Wayne:
?it forces one to consider that religion itself is important to a species even if one doesn't believe in it.?
Perhaps it doesn?t suggest that religion is important. Perhaps it suggests that an uplifting of human psyche is an asset for survival. Rationalisation by various cultures would tend toward inventing a framework (religion) upon which to hang these experiences and build upon them ? particularly when shrewd members of the community learn to use it to advantage.
?Its existence indicates that either it is useful for an entire species to suffer from delusions, or that there is a cosmic intelligence of some sort.?
No grounds for either, Wayne:
(1) The delusions are simply the framework (see above) constructed by ?believers?.
(2) It doesn?t require a cosmic intelligence ? it requires a species survival advantage.
?This region, though, has no known function other than to grant religious experience.?
Does it produce any information specifically concerning a religion, or a god? Or, is that simply the interpretation of a mind that?s already been exposed to religion, or to the concept of a god? I suspect the latter, and that the experience, though probably very high on the emotional scale, in fact bears no direct relationship with religion.
