Sensationalist Scientific American article: "Religious Experiences Shrink Part of the Brain"

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When scientific magazines become uninteresting…

Another article in Scientific American trying to convince people that religion is bad…

It seems obvious to me that the researchers failed miserably to correlate cause and consequence. Yet they admit the cause for the hippocampus shrinking to be stress, they want to blame religion for it…
 
farpinho said:
When scientific magazines become uninteresting…

Another article in Scientific American trying to convince people that religion is bad…

It seems obvious to me that the researchers failed miserably to correlate cause and consequence. Yet they admit the cause for the hippocampus shrinking to be stress, they want to blame religion for it…
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More anti-christian hog wash. 👍
 
Well, I’d much rather have a shrunken brain then fall into the fires of hell… 😦
 
This article is in no way sensationalist. it concludes:
This new study is intriguing and important. It makes us think more about the complexity of the relationship between religion and the brain. This field of scholarship, referred to as neurotheology, can greatly advance our understanding of religion, spirituality, and the brain. Continued studies of both the acute and chronic effects of religion on the brain will be highly valuable. For now, we can be certain that religion affects the brain–we just are not certain how.
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Believers have nothing to fear from scientific investigation of religion, except in so far as they fear the development of scientific understanding.
 
farpinho said:
When scientific magazines become uninteresting…

Another article in Scientific American trying to convince people that religion is bad…

It seems obvious to me that the researchers failed miserably to correlate cause and consequence. Yet they admit the cause for the hippocampus shrinking to be stress, they want to blame religion for it…
Click to expand...
Aren’t these the same types of scientists that tell us that masturbation is good for the brain? It is hard to take them seriously anymore. Their naked Materialism and political pandering is sad to watch.
 
Hokomai said:
Believers have nothing to fear from scientific investigation of religion, except in so far as they fear the development of scientific understanding.
Click to expand...
This is, of course, true, but that doesn’t mean that the article practices what it preaches.

The article actually admits that they think the reason their idea comes across as it does is probably due to stress. And yet the headline is “religious experiences shrink part of brain”.

Not only that, the study was conducted on 268 people. Small sample size, anybody?

Even more relevant, here’s a quote from inside the article:
One might ask whether it is possible that people who are more religious suffer greater inherent stress, but that their religion actually helps to protect them somewhat. Religion is frequently cited as an important coping mechanism for dealing with stress.
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Really? You mean religious experiences may NOT shrink part of the brain? Huh. That’s not what the headline told me. :rolleyes:

The article itself is actually fairly interesting; the way it’s presented is sensationalist and atrocious.
 
Hokomai said:
This article is in no way sensationalist. it concludes:

Believers have nothing to fear from scientific investigation of religion, except in so far as they fear the development of scientific understanding.
Click to expand...
So far, I have seen too many posts that claim science has something to say about God and the Bible. It doesn’t, yet so many try to say it does.

peace,
Ed
 
Even if they want to associate stress with religion, the cause of shrinking is most certainly the stress, just like they conducted another research that proved that back pain can shrink the gray matter in the long run. Strong emotional experiences can shrink brain areas, yes. Does it make religion the bad guy? By no means! It would be the same case if they took 256 believers who suffer from back pain, MRI them and conclude “OH! Religion can shrink gray matter!” 😃
 
farpinho said:
When scientific magazines become uninteresting…

Another article in Scientific American trying to convince people that religion is bad…

It seems obvious to me that the researchers failed miserably to correlate cause and consequence. Yet they admit the cause for the hippocampus shrinking to be stress, they want to blame religion for it…
Click to expand...
Yeah, great. What does this mean? I have? owe? diagonosed schizophrenic
 
farpinho said:
I’m sorry but… how is this article related to schizophrenia?
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Sorry but i find it alarming you wouldn’t find the correlation. Were you waiting for Empirical evidence to knock you on your noggin to tell you…Sometimes. We have everything to do on our own not what others think or some scientist to tell us to act on.
 
farpinho said:
When scientific magazines become uninteresting…

Another article in Scientific American trying to convince people that religion is bad…

It seems obvious to me that the researchers failed miserably to correlate cause and consequence. Yet they admit the cause for the hippocampus shrinking to be stress, they want to blame religion for it…
Click to expand...
The study has the usual appearance of scientific legitimacy to it, which means, marginal; however that is not the problem. The authors’ attribution of “stress” as the cause was just plain stupid. Scientist wanna-be’s do that stuff a lot.

More likely the cause is simple atrophication of the hippocampus from disuse. Brain tissue is akin to muscle tissue, and both will atrophy if not used. Likewise, both will grow if stressed.

Those who have had emotionally charged “born again” types of experiences often stop thinking about their beliefs. Of course the hippocampus atrophies. Lots of other parts do as well, but they are were not included in the measurement.

The study does not reflect upon religion itself, but rather upon one’s approach to religion. It is a measure of non-thinking individuals, just as muscle stress tests show the flaccid muscle tone of couch potatoes.

The brain tissue that readers of CAF are engaging by thinking, arguing, and defending their beliefs is strengthened.

Posting on CAF and arguing with guys like me is like eating Wheaties for your brains. (c.f: Matthew 25:14… Parable of Talents.)
 
farpinho said:
When scientific magazines become uninteresting…

Another article in Scientific American trying to convince people that religion is bad…

It seems obvious to me that the researchers failed miserably to correlate cause and consequence. Yet they admit the cause for the hippocampus shrinking to be stress, they want to blame religion for it…
Click to expand...
This magazine is evidently not about science but is only interested in promoting fallacies.
 
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