Praying to God is like talking to a friend

摘要

Is prayer just another kind of friendly conversation? Yes, says Uffe Schjodt, who used MRI to scan the brains of 20 devout Christians. "It's like talking to another human. We found no evidence of anything mystical." Schjodt, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues, asked volunteers to carry out two tasks involving both religious and "secular" activities. In the first task, they silently recited the Lord's Prayer, then a nursery rhyme.rnIdentical brain areas, typically associated with rehearsal and repetition, were activated.