Of the many futuristic prospects offered by neuroscience, one of the more controversial is ‘brain reading’: the use of functional neuroimaging to gain information about subjects’ mental states or thoughts. This technology has various possible applications, including ‘neuromarketing’ and lie detection. Would such applications violate subjects’ privacy rights? Conversely, if God knows and judges all our secret thoughts, do Christians have any stake in defending a right to mental privacy? This article argues that God’s knowledge of us is different not only in degree but in kind from the knowledge sought through brain reading. This view of divine knowledge supports a theological account of privacy, richer and broader in scope than standard accounts of privacy rights, which can aid the ethical analysis of the use of brain reading technology for purposes such as marketing and lie detection.

中文翻译：

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判断所有人的秘密想法：功能性神经影像学、“大脑阅读”和隐私的神学伦理

在神经科学提供的许多未来前景中，最具争议的一个是“大脑阅读”：使用功能性神经成像来获取有关受试者心理状态或想法的信息。该技术具有多种可能的应用，包括“神经营销”和谎言检测。这样的应用会不会侵犯受试者的隐私权？相反，如果上帝知道并判断我们所有的秘密想法，那么基督徒在捍卫精神隐私权方面是否有任何利害关系？这篇文章认为，上帝对我们的了解不仅在程度上而且在种类上都与通过脑力阅读所寻求的知识不同。这种神圣知识的观点支持隐私的神学解释，比标准的隐私权解释更丰富和更广泛，