 So, let's get into it. When asking whether neuroscience challenges the validity of religious belief, we first need to be clear on what we mean by religious belief. When we think of beliefs, it's easy to suppose that they are basically abstractions, ideas, cognitive content that exists independently of our bodies as a whole. For example, we might have debates about monotheism, or the trinity, or whether angels exist. It can be intuitive to think of religious belief as somehow existing apart from our physical bodies, or perhaps as pertaining to some non-physical or disembodied mind. One might assume that in order for belief to be real, and to correspond to actual spiritual realities, then that belief must somehow exist apart from mere physical processes, must not be explainable in scientific terms. And yet, this is not the picture of belief emerging from contemporary science. It is becoming increasingly clear that, whatever else we can say about religious belief, it is at least fundamentally embodied. Most importantly, of course, the brain is necessary for the development of belief, and I'll discuss this more in a few minutes. But it's important to recognize that the development of religious belief has to do with more than just our minds or brains. Belief involves whole body interaction with our environments, including sensory experiences, religious rituals, and relational dynamics in communities. Belief is certainly not an immaterial or disembodied phenomena that exists wholly apart from the brain. But neither is it instantiated only in a brain, apart from whole body interaction with the environment, community, and culture. Religious belief is a function of the entire complex interplay of neural processes in the brain with the entire body, and with the external physical environment, religious community, and culture in which one is embedded. The main point here is that belief is not simply a disembodied abstraction, but is fundamentally rooted in physicality. Not only is religious belief embodied, but it is also a very natural, normal element of human experience. For those who experience religious belief, it may seem to be a unique or special phenomenon disconnected from other cognitive phenomena susceptible to scientific analysis. But religious beliefs are formed neurobiologically, using the same sorts of neural and cognitive mechanisms as beliefs about, say, which political candidate should win the next election. And again, I'll discuss this in more detail shortly. Moreover, belief formation occurs not only through reasoned analysis and decision making, but also, or even primarily, through emotionally impactful, socially embedded practices and habits that actually change the brain. This ability of the brain to alter its structure and function in response to repetitive experience is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity researchers examine the way that different emotional, sociocultural, and physical experiences combine to strengthen or weaken various beliefs, religious or otherwise. Religious beliefs are formed and strengthened as people habitually participate in religious rituals, engage in emotionally compelling communal worship practices, and focus on the doctrinal content of a particular belief system. The more that one engages with such compelling, absorbing experiences, rituals, and communities, the more likely one is to experience a sense of religious belief. Belief develops in context, in community, and through repetitive engagement with whole body practices and sustained focus on religious doctrines. Again, belief does not exist in its own unique category, but is formed in the same sorts of biopsychosocial contexts that form any of the beliefs that we may hold.