Seriously?
In 2008, the University of Pennsylvania released findings from a medical study proving that the practice of speaking in tongues is sourced by the Holy Spirit. In the study, participants’ brain activity was monitored while they spoke in tongues, giving the medical researchers scientific insight into the parts of the brain active while speaking in these “heavenly tongues”—and the results were astounding.
Bull. Just bull.
So after diving about two links deep into the article, this is based on the research of Dr. andrew Newberg (http://www.andrewnewberg.com/research) who started the branch of Neurotheology, which studies the effect of prayer and belief.
Looking over his website, it is clear there is a bias in the Q&A section affirming that God is "everywhere".
His research seeks to use fMRIs and other medical scans of the brain to study various religious effects. However there seems to be a strong bias to selecting and interpreting the data. The sample size is too small and there any conclusion has no statistical significance.
Interestly, i checked in publication list back to 2005 and couldn't find any journal article about "speaking in tongues". In the video the journalist cites that Dr. Newberg claims “When they are actually engaged in this whole very intense spiritual practice for them, their frontal lobes tend to go down in activity, but I think it’s very consistent with the kind of experience that they have because they say that they are not in charge—it’s the voice of God, the Spirit of God that’s moving through them.”
If I recall, the speech centers are in the posterior region of frontal lobe, known as the Broca area, known for speech production. I wish I could read the paper and see if he had a control, where untranced people babbled and also showed a reduction in use of Broca's area, which makes sense if you are making sounds without intending speech.
If anyone can find that paper let me know.
I had forgotten about having a contol group. As you say, none was mentioned in the article but is essential in any legitimate research.
I can speak pig Latin, what do I win?
They found that it DIDN’t activate the speech center. So some schmuck concluded that means they aren’t speaking, God is, rather than concluding that they are spewing GIBBERISH
“Please, just please do not insult our intelligence”....would be my response to this (NON) medical study! Proof my arse..if you’ll pardon my crudity...because they might as well have been speaking out of theirs for all the sense this study makes!
British crudity is so cute.
@Sticks48 Glad you think so!
So people's brains shut off while they speak in tongues?
No wonder that churches like it. Lol.
From the article:
Newberg shares the heart of his study:
...“[The test subject’s] scan showed that the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls language, was active when he prayed in English. But for the most part, it fell quiet when he prayed in tongues.”
.
For an anecdotal take, here is a funny video I saw recently of a preacher interrupted by his phone while practicing his patter.
[dailymail.co.uk]
Yeah, well, unless they are in a room full of people who speak different languages and everyone understands their babble in their own language, I am going to say it does not meet the biblical standard of speaking in tongues--and that just aint gonna happen!
Among Mormons (early Mormons in particular) the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues was separate ftom the gift of interpreting those who speak in tongues. One account I once read involved a woman who stood up and began speaking in tongues (I have to wonder if she was having a stroke). While this first woman was enunciating, another woman stood up and began "interpreting" into english what the first woman was (supposedly) saying.
Exactly.
@RussRAB in the bible the gift of tongues was given to the first apostles so that they could go out and teach what Jesus taught them, it enabled them to speak to people of all cultures without learning the languages- no translating required.
So perhaps this generic babbling started in the Mormon church? I experienced in Country Victoria in Australia.
@girlwithsmiles - I've never experienced anyone speaking in tongues first hand. There was a young teenager who came to a televangelist's micrhone on TV while I was scanning channels one day. He spoke plenty of "thou's", "thee's", and the like interspersed with unrecognizable syllables. Everyone on the TV was impressed; I kept scanning channels. I guess I just didn't have the right spirit of God.
Nothing much was terribly original in Mormonism unless you want to count Joseph Smith's wild imagings. Even the temple endowment ceremony was so much like the masonic ritual (Smith was a Mason who was initiated into the upper ranks because he could swell the Illinois membership of Masons significantly, like doubling it at least).
So after 11 years has anybody replicated this? I think not. Misfiring synapses maybe. Show me the results of studies that confirm this finding reproduced by others in the field.
