... so why shouldn't I weigh in as well? The Neural Buddhists.
First, just because you can map what goes on in the brain - or throughout the body - while you are having an experience doesn't actually say all that much about the experience. If you come running at me screaming while wielding an ax, I will have a rush of adrenalin and all sorts of synapses will go off throughout my nervous system. I still better take cover.
"The cognitive revolution is not going to end up undermining faith in God, it’s going to end up challenging faith in the Bible." Depends on the nature of your faith in the Bible.
"The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. ... Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day."
Good points, but good theologians have been doing those things for quite some time. Actually, to establish that experiences of the sacred are a experience of the real - and a part of such experiences is their personal dimension, the experience of an Other - should make it easier to resolve differences over terminology and doctrine.
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