Rhawn Joseph

Rhawn Joseph is a neuropsychologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California.
Neuropsychology
Joseph has published over 50 scientific papers on neuropsychology. He claims that religion, sexual perversion, and aggression are all products of dysfunctions of the limbic structures of the brain. He has claimed in his publications also that trancelike states and visions of angels and other religious experiences are due to the brain activity of the subject, especially the hippocampus and temporal lobe.
Joseph summarizes evidence that the amygdala neurons of females are "smaller and more densely packed" and they fire more easily and frequently than those in males. He further claims this is because "females are more religious, more emotional and more easily frightened than males". Joseph has stated that females have more religious experiences then men and the reason for this may be due to the anterior commissure, which connects the right and left amygdala, being 18 percent larger in females.
Astrobiology
Joseph is a strong advocate of panspermia and has developed his own theory which is a form of astrobiology. He believes life did not originate on Earth but was transplanted to Earth by "cosmic seeds" encased in space debris 700 million years after the formation of the Earth. He claims that these genetic seeds filled with DNA contained the genetic instructions for the metamorphosis of all life, including woman and man. He also rejects Darwinism, instead replacing it with a pre-determined evolutionary metamorphosis which he claims is pre-programmed in DNA.
Joseph has published a number of papers on panspermia with Rudolph Schild in the Journal of Cosmology. Joseph is an atheist who argues for an infinite universe and has argued against abiogenesis which he says is not only false but actually a religious belief not routed in science. Joseph also claims that the Big Bang is a religious belief routed in the Genesis account of the Bible and unsupported by cosmological evidence.
Joseph's views on the origin of life and evolution can be found in his controversial book Astrobiology: The Origins of Life and the Death of Darwinism published in 2001. In the book he claimed that "Contrary to Darwinism... the evidence now clearly indicates, that the evolution of life had been genetically predetermined and precoded...", he also heavily criticized abiogenesis and supported panspermia.
According to Joseph: "I embrace the theory of evolution but reject Darwinism and the theory of the Big Bang. My views are the antithesis of that held by theologians, the Church, and the scientific establishment. The theory of the Big Bang is creationism; i.e., the universe is finite and was created. An eternal, infinite universe, does not require a creator, and this is my position."<ref name="bare_url" />.
Selected publications
Neuropsychology
* Joseph, R., Hess, S., & Birecree, E. (1982). Effects of sex hormone manipulations on exploration and sex differences in maze learning. Behavioral Biology, 24, 364-377.
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* Joseph, R. (2000). Fetal brain behavioral cognitive development. Developmental Review, 20, 81-98.
* Joseph, R. (2011). The Split Brain: Two Brains - Two Minds. In: The Universe and Consciousness, edited by Sir Roger Penrose & Stuart Hameroff. Science Publishers, Cambridge, MA.
* Joseph, R. (2011). Origins of Thought: Consciousness, Language, Egocentric Speech and the Multiplicity of Mind. In: The Universe and Consciousness, edited by Sir Roger Penrose & Stuart Hameroff. Science Publishers, Cambridge, MA.
* Joseph, R. (2011). Dreams and Hallucinations: Lifting the Veil to Multiple Perceptual Realities. In: The Universe and Consciousness, edited by Sir Roger Penrose & Stuart Hameroff. Science Publishers, Cambridge, MA.
Panspermia and eternal cosmos
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* Joseph, R. & Schild, R. (2010). Origins, Evolution, and Distribution of Life in the Cosmos: Panspermia, Genetics, Microbes, and Viral Visitors From the Stars. In: The Biological Big Bang, edited by Chandra Wickramasinghe, Science Publishers, Cambridge, MA
* Joseph, R. (2010). Extinction, Metamorphosis, Evolutionary Apoptosis, and Genetically Programmed Species Mass Death. In: The Biological Big Bang, edited by Chandra Wickramasinghe, Science Publishers, Cambridge, MA
* Joseph, R. (2010). The Quantum Cosmos and Micro-Universe: Black Holes, Gravity, Elementary Particles, and the Destruction and Creation of Matter. Journal of Cosmology, 4, 780-800.
* Joseph, R., and Schild, R. (2010). Biological Cosmology and the Origins of Life in the Universe. Journal of Cosmology, 5, 1040-1090.
* Joseph, R. (2010). The Infinite Cosmos vs the Myth of the Big Bang: Red Shifts, Black Holes, and the Accelerating Universe. Journal of Cosmology, 6, 1548-1615.

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