Moral Absolutes Ping.
Couple thoughts that aren't addressed in the article. Do other people who aren't liars have the same extra white matter? And, if liars have this different kind of brain, it seems to this simpleton that the brain could have developed in that manner because of their habit of lying. Just like muscles develop if you use them, and atrophy if you don't.
And even if some people are born with "lying brains" - it just means they need to struggle harder to overcome that temptation, just as everyone needs to struggle with perhaps different temptations. We aren't the brain - it's just like a computer we're using for a while. It looks as though this kind of information, if accurate, could be used by those promoting "born that way and can't help it"-driven agendas.
Some ethnic groups, for instance Native Americans, are more prone to alcoholism due to something I can't remember - some physiological inability to metabolize alcohol, maybe someone else knows. But that doesn't exonerate them. No one forces someone to take that first, second, or thrid drink. We all have our own individual set of weaknesses, and the responsibility to overcome them.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
Final note: One of these days, we will each have to account for everything we've done. No excuses allowed - whether it's "the Devil made me do it" or "my brain made me do it". Nope. But the good part is that no matter how strong any tendency is, and how we weak we may be, God is stronger than every temptation, every evil, and can and will help us to the degree we beg Him to. It is said that a surrendered soul depends not even slightly on his own strength, but entirely on the strength of God.
Thanks for the ping. This is an ongoing sore subject with me.
Pathological personalities don't necessarily believe in God. Lecturing them does no good. No contact is the only way to deal with them. I've often wondered if brain injury or early abuse produces these defects. Then there's the age old argument of nature vs nurture.