Atheistic and Religious Brains

Abstract

Recent hostilities between evolutionary biology and theistic movements are used as an entrance into the neurobiology of religiosity and non-religious agnosticism and atheism. Several frontiers of neuroanatomical and neurophysiological research are briefly discussed selecting those findings which appear more promising to anchor the neural substrates of spirituality, trascendence and nonreligious disbelief within specific neural circuits and networks. This is a long-range endeavour which has only started a challenging itinerary though it may offer more substantial fruits than the perennial doctrinal clashes across the hiatus (negligible, in a lot of minds) between science and faith.