Gott im Gehirn? Ich - eine Illusion?: Neurobiologie, religiöses Erleben und Menschenbild aus christlicher Sicht (Institut für Glaube und Wissenschaft)

by Ulrich Eibach

Ist Gott nur ein "Hirngespinst"? So fragen Wissenschaftler zugespitzt aufgrund neuer Beobachtungen. Sie behaupten, dass sich seelisch-geistige Phänomene allein auf der neurophysiologischen Ebene erklären lassen. Sie stellen die gängigen Vorstellungen von Seele, Geist, Person und Freiheit radikal in Frage. Religiöse Erlebnisse und Vorstellungen sollen nur "Hirnprodukte" sein, denen keine "Wirklichkeit" außerhalb des Gehirns entspreche. Auf der Basis dieses reduktionistischen Denkansatzes wird zugleich behauptet, dass die Vorstellung von einem fühlenden, denkenden, wollenden und handelnden "Ich" auch nur ein Hirnprodukt, eine subjektive Täuschung sei. Ulrich Eibach setzt sich aus christlicher Sicht mit diesen für das Menschenbild und den christlichen Glauben provokanten Thesen auseinander.

187 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2010

Reviews

[Júlia Hardmeier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this book, as it deals with questions right at the core of neuroscience that are very much relevant not just to everyday questions as "who am I/am I real?" and "is that what I think to perceive, really there, or is it just an illusion?", but taking the reader through very deep philosophical questions of epistemology, ontology right into their relevance for the theological discourse.
One of the things that stroke me most was the author's wide knowledge in the area of Philosophy, Biology/Neuroscience and especially Theology. As a Psychology student myself, I am confronted on a daily basis with the latest research results and their interpretation in the area of Neuroscience and (less so, but still to some measure) Evolutionary Biology, especially in relation to their contribution to our understanding of mental diseases. The author draws from his experience working as a Pastor on at the University Clinic (mainly working in the psychiatric ward), but it came as a surprise for me, that as opposed to many books I read that were based partly on work-experience with people, in this book I could see how much more he draws from the expertise of his colleagues, the Professors and Doctors of the Psychiatric ward, and not the patients. He exposes the theories of natural sciences with a surprising amount of knowledge and understanding of their underlying mechanisms.
The book follows a philosophical trail of historical changes in the way science and scientists thought knowledge and the acquisition thereof worked, starting with Descartes, necessarily through Kant's epistemological reductionism to today's mainstream way of thinking (spoiler alert: he thinks that the natural sciences today have taken a leap from epistemological to ontological reductionism, while the reason behind this leap is not actually of scientific nature but rather a question of worldview).
Then he goes on to draw the consequences of this ontological reductionism in interpreting scientific data, and how based on this, there is no other way than to interpret concepts of "self" as a subjective feeling of an integrated self that feels, things, decides and acts as merely an illusion generated by the brain, and with it, every concept that is not measurable in an empirical way is really nothing more than a figment (original word in German is Hirngespinst). He then postulates the question: if something that does not belong to the category of the measurable (meaning: measurable with the instruments of measurement of natural sciences), does that mean that this something does not exist? Or that it should be reduced to its brain activation correlates (likewise the concept of "love" being reduced to the presence of certain neurotransmitters in certain areas of the brain)?
And if I was as a Psychology student delighted to read these things embedded in a Philosophical conversation about the limits of our knowledge, I was up in the Theologians heaven when the author (who is also a Theology Professor at the University of Bonn) brought high-quality theological reflexions, building on the thoughts of Theologians of great influence in the Church History (following mostly the thought line of Apostle Paul - St. Augustine - Martin Luther), bringing their collective theological wisdom into the century of the brain, while making a clear differentiation where, in which area do the theological discourse apply, and where not (an especially important aspect in the last chapter, where the topic is "freedom", that very obviously has very different aspects depending on the perspectives of natural sciences or theology).
Definitely worth to read, especially if you are a scholar that finds themselves conflicted in their area of expertise and would like a high-quality read where these very different perspectives are discussed in an orderly fashion.