Tag Archive for 'research'

Can we ever be right about right and wrong?

Published
by
Christiaan
on 26 October, 2008
in Morality and Science
. 1 Comment

This is Sam Harris, author of Letter to to a Christian Nation and The End of Faith, speaking at Beyond Belief.

Harris’ thesis is that questions of morality are perfectly within the realm of scientific enquiry and, that because human well-being is realised at the level of the brain, an emerging and maturing brain science will have a lot to say about right and wrong.

While I have an easy time understanding the idea that morality is part of evolutionary inheritance I’ve always felt a little uneasy about how one reconciles value for diversity with a thesis that seems to suggest an homogenisation of cultural norms, but Harris goes some way to alleviating these concerns in this talk.

First study of religious faith at the level of the brain: research volunteers needed

Published
by
Christiaan
on 5 May, 2008
in Religion and Agnosticism
. 0 Comments

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: