Saw this article in the London Times.  They seem to be trying to prove that
believers who refuse to deny Christ under torture are able to do so because
of evolution.  And they get to torture believers to boot.  Carie

---

Britain
 

January 12, 2005

Believers go on rack to prove God relieves pain
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
 
 

PEOPLE are to be tortured in laboratories at Oxford University in a United
States-funded experiment to determine whether belief in God is effective in
relieving pain.
Top neurologists, pharmacologists, anatomists, ethicists and theologians are
to examine the scientific basis of religious belief and whether it is
anything
more than a placebo.
 
 

Headed by Baroness Greenfield, the leading neurologist, the new Centre for
the Science of the Mind is to use imaging systems to find out how religious,
spiritual and other belief systems, such as an illogical belief in the
innate
superiority of men, influence consciousness.

A central aspect of the two-year study, which has $2 million (£1.06 million)
funding from the John Templeton Foundation, the US philanthropic body, will
involve dozens of people being subjected to painful experiments in
laboratory
conditions.

While enduring the agony, they will be exposed to religious symbols such as
images of the Virgin Mary or a crucifix. Their neurological responses will
be
measured to determine the efficacy of their faith in helping them to cope.

The aim is to develop new and practical approaches “for promoting wellbeing
and ultimately maximising individual human potential”.

The pain experiments will be conducted under the direction of Toby Collins,
who has a background in marine biology and the nerve systems of
invertebrates.
He said that many people in pain turned to faith for relief. Some looked to
religious or secular healing systems.

He said that the experiments would involve non-invasive simulation of burns
and will be conducted according to strict ethical rules. As they suffer, the
human guinea pigs will be asked to access a belief system, whether religious
or
otherwise.

Dr Collins said: “We will simulate a burn sensation to see how people,
through distraction or by accessing different strategies, can modulate and
reduce
the levels of pain.”

John Stein, a neuroscientist from Oxford’s physiology department, said:
“Pain has been central to a lot of problems that religious and other
thinkers have
concentrated on.”

Professor Stein said that people differed widely in the extent to which they
felt pain. “What we want to do is correlate that with their underlying
beliefs.”

The study is considered of vital importance in the present world climate,
given the role of religious fundamentalism in international terrorism. A
better
understanding of the physiology of belief, the conditions that entrench it
in
the mind and its usefulness in mitigating pain could be crucial to
developing
counter-terrorist strategies for the future.

Scientists have long been baffled at the persistence of these beliefs in the
face of seemingly irrefutable logic. Professor Lewis Wolpert, the biologist,
has speculated in the past that a belief in how the world was created and
what
happens after death may have conferred an evolutionary advantage.

The new centre will investigate how people form belief and how the mind
works
in relations to belief. Scientists will examine what causes people to change
their beliefs, and how this affects the mind. Lady Greenfield, Professor of
Synaptic Pharmacology at Oxford and director of the Royal Institution of
Great
Britain in Mayfair, Central London, said: “To the best of my knowledge, this
centre will be the first of its kind in the UK, if not in Europe. It brings
together equal numbers of academics from the humanities and the sciences,
approaching the same problem.”

PAST TORTURE
 
 

Two thousand years ago, crucifixion was a favoured form of torture and
execution. Christians were also sewn up in the skins of wild beasts and dogs
let
loose on them
 

The rack was used by the Inquisition which began in 1232 when Emperor
Frederick II issued an edict against heretics

The Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century was aimed originally at
Marranos,
baptised Jews suspected of having returned to their old faith