If you enjoyed Rifkin’s presentation, here is another longer presentation, this time from a neuro-scientist, talking about mirror neurons. I thank Philip Hunt for this link. It was great watching this last Saturday in his home in Australia. Think about the implications of this discovery for what Rene Girard calls ‘mimetic desires’, and for religious beliefs in general.
Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.
Advertisement
I’ve learnt quite a few new things.
Among them the fact that we don’t need supernatural powers to empathise, another is that there seems to be a natural explanation for the good feeling you experience when you help your neighbour (not necessarily taught in Bible schools) and so on.
It takes further my conviction that in the end we will not need faith to understand our material world so we can concentrate on acting the way we were build up to in the beginning.
Love as taught and lived by Jesus would be then the only icon left worth to build churches around.
By: sam on 1 April 2011
at 7:19 pm