In my recent article, "Religious Beliefs and Brain Seizure," I summarized the work of Michael Persinger, who found that stimulation of the temporal lobes in subjects induced all manner of religious images and visions. In his own book, The Neuropsychological Basis of God Belief (p. 187), he said:

"The God Experience is an artifact of transient changes in the temporal lobe."

By "God Experience" he meant the entire matrix of behaviors associated with, and fueling, God belief. In his experiments he found the very repetition of these behaviors made their future manifestation more likely. By "artifact" he meant - as in the standard definition- "an object made by human craft," a creation or invention, in this case a creation of the brain itself.

Based on this, I logically extrapolated the artifact nature of all attendant religious displays, including prayer. Perhaps Persinger himself would have done this, had he not received death threats from Christian zealots in the course of his work.

I noted - based on this artifact nature - that Persinger's work proves that, contrary to the beliefs of the faithful, prayers alter reality not one iota. This is delusional. That is a harsh term, for sure, but if something is an artifact, a creation or invention of man, then its byproducts must certainly be artifacts, creations or inventions of man.

In the wake of my recent article, a number of Christian critics accused me of "misquoting" Persinger, "misrepresenting his work," and lying to fuel my own freethinker beliefs. None of these critics read the book I referenced. The best they could do was google up a few random references and use those as a basis to attack me. Since they didn't like the message, they had to go after the messenger.

This tactic isn't new. I used to write columns in Barbados. When the subject turned to evolution, the Big Bang and stellar evolution, Christian critics went after me. Inevitably, rather than deal with the implications, they attacked the writer. When you've nothing but bullying with which to fight, you must attack the messenger.

Had any of these attackers researched further, however, they'd have seen that my take on Persinger is not extreme or unjustified. For example, Jack Hitt ('This is Your Brain on God'), after his interview with Persinger, noted: "Persinger is not the first to theorize that the Creator exists only in the complex landscape of the human noggin."

He then cites Julian Jaynes' 1976 work, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind: "…brain activity of ancient people…lacked the sense of metaphor and individual identify that characterizes a more advanced mind…some of these synaptic leftovers are buried deep in the modern brain, which would explain many of our present-day sensations of God…"

Some accused me of misquoting. None of those paid enough attention to note the only direct quote I made was "temporal lobe transients," Persinger's own term.

In his autobiographical sketch, Persinger noted the purpose of his research:

"The research has been encouraged by the historical fact that most wars and group degradations are coupled implicitly to god beliefs and to the presumption that those who do not believe the same as the experient are somehow less human and hence expendable. Although these egocentric propensities may have had adaptive significance, their utility for the species' future may be questionable."