself over the long term via TMS, but it probably is happening as a consequence of treating depression.
Emotional pain is not fun, but being unable to fully experience our emotions doesn’t sound like much of an improvement.
There’s one big hole in their plans – we’re not all liberals!