religion causes brain damage

[Fuqin]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NA ... 140603.jpg

Hi all long time no chat , ok firstly I realise this may get moved to the philosophy section no worries but im not religious and I was more iterested in a verification of the science here, its very short , and clear but maybe some of you have betyet access to the reality of the claims on this vid cheers michael

[Fuqin]

http://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A% ... rKwpmI&s=1

Ok wrong link hopfuly this one isright

[ronjanec]

Hi Fuqin,

It's great to see you back again and I hope you are doing well!

Sadly, I have been a very religious person for a very long time now, so I guess this means that I must be literally bat sh!t crazy, and that there is no hope for me. I honestly don't feel like a crazy nut or usually act this way, but I guess you can't argue with science right?

Many people believe that "liberalism" is a mental disease that causes brain damage: Do you have any other scientific videos that address this particular issue?

[ronjanec]

http://news.yahoo.com/no-means-no-norwa ... 33003.html This video definitely proves that "liberalism" is a mental disease. "Please don't rape the girls fellas, it's just not right!"

[TheVat]

Not much science here. I'm not religious, but this notion that religion depends mainly on cognitive dissonance seems weak. And I know a lot of Christians who don't believe doubts lead to eternal torment by demons. A few fundy sects still hold with that, but the mainstream seems to believe in a more forgiving deity.

A more accurate thesis might be that dogmatic religions which specifically reject inquiry cause ignorance.

[ronjanec]

Not much science here. I'm not religious, but this notion that religion depends mainly on cognitive dissonance seems weak. And I know a lot of Christians who don't believe doubts lead to eternal torment by demons. A few fundy sects still hold with that, but the mainstream seems to believe in a more forgiving deity.

A more accurate thesis might be that dogmatic religions which specifically reject inquiry cause ignorance.

Actually, I think more religious denominations than you realize believe in a "Hell", but you are correct that the individual believers have a very difficult time accepting this(I personally have a very difficult time accepting this myself)

[Serpent]

Isn't some degree of cognitive dissonance necessary to all civilized activities? Certainly to all ideologies and tribal loyalty. It's not brain damage: it's a transaction. We choose to ignore one aspect of reality in return for what we consider a greater reward. (After all, reality, seen whole and naked, is not all that splendid!)

[Fuqin]

Hmmm thanks guys , great feed back as usual, I knew statistically thate belivers live longer could not work out why there brain sould be in state of deprivation .I don't know of the sthdys mentioned eaither , but I was alarmed when I saw this thanks for ur replies, good to chate again

[Fuqin]

My apologies im usibg my phone so lots of typos , appreciate everyone comment sll good :)

[Serpent]

Big thumbs?
... Or brain damage? There are so many things in industrial/technological society that can cause anomalies in the human electrical and chemical systems - or even more fundamentally, in our chromosomes. There are also a thousand different kinds of psychological