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.”
This is following the same, exact, path the Nazi party in Germany followed starting in 1933 when they got total control. Queers and perverts asserted themselves because they were the useful psychopaths the party could rely on in the SA, then selected groups are "scientifically proven" to be lesser members of society and that information repeated so often it enters the subconscious of a majority, and finally there are programs to reeducate those who “may still be useful members of society”, with still other programs to eliminate those who are unfit to be a part of the new society.
Us drive guys get it...
;-)
Nice to see ya, munin!!
Oh, Lord, now the liberals are going to be insufferable, because they already thought they were so much more brilliant than silly Christians.
Let’s say this is true, do you want to have a big brain and go to Hell or a small brain and spend your eternity in happiness in heaven.
Seems like a small price to pay!
Just drop it in a bowl of water, then measure the displaced volume. Be sure it’s completely submerged
Study the Holy Spirit. It is just good science. My brain is just the right size, thank you.
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.
Ha! Seems pretty obvious to me the part that atrophied is the part others use to cope with their inability to make sense of their existence.
But we have longer life spans, sorta.
I was looking for the line that said this is satire. This is sooooo typical of the radical left. They should measure the brains of leftist “scientists” and professors — talk about your pea brains.
This reeks of a pre-determined conclusion grasping for any sliver of data.
...and since I fit into the group demographic, let me state for the record that I am as stress-free as any adult on the planet. This, despite the best efforts of fraudulent "research" and an illegal regime ruining our nation.
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.
_________________________
it’s coming...
I thought the same thoughts providing and this is a big providing that there is any truth to their studies at all. It may take a lot of useless and redundant brain activity to navigate a life led without The LORD.
Whales and elephants have much bigger brains than humans so do these doorknobs think that they are smarter than we?
And I remember that old addage - It’s not the size that matters—it’s what you do with what you’ve got.
IIRC, there was a *study* that *found* a size differential of the hippocampus between gay and straight men. Gay men had a smaller hippocampus. OTOH, so did women.
The point about connective tissue is interesting, since it is the most prevalent type of tissue in the human body. Again, there are gender differences and female connective tissue changes after menopause.
The authors of this study are going to have explain why it is not homophobic and misogynist. Should be interesting.
I'm so glad that taxpayers money went to fund this.
Do I need sarcasm tags?
**“They say the researchers’ theory flies in the face of U.S. religious demographics,” wrote Shimron. **
Having God to fall back on reduces the stress. This study in nutzzzz.
I’m pretty sure that studies also show that women have smaller brains than men BTW.
I’m glad you got my point. I was thinking about my reply today, and it could have been taken a number of ways.
Brain size doesn’t necessarily translate to intelligence.
(By the way, they didn’t measure my brain. Did they measure yours?)
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