Matthew Alper - The God Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

I very much enjoyed the account of your spiritual journey and believe it would make excellent reading for every college studentthe resultant residence-hall debates would be the best part of their education. It often occurs to me that if, against all odds, there is a judgmental God and heaven, it will come to pass that when the pearly gates open, those who had the valor to think for themselves will be escorted to the head of the line, garlanded, and given their own personal audience.

Edward O. Wilson,
two-time Pulitzer Prizewinner

An impressive compilation of data and ideasboth accurate and thoughtful.

E. Fuller Torrey, MD (The most famous
psychiatrist in Americathe Washington Post)

All six billion plus inhabitants of Earth should be in possession of this book. Alper's tome should be placed in the sacred writings section of libraries, bookstores, and dwellings throughout the world. Matthew Alper is the new GalileoImmensely importantDefines in a clear and concise manner what each of us already knew but were afraid to admit and exclaim. The cat's out of the bag.

John Scoggins, PhD

A lively manifestoFor the discipline's specific application to the matter at hand, I've seen nothing that matches the fury of The God Part of the Brain, which perhaps explains why it's earned something of a cult following.

Salon.com

This is an essential book for those in search of a scientific understanding of man's spiritual nature. Matthew Alper navigates the reader through a labyrinth of intriguing questions and then offers undoubtedly clear answers that lead to a better understanding of our objective reality.

Elena Rusyn, MD, PhD, Gray Laboratory,
Harvard Medical School

Your book was sensational. Your writing was clear and concise; your summation was bold and masterful.

William Wright, author of Born That Way: Genes,
Behavior, Personality

Vibrantvivaciousan entertaining and provocative introduction to speculations concerning the neural basis of spirituality.

Free Inquiry magazine

Thank you for making sense out of the hunches and gut feelings I've had for years. I feel more peaceful and positive now. I hope that the candle you've lit in the vast darkness will burn as bright as the sun.

John Emerson, PhD

The best in its fieldbrilliant.

Noe Zamel, MD, FRCPC

Mr. Alper has written an extremely readable and comprehensive analysis of the physiological basis of religiositycomparable to Freud's Future of an Illusion in its contribution to the continuing maturation of the human mind. I am using The God Part of the Brain to teach a Sociology of Religion course with remarkable results.

William Dusenberry, PhD

I greatly appreciated The God Part of the Brain as it so nicely summarized and integrated much of the work being done in this field.

Andrew Newberg, MD, PhD,
author of Why God Won't Go Away

Matthew Alper is high maintenance. Not only is his intellect superior to most PhD candidates that I know, but his intensity in displaying that intellect and arguing his world view is more compelling than many of my grad school courses. So, here I am, fiercely advocating this unconventional, first-time author who, with one slim book, has thrown hundreds of years of human religious beliefs out the window and replaced them with a concise scientific view of spirituality that is impossible to argue with. The brain is the secret. In our brains lie nature's survival mechanisms in which God is nothing but a protective lens through which humanity is programmed to view the world. Matthew Alper has the chutzpah to remove that lens, to crush it under his heel, and then, as we cringe in the unfiltered light, he dares us to look up and stare into the pure scientific truth he has discovered. The God Part of the Brain is a challenge at first, but once you open your mind to the potentials of its theories, there is nothing to do but follow its arguments to their logical conclusions. And although he rips away our old stiff crutches, this audacious philosopher is kind enough to spoon-feed us a new and positive way to approaching our existences.

Rebecca Morris, Editor-in-Chief,
Cardozo Law Journal

Copyright 2006, 2008 by Matthew Alper

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Originally published in 1996 by Rogue Press

Alper, Matthew.

The God part of the brain.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Psychology, Religious. 2. BrainReligious aspects. I. Title.

BL53.A47 2006

200.1'9dc22

ISBN-13: 978-1-4022-2957-2 2006011690

ISBN-10: 1-4022-2957-7

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For more information go to: www.godpart.com

To write the author: godpart@aol.com

I would like to thank my parents, Joan and Jud, and sister, Elizabeth, for their enduring support; Dr. E. Fuller Torrey and Dr. Arthur Rifkin for fixing me; Tonya Bickerton-Watson for her invaluable time; John Stern; Art Bell; Lisa Lion; Edward O. Wilson; Helena Schwarz; Susan Rabiner; Sherry Frazier and Lisa Vasher at McNaughton & Gunn; Arnold Sadwin; William Wright; Joe Fried; Rebecca Morris; Albert Fernandez; Brandon Quest; Lori Wood; Daniella Monticello; Dominique Raccah; Hillel Black; Tara VanTimmeren; Matt Diamond; Megan Dempster; Genene Murphy; and all those innumerable others who have helped me along the way.

GREAT IS THE TRUTH
AND MIGHTY
ABOVE ALL THINGS
THE APOCRYPHA
I Esdras iv, 41

Man finds himself in the world, or has been
thrown into it, and as he stands facing the world
he is confronted by it as by a problem which
demands to be solved.

NICHOLAS BERDYAEV

I want to know God's thoughtsthe rest are just
details.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

K nowledge is power, and it is precisely our species' capacity to reasonto deduce knowledgethat has secured us the title of the most powerful creature on Earth. Human beings reason because we are compelled to do so. Our survival depends on it, for with every new piece of information we acquire, be it as individuals or a species, we become that much better equipped to master our world and therefore to survive.