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those moments, one no longer feels the need to control the external environment, because everything seems fine just the way it is. Past and future are suspended, and a sense of living in the present pervades one's consciousness. In such a state, some believe they are in the presence of God, while others may simply feel the suspension of negative moods. All is as it should be, for believer and disbeliever alike. As one of our survey participants described it, “I feel that every person is a spark of Oneness, doing what he or she is supposed to do.”

WHAT MAKES A PERSON

MORE TOLERANT OF

OTHER RELIGIONS?

People who score higher on our belief acceptance scale have less religious prejudice than those who score lower. Those engaged in Eastern spiritual practices were more accepting of other religious beliefs than those who adhered to Western monotheistic traditions. Women were more comfortable with other belief systems and also more likely to participate in other religious practices. High socioeconomic status, when compared to low socioeconomic status, also predicts greater tolerance, but one's level of education was the greatest predictor that encouraged people to be more accepting of others. Interestingly, people who had unity experiences were also more accepting of other people's beliefs.

Religion and spirituality operate on different levels, but they ultimately affect each other. Religion creates a template for spiritual practice, and spiritual experiences alter one's conception of religion. Thus as long as people have experiences they equate with spirituality, religious beliefs will change.

THE FUTURE OF GOD

All of the research that we and others have accumulated allows us to make a prediction about the future of God. Clearly, God is not going to go away, but it won't necessarily be the God depicted in our sacred texts. According to a recent Barna survey, the biblical views of an all-powerful, all-knowing creator is waning.14 What will take its place? If our survey sheds any light on the question, it will be a God that maintains its mystery, a very intimate experience that cannot be captured by words. And if the trend toward personal spirituality continues, we should see a world where many notions of God coexist. Hopefully, this will inspire greater tolerance between people of different religious faiths as they realize the underlying unity and diversity of these experiences.

How will traditional religious institutions respond? In the same way they have in the past—reinventing themselves to meet the needs of the next generation of seekers. Mainstream churches are liberalizing their theologies. Evangelicals are moving away from the rhetoric of fundamentalism, and New Age churches are growing throughout the country. Even in Muslim countries, support for extremist politics and beliefs is beginning to decline.15

Religion and spirituality are constantly changing and evolving, and this is a good thing, for both society and the human brain. New ideas challenge us to think more deeply about personal values and survival, and the more you think about the mysteries of human nature, the more likely it is that you'll have an epiphany that can improve the inner quality of your life. For most Americans, that is what spirituality is about.

∗1 In a new survey we just created, we found, in fact, that many college students do describe God and their feelings of love in remarkably similar ways.

∗2 To review the questions we asked or participate in the study, go to www.neurotheology.net.

∗3 Words like a, and, the, out, etc., were excluded from our analysis of this data.

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WHAT DOES GOD

LOOK LIKE?

Imagination, Creativity, and the Visual

Representation of Spirituality

God is both a feeling and an idea, but which comes first? Spiritual experiences appear to emerge spontaneously in human brains, but as far we can tell, they rarely occur in early childhood. Instead, young children are introduced to the idea of God by their parents. Through story telling and simple religious rituals like prayer, a child begins