Matthew Alper > Quotes

“Words originated, as did the concept of God, with our species.”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

“As only our species possesses this sophisticated a capacity to enumerate, only we have this capacity to comprehend the concept of infinity.”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

“Even more effective, however is to compare the results of adoption studies between fraternal (dizygotic or DZ) versus identical (monozygotic or MZ) twins.”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

“In 1997, Japanese researchers found that repetitive rhythms have the effect of stimulating our brain's hypothalamus, which evokes feelings of either serenity or arousal in us.”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

“Within the human brain (and only the human brain), there exist specific structures responsible for the generation of our language capacities.”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

“For people who undergo religious conversions, individuality is replaced by ideology, and very little room is left for personal growth or expression.”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

“Twice in a year and a half, I had undergone two complete transformations of my so-called self. First, my conscious self was transformed into something other than it previously had been by psychedelic drugs. Then, a year and a half later, my original self was restored, this time by a drug known as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI).”
― Matthew Alper, The "God" Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God