Harold Stoner Clark Lectures, Andrew Newberg, M.D.

Andrew B. Newberg is currently a staff physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Spirituality and the Mind. He has been involved in the study of religious experiences as well as the more general mind/body relationship in both the clinical and research aspects. Much of his research has focused on the relationship between brain function and various mystical and religious experiences.

For his 10 a.m. lecture, Newberg's topic is “Why God Won’t Go Away.” By the end of the 18th century, the intellectual elite assumed that religion soon would vanish. However, 200 years later, the concept of God and the primal stories of religion remain with us and, in many instances, appear to be gaining in strength. Why would the forces of natural selection, which gave the human brain its inexpressible powers of logical observation and rational analysis, allow that very same organ to place such fundamental hope and trust in strange myths? While neuroscience cannot confirm nor dispute the existence of God, it can help us understand why God will not go away so easily.

At 4 p.m., Newberg will discuss “Why We Believe What We Believe.” Where do our beliefs come from and why do we hold on to some of them even if there is evidence to the contrary? Why, for example, do we continue to be fascinated by God, religion, haunted houses, UFOs, conspiracy theories and miracle cures, even when science can dispute many of these claims? This presentation will focus on a broad array of beliefs from the mundane to the mystical and will describe the results of groundbreaking brain imaging studies that show how specific experiences such as prayer or speaking in tongues can result in profound and compelling beliefs.

Newberg is the author of Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs and co-author of Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief and The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Belief. The latter book received the 2000 award for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences presented by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Newberg has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline and ABC World News Tonight as well as in Newsweek, New Scientist, the Los Angeles Times, Readers Digest and other publications.

Admission is free. This is the 23rd annual Harold Stoner Clark Lecture Series, endowed by the late Mr. Clark and sponsored by the Department of Philosophy.