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Study Shows Born-Again Christians Have Smaller Brains
The New American ^ | 05.27.11 | Dave Bohon

Posted on 07/21/2011 7:37:56 PM PDT by Coleus

Born-again Christian who have been wondering all these years just why they are so different from the rest of the crowd may now have an answer via a new study out of Duke University Medical Center. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Templeton Foundation found that individuals who identify themselves as “born-again” Christians tend to have smaller brains than Protestants who claim no such experience. According to USA Today, the 11-year study, “which included at least two MRI measurements on 268 adults between 1994 and 2005 … found an association between participants’ professed religious affiliation and the physical structure of their brain. Specifically, those identified as Protestant who did not have a religious conversion or born-again experience — more common among their evangelical brethren — had a bigger hippocampus.”

The research, which focused on brain shrinkage among older adults, grew out of a larger project in which participants, all 58 years of age and older, were recruited for a study to determine the effects of depression on the elderly. In the study on believers, “researchers ruled out depression or lack of social support as reasons for the smaller brain size,” reported USA Today.

The study found that those who said that they were a “born-again” Protestant or Catholic, as well as those who claimed no religious affiliation, had more brain atrophy (shrinkage) than participants who identified themselves as non-born-again Protestants.

In trying to make sense of the results of their study, researchers suggested that the stress related to embracing religious convictions not held by the majority may account in part for the smaller brain sizes of “born-again’ participants. Amy Owen, a research associate at Duke University Medical Center and the lead author of the study, said that one explanation for the finding that members of majority religious groups seem to have larger brains than minority religious groups like born-again evangelicals and Catholics “is that when you feel your beliefs and values are somewhat at odds with those of society as a whole, it may contribute to long-term stress that could have implications for the brain.”

The researchers also suggested that “life-changing religious experiences” may challenge an individual’s established convictions, leading to stress. “Other studies have led us to think that whether a new experience you consider spiritual is interpreted as comforting or stressful may depend on whether or not it fits in with your existing religious beliefs and those of the people around you,” explained David Hayward, another of the Duke research associates. “Especially for older adults, these unexpected new experiences may lead to doubts about long-held religious beliefs, or to disagreements with friends and family.”

Meanwhile, wrote Yonat Shimron of Religion News Service, sociologists who study religion remain skeptical of the study’s findings. “They say the researchers’ theory flies in the face of U.S. religious demographics,” wrote Shimron. “While it’s true that evangelicals are a minority, they’re a sizable one — 40% of the U.S. population, according to Gallup Polls — and not exactly a stressed-out minority, especially in the South.” Said David Roozen, a sociologist at Hartford Seminary, “There are probably more born-again Protestants than non-born-again Protestants, and just about as many Catholics as either born-again or non-born-again Protestants.”

Likewise, Dr. William Struthers, a psychology professor at Wheaton College, told the Christian Post that while he found the study interesting, he wanted to closely analyze the study’s statistical variables — such as age, sex, and depression status of the participants — before drawing any conclusions. “My concern is how this data is utilized, and if it is used as a way to demean people of faith,” he said. “Is it used as a way to make people feel as if they are stupid, that their brains are smaller because they are born-again Christians or they are born-again Christians because their brains are smaller? [T]hat is a place that we want to be careful not to go.”


TOPICS: Reference; Religion; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: bornagain; brain; christians; davebohon; tna
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To: Coleus

Ain’t science wonderful. Did they measure the brain size of “Hope and Change” believers?


61 posted on 07/21/2011 8:54:05 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Pelosi: Obamacare indulgences for sale.)
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To: Mike Darancette

Those are too tiny to measure.


62 posted on 07/21/2011 8:58:16 PM PDT by RecoveringPaulisto
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To: Coleus

The basic premise underlying this is that stress causes shrinkage of the brain. That sounds counterintuitive to me. Wouldn’t stress tend to cause greater blood flow to the brain following an increase in thinking about the stressful situation? Where is the physiological data that supports the conclusion that stress leads to brain shrinkage?


63 posted on 07/21/2011 9:20:52 PM PDT by TigersEye (Wranglers not Levis. Levi Strauss is anti-2nd Amendment.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Maybe — just maybe — I don’t want to jump to any conclusions here ... but I’m just saying that this could be bad science.
Oh, what the heck: this is bad science.


This is Science?


64 posted on 07/21/2011 9:20:52 PM PDT by rdcbn
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To: Coleus

Well, I guess my pea brain will be with the Lord throughout eternity. I hope those Duke fellors will be there.


65 posted on 07/21/2011 9:22:19 PM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: Coleus

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
From Romans 1:22 and 2nd Timothy 3:7


66 posted on 07/21/2011 9:24:42 PM PDT by Westbrook (Having children does not divide your love, it multiplies it.)
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To: Coleus

What IF..... intelligence is measured not in the size of the brain but in the size of the spirit?..


67 posted on 07/21/2011 9:32:10 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole...)
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To: Chickensoup
"the article is poorly titled."

No, they titled it that way deliberately - for those who never actually read the articles.

Seems to me I remember the nazis had all sorts of similar "studies" to justify their ostracization of the jews.

68 posted on 07/21/2011 9:34:27 PM PDT by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Flag_This
You obviously don't read The New American. It's put out by the John Birch Society, which is not exactly the world's most anti-Christian group.
69 posted on 07/21/2011 9:41:13 PM PDT by RecoveringPaulisto
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To: RecoveringPaulisto
"It's put out by the John Birch Society, which is not exactly the world's most anti-Christian group."

Really? I wonder why their title for the article was much less accurate and much more inflammatory than the title from the USA Today article they cite ("Study finds brain differences based on faith")?

70 posted on 07/21/2011 9:48:48 PM PDT by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Flag_This

It would never occur to these fools to look at why one brain may be heavier than another ... but just point them to fast food poison and they will rave against calories the fatties who live on Mickey D’s consume as compared to the leaner self-moderating folks. Brain physiology is not well understood, so the smaller brain of born agains may be due to less fractured fairytales filling up the little gray cells with progressive, liberal, marxist crap. I have no doubt these ‘scientists’ are all fatheads.


71 posted on 07/21/2011 9:55:08 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: MHGinTN
"I have no doubt these ‘scientists’ are all fatheads."

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I'm beginning to think all "science" is politics now.

72 posted on 07/21/2011 9:58:08 PM PDT by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Check6

Wonder who funded this 11 year study and why the set about to measure the brains of Christians. Why not Jews and Muslims?


73 posted on 07/21/2011 10:17:49 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: ivyleaguebrat

“The hippocampus is about the size of a green bean.”

And here I always thought it was where hippopotamuses went to college.

Guess my brain is small enough to be born again too, huh?

Maybe there is hope for me yet.


74 posted on 07/21/2011 10:30:20 PM PDT by Nik Naym (It's not my fault... I have compulsive smartass disorder.)
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To: Coleus

When I was in third grade, there were these three kids who had giant heads. I mean, they were enormous. But they were also the dumbest kids in the class. So, one day at lunch, we decided to do a little experiment. A couple of us measured the brain size of everyone in class. We did brain wave measurements and MRIs. Sure enough, the three big dopes had the biggest brains. But, for everyone else, it didn’t matter. Some smart kids had big brains, some had small brains. Some dummies had big ones, some small. Of course, a few kids wouldn’t let us measure them. In fact, they wouldn’t let us anywhere near them, so we had to kinda guestimate. We published our findings on the chalkboard, but the nun erased it that night.


75 posted on 07/21/2011 10:30:48 PM PDT by Krankor (I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in.)
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To: RecoveringPaulisto

“The fact is that most people don’t use the vast majority of their brain,”

That is an oft quoted myth. Not true. (Well maybe true for liberals but I digress)

I do believe the rest of your post was spot on, though.


76 posted on 07/21/2011 10:32:46 PM PDT by Nik Naym (It's not my fault... I have compulsive smartass disorder.)
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To: Coleus

All these alleged “studies” (looking at the American flag means you will be GOP, etc.) of late are utter partisan BS, period.

F the New American, I don’t read their collective BS anyhow. =.=


77 posted on 07/21/2011 10:33:49 PM PDT by cranked
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To: Coleus

Maybe we just have less leaven.


78 posted on 07/21/2011 10:39:16 PM PDT by wolfman
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

You don’t need big harddrive when you are running off of the main server..

Oh that’s good, I just love it


79 posted on 07/21/2011 10:39:58 PM PDT by munin ( So, which of these winners called the cops and generated public costs?)
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To: Coleus

Simple explanation: Atheists and their fellow travelers need larger brain cavities to accomodate the need for additional air space... ;^)


80 posted on 07/21/2011 10:41:43 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (You have only two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!!!)
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