Oh shundo la la la la rectuminia! Hee cummina doodle niya!!! Bullshitius na na na huyundai!!
Ok...I see how it works!!
Gabucky
noge ablek dilk nilie goobl runr akle lyti bid lieng
Ayp!
Sure, the brain is fluttering with activity - so????? Not any proof of god, etc, more likely the act of an active brain
@MichaelSpinler ooooooh, good one!
Ohferpetessake.......i believe simply speaking lights up parts of the brain. I know for a Fact I can scare the bejesus out of my doctor by doing a stand up routine in his office and raising my blood pressure from 140/90 to 325/189 in about 2 minutes, speaking English. I didn't stroke out, so it Must have been a miracle. He won't let me do it anymore.........
Source, The Christian Post......ooookkkaaaayyyyyyyyyyy
I went to a church where they claimed to speak in tongues once, in the bible it was a universal language, which people of any nation could understand; in this church it sounded like absolute gobbledygook which I couldn’t even understand. I say speaking in tongues is sourced from bs fed into by a brainwashed church. (And I’m normally pretty subdued about these things!)
The most telling part was going to the actual research paper abstract "This study also showed a number of other changes in the brain, including those areas involved in emotions and establishing our sense of self.” In other words while the language area decreased in activity the emotion and self importance areas increased. Similar to when you get into an argument and get so emotional that you sputter when you are trying to say something.
Tell that to Dan Barker, co-president of FFRF. He was once a pentecostal minister and knows all about this BS. Maybe it's like when we were kids and came up with gibberish pretending to speak another language. I'll bet research could show how our brain waves changed then. Religious groups are always trying to gain some validity by attaching some sort of scientific research. Funny thing, they continue to criticize the validity of science when it doesn't go with their ideas like creationism.
As a twin I do know twins come up with their own 'language'. Mother broke us of using it and we do not have any memory that we can recall of it. When my twin was working at the GM plant in Trenton, NJ there was a set of twins working there that still used their twin talk so making up a language is not so usual but claiming it's from God? Meh, don't think so.
@silverotter11 But did you understand one another or was it a matter of body language??
@JackPedigo According to my mom we did understand each other, which is probably what drove her to make us stop using our language. It's a long tale of divide and conquer which was her approach to child rearing. I've mentioned b4 we are identical-same egg and all but man our thinking is polar opposite. She is a gop voter, trumpette and church going believer. We do not have long conversations. The twins she worked with clearly understood each other.
@silverotter11 She probably says the same things about you - liberal hippy freak. lol Remember, you are sort of in her turf. Do you guys (I won't go down that road again with you) dress alike and like the same foods.
@JackPedigo We do have very similar taste in style but not color. Hard to know on a regular basis she lives in eastern Pennsylvania.
I’m trying to understand why God need an intercessor who speaks in a language that no one knows to speaks to us. Since he is god why doesn’t he just call us up on our cellphone and tell us what we need to hear in English himself
I’ve asked my hyper-religious mother that same question several times.
She’s still working out her response.
@Haemish1 They will use the “God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise men” argument. I was former Christian so I know the canned responses
they have studies to prove almost anything ten a week on morning shows
With so many Christion Universities, they can generate slll sorts of self fulfilling research the want under the guise of University prestige. Nearly all of it is a farce.
Bluga Shimisso Gexadowee Fazavobicur!
Huh?!?
@RussRAB The spirit made me type in tongues.
@BestWithoutGods - I guess the spirit didn't allow me to read in tongues.
I had the same immediate thoughts, HippieC....but then took a moment. What the U of P has documented is only that, under hallucinations, different parts of our brains can be monitored. I'm wondering if they're the same parts which contribute to epileptic seizures?
i speak in tongues, myself: english, my native tongue; japanese and french to an extent; sporadic phrases in a few other tongues, and of course, feline and baby talk, both for use with pets. i rant but i do not babble. christian post, eh? feh! your assessment is correct, albeit insulting to honest cow-daddies.
g
I have given this a little more thought and I have a question. Can I use speaking in tongues as a foreign language for college credit? If so then I can complete my degree.