A Curious Girl: God on the Brain, and Easter eggs

I'm mildly scared about the trial shift I have tomorrow. *Sigh*. I'm not terrified, this time. Just mildly scared I'll make a terrible fool of myself.

Anyway, it's Good Friday, nearly Easter, have eaten Hot Cross Buns and wondered where on earth I'm headed.

*smiles* thanks yeoshuling for your note, and thanks Norah, and thanks Francesca for signing the book...

Did anyone else see Horizon: God on the Brain? Wasn't it fascinating? I always feel somewhat dissatisfied with Horizon though. They never seem to explore the facts enough, not to mention the way it was implied that more is understood about the brain than in actuality. We know very little about the brain. I feel the programme could have benefitted from more discussion even if there would have been less room for all the interesting anecdotes. I wonder whether Horizon wanted to stay away from the 'unscientific' philosophising - however some sort of philosophical exploration is surely needed if there is a measurable link between brain activity and religious experience, whether God is real or imagined.

I was rather disappointed that Richard Dawkins, when put to the test of a 'simulated' religious experience, didn't experience anything mystical. Apparently, he was looking forward to it. I do think that Richard Dawkins can be incredibly arrogant and smug, but I did rather feel sorry for him as he sat there looking deflated. It does make me wonder how he could rationalise a genuine religious experience, if he ever had one :)

What I want to know is whether the measured brain activity could be more of a reaction to a loss of a sense of self and a detection of the presence of something greater, rather than the cause of it. Blood flows from one place to another, but what is the cause of this?

I've really lost whatever enthusiasm I ever had for Easter eggs. Or whatever enthusiam wasn't "Ooh, chocolate!" I do very much appreciate the love and affection behind the giving of them, but they themselves... hmm. In part it's due to the whole commercialisation-of-religious-festival thing. It's even insulting to Pagans, in my opinion. These things are shrines to chocolate, covered with the name of whatever particular chocolate lies within, not even with a hint of the festivities other than the chocolate. Even Christmas food does better than that (granted, there are pictures of Santa, but at least they admit that there's more to it than just chocolate).

The other problem is a probably fogeyish gripe, but pah :) Why can you never seem to find Easter eggs with things inside them anymore? (Except for really posh ones, I guess...) That was always the most fun thing as a child, and there seemed to be something quite mysterious and marvellous about how you could open this whole looking egg and find things inside. One (and possibly the only :) ) Easter message that stuck in my mind from one Easter was from a vicar who came to my primary school and told us how like how you find sweets inside the Easter egg, there is an 'inside story' to Easter. A deeper meaning, the story of Jesus's death and resurrection. Now I think about it, despite the somewhat weird nature of this analogy, it does make sense. To the rest of the world, he was just another executed criminal... I suspect the reason I remembered this for so long was that I thought I'd finally found the link between Easter eggs and Jesus.

It seems somehow symbolic that Easter eggs these days don't seem to have treasures inside. Society has finally decided that Easter is an empty chocolate shell.

Random word for today: maundy

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