Sam Harris is undertaking what is apparently a first: the study of religious faith at the level of the brain.
If you’re interested he’s put out a request for volunteers — particularly Christians — to take part in a survey to help refine their experimental stimuli:
We are preparing to run another fMRI study of belief and disbelief, and we need volunteers to help us refine our experimental stimuli. This promises to be the first study of religious faith at the level of the brain. By responding to the four surveys I have posted online, you can make an enormous contribution to this work.
Please answer as many of the surveys as you can. If you only have time to answer one, please choose at random (otherwise, we will have many more responses to the first than to the others).
Feel free to post this message to your blog or to forward the relevant links to your friends. I especially need Christians to respond, as one of the goals of these surveys is to design stimuli that a majority of Christians will find doctrinally sound.
I will, of course, pass along the results of this work the moment I have something to report.
Many thanks for your help.
All the best,
Sam
samharris.org
Note: Each survey starts with the same first page of questions.
Belief Survey A
Belief Survey B
Belief Survey C
Belief Survey D
External links:
- What Your Brain Looks Like on Faith | 14 December, 2007