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Thread: Brain injuries can make people more religious

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    Default Brain injuries can make people more religious

    Scientists discover lesions linked to spiritual belief and extremism
    People who have suffered trauma to the prefrontal cortex are less open to ideas
    The prefrontal cortex has is a hub for processing religious experiences
    Damage to this part of the brain makes people more likely to be fundamentalists
    By PHOEBE WESTON
    PUBLISHED: 10:39 BST, 8 May 2017

    Scientists have speculated for years that the human brain features a 'God spot,' one distinct area of the brain responsible for religious belief.

    Now experts believe that damage to the brain is more likely to make people extreme in their religious views.

    People who have suffered brain trauma to the prefrontal cortex are less open to new ideas and more likely to become fundamentalists, according to the new study.

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    Damage to the prefrontal cortex brain means people are less able to critically evaluate their religious beliefs against those of other people

    Research from Northwestern University in Illinois found people who had brain legions had less 'cognitive flexibility' and were less able to change their views in light of new evidence.

    The prefrontal cortex is a region of the brain associated with a number of higher functions, including planning and perception, and has been previously linked to religious and mystical experiences.

    Damage to this area means people are less able to critically evaluate their religious beliefs against those of other people.

    Researchers looked at 119 people who suffered brain injury in the Vietnam war and 30 veterans who did not suffer any injuries.

    They were asked to respond to statements such as 'To lead the best, most meaningful life, one must belong to the one, true religion.'


    Research from from Northwestern University found people who had damaged the prefrontal cortex (pictured in pink) had less 'cognitive flexibility' which made them more likely to make people extreme in their religious views

    They found veterans with lesions in the prefrontal cortex had higher levels of religious fundamentalism than those without.

    'Human beliefs, and in this case religious beliefs, are one of the cognitive and social knowledge stores that distinguish us from other species', co-author Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University told PsyPost.

    This study shows that brain structure - in this case damage to a specific area - is linked to theological beliefs.

    'We need to understand how distinct religious beliefs are from moral, legal, political, and economic beliefs in their representations in the brain', Dr Grafman said.

    Although this research, published in Neuropsychologia, helps understand the link between the brain and religious belief there are other factors which influence how religious people are.

    These include things such as personality traits and social environment.

    'While religious and other beliefs can be studied selectively and independently from other cognitive and social processes, their dependence upon, and interaction with, other brain functions will be an important area of research in the coming decades,' Dr Grafman said.

    'As they say, 'the devil is in the details', he added.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...religious.html

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    Well this isint really new i mean we know that Brain injury can cause psychopathy look at many of the serial killers many of them hit their head as kids.

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    Brain injuries can also be beneficial on rare occasions. But linking any brain health anomalies to a religious belief is a bit dangerous.
    For example women tend to believe in a God more than men in general. They tend to be emotionally smarter as well. Men are more analytical.
    There are some hints of the people with autistic spectrum conditions believing in god less. It might have something to do with decreased capability of abstract thinking.
    It is pretty complicated how one's worldview is shaped however. Some articles were published years ago about a "faith gene". In reality there is no such a gene that makes you a
    believer, a schizophrenic or an alcoholic. So many genes and other things are involved.

    Theory of mind is a pretty interesting concept. Borat's cousin Simon Baron-Cohen is involved in this research. Many things in his theories make sense really.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...m-lead-atheism
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empath...emizing_theory

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    Its been a OK known fact for a long time it takes some form of lacking cognitive function to be a religious believer.

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    Religion is not the same as religious fundamentalism, this study measured people with different brain injuries and found that people with injuries in the dlPFC and vmPFC areas are more likely to have fundamentalist beliefs.

    It says nothing about how people without brain injuries develop religious beliefs, as it does not measure those people, and therefore does not say that religious fundamentalism is caused by brain damage, only that it can be caused by brain damage.

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    Fundamentalism=/=religious. Fundamentalist atheists are equally as religious they just don't realise it.

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    Any serious sickness that makes you feel that death is close can make you more religious...

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