Does brain research explain belief in God?

No. Every thought activates some area of the brain, including thinking about God. That proves neither that God exists nor that He does not.

Researchers have observed that a particular area of the brain becomes active when people think about God. Some already see this as an explanation for faith. But there is nothing new in it. Every thought involves some area of the brain, whether we are calculating, speaking or remembering.

So what does such a measurement prove? Neither God’s existence nor the opposite. Someone who thinks about God and denies Him is occupied with the same question. The same area becomes active. The measurement only shows that a person is thinking about God, not whether that person is right.

An everyday example makes this clear. When we think of a friend, something stirs in our brain as well. No one would conclude from this that the friend does not exist. Whether something is real is not decided by which nerve cells are at work while we think about it.

For a believer it even makes sense that human beings have a capacity to think about God. The verse above says that God created human beings with a nature suited to faith. Anyone who accepts a Creator would almost expect Him to have given people the ability to ask about Him.

The question of God is therefore not settled with a measuring device. It calls for honest reflection on the world and on one’s own life.