A handful of people attended Thursday night's lecture presented by the Orthodox Christian Fellowship with religion on their minds.
About fifteen students, faculty, and community members of varying faiths gathered in the Newman Center Thursday to hear School of Medicine Professor Andrew Newberg speak in a lecture called "Why God Won't Go Away."
Referring occasionally to three-dimensional images of the brain projected on a screen behind him, Newberg spoke about his research on "neurotheology" -- the relationship between neurological functions and spiritual experiences.
"Something seems to be causing religion and spirituality to stick around for as long as it has," he said. "As long as the brain continues to work as it does, I think the concept of God won't go away."
Along with the late Penn Psychology Professor Eugene d'Aquili, Newberg co-authored two books based on neurological research that the two performed on Tibetan monks and Franciscan Nuns. The experiments tested the monks' EEGs and the blood flow to their brains while they were engaged in meditation or prayer.
The brain scans revealed a "different state of consciousness" during these spiritual acts that did not resemble structures in the brain either while asleep or awake, according to Newman.
The results, which have had controversial implications for both religious and scientific communities, have generated some discord, but Newberg said the response has been mostly positive.
"The most nasty responses I've had to our work were not from the devoutly religious, but from the devoutly atheistic," he said.
But for Newberg, the results of his research neither confirm nor refute the existence of God. Instead, he said he sees his findings as a way to bridge the gap between two explanations of reality.
"What I've tried to do is to create a safe dialogue between the two fields of science and religion," he explained.
After the lecture, audience members livened up in a question and answer session that strayed from biology and leaned toward theology and philosophy.
College freshman Daniel Watson said he was interested in both Newberg's discoveries and the discussion it generated.
"He made people in the audience hesitant about their own beliefs and have to defend themselves," Watson said.
Last night's lecture was the fourth in a series presented by the Orthodox Christian Fellowship, which brings "alternative views on particularly controversial topics" to campus.
Fellowship President Alexis Decerbo said that the group "tries to get a broad spectrum of religious affiliated speakers," many of whom have had a theological perspective on topics in the hard sciences.
Past lectures have dealt with stem-cell research and the Big Bang theory. The group also sponsored a lecture in November by a heterosexual married couple, both of whom said they had previously been gay.
"One of the things we try to do as a small, minority faith here on campus, but also a self-consciously traditional community, is to provide alternative views," said Father Alexander Webster, Penn's Eastern Orthodox Chaplain and advisor to the Fellowship.
