Fingerprints of God : The Search for the Science of Spirituality

by Hagerty, Barbara Bradley

• ISBN13: 9781594488771
• ISBN10: 1594488770
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-14
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover

Summary

From the award-winning NPR religion correspondent comes a fascinating investigation of how science is seeking to answer the question that has puzzled humanity for generations: Can science explain God? Is spiritual experience real or a delusion? Are there realities that we can experience but not easily measure? Does your consciousness depend entirely on your brain, or does it extend beyond? In Fingerprints of God, award-winning journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty delves into the discoveries science is making about how faith and spirituality affect us physically and emotionally as it attempts to understand whether the ineffable place beyond this world can be rationally —even scientifically—explained. Hagerty interviews some of the world’s top scientists to describe what their groundbreaking research reveals about our human spiritual experience. From analyses of the brain functions of Buddhist monks and Carmelite nuns, to the possibilities of healing the sick through directed prayer, to what near-death experiences illuminate about the afterlife, Hagerty reaches beyond what we think we know to understand what happens to us when we believe in a higher power. Paralleling the discoveries of science is Hagerty’s own account of her spiritual evolution. Raised a Christian Scientist, she was a scrupulous adherent until a small moment as an adult triggered a revaluation of her beliefs, which in turn led her to a new way of thinking about God and faith. An insightful examination of what science is learning about how and why we believe, Fingerprints of Godis also a moving story of one person’s search for a communion with a higher power and what she discovered on that journey.

Author Biography

Barbara Bradley Hagerty is the award-winning religion correspondent for National Public Radio. She is the recipient of the Templeton-ûCambridge Journalism Fellowship in Science and Religion, and a Knight Fellowship at Yale Law School. Before joining NPR, she was a reporter at The Christian Science Monitor for eleven years.

Table of Contents

Crossing the Stream	p. 1
The God Who Breaks and Enters	p. 16
The Biology of Belief	p. 45
The Triggers for God	p. 63
Hunting for the God Gene	p. 81
Isn't God a Trip?	p. 104
Searching for the God Spot	p. 134
Spiritual Virtuosos	p. 164
Out of My Body or out of My Mind?	p. 192
Are We Dead Yet?	p. 216
A New Name for God	p. 243
Paradigm Shifts	p. 268
Acknowledgments	p. 287
Notes	p. 291
Index	p. 313
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