If a neural buddhist’s soul dies in the forest, does it make a sound?

Yesterday, in an already much remarked upon column, David Brooks reviewed the state of the kulturkampf between “assertive atheists” and “defenders of faith” by way of a discussion of developments in neurobiology. Brooks’ central insight is that the “cognitive revolution is not going to end up undermining faith in God, it’s going to end up challenging faith in the Bible” by creating a new species of believer Brooks dubs the “neural Buddhist”—people who believe the “faith” inherent in all religions reaches a universal human truth and experience of transcendence which is shorthanded as “god.” These neural Buddhists will create “new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation.”

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