#036 - The Biology of Religious Belief with John Wathey

Summary: We take a look at the possible Biological component of religious experience with Dr John C Wathey John C. Wathey is a computational biologist whose research interests include evolutionary algorithms, protein folding, and the biology of nervous systems. From 1991 to 1995, he was a senior applications scientist at Biosym Technologies (now named Biovia), a company that develops molecular modeling software for the pharmaceutical industry. In 1996, he founded his own business, Wathey Research, and since that time most of his scientific research has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. He is currently writing a follow-up work to The Illusion of God's Presence, which explores in detail the neurobiology of religious emotion and behavior. Further Reading: John Wathey’s website: http://www.watheyresearch.com/ John Wathey’s book “The Illusion of God’s Presence: The Biological Origins of Spiritual Longing”: https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Gods-Presence-Biological-Spiritual/dp/1633880745 John Wathey’s lecture at Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqi6vvwmLOw Clip from William Lane Craig, “Dealing with Doubt”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-fDyPU3wlQ Michael Blume, “The Reproductive Benefits of Religious Affiliation”: http://www.blume-religionswissenschaft.de/pdf/ReproductiveReligiosityBlume2009.pdf Recovering from Religion: http://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/ Adam Lee’s Daylight Atheism blog: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/ Greta Christina, “Comforting Thoughts about Death that Have Nothing to Do with God”: http://www.gretachristina.com/comfort.html THANK YOU PATRONS! Josh, Society for Advancement of Sciencehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVXF–HIS6h1KBqlntnzc-Q MicroBlogganism:https://www.youtube.com/user/MicroBlogganism