God Soul Mind Brain

Science and religion: how the brain's social machinery creates consciousness, soul, spiritualism, and God.

Written for the general public, God Soul Mind Brain (Leapfrog Press, September 2010, $13.95) explores the controversial relationship between science and religion by first dismissing the "science versus religion" debate as outdated and unnecessary. The cutting-edge field of social neuroscience explains how our perceptions of our own consciousness, of other people's minds, and of spirits and gods depend on machinery in the brain that evolved to make us socially intelligent animals. In clear prose without technical jargon, Graziano discusses his and others' findings in this 20-year-old field of study, and the implications for human spirituality and religion. By addressing head-on the fundamental issues of human consciousness, religion, and God, and how these elements relate to the science of the brain, Graziano presents an entirely new view of religion and science.

"Essential reading for the devout, the agnostic, and the atheist. In tackling the question of the religious brain, Graziano is respectful, sincere, and scientifically plausible. This might even be an Important Book."

-Sam Wang, author of Welcome to Your Brain

"A beautifully crafted, tightly scripted account of how the far-flung legions of the brain's neurons give rise to social awareness and our notions of soul, religion and God."

-Christof Koch, author of The Quest for Consciousness

"Lucid and engaging.... Moves with pace and humor, and gives an intellectually honest account of the science."

-Philip Johnson-Laird, author of Mental Models

"Do we know the origins of Gods and ghosts? In this well-written book, Graziano

makes the bold case that new discoveries in social neuroscience can illuminate

human spiritual experience."

-Terry Sejnowski, Francis Crick Professor, Salk Institute;

Professor of Biological Sciences, UC San Diego

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Graziano is a professor of neuroscience at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute, and director of the Sensory Motor Laboratory. He is the author of numerous articles on the functioning of the brain. His work regularly appears in journals such as Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is internationally known for fundamental discoveries about sensory-motor coordination. His previous book on the brain, The Intelligent Movement Machine, was published by Oxford University Press (2008), and his novels Cretaceous Dawn (2008), The Love Song of Monkey (2008) and The Divine Farce (2009) were published by Leapfrog Press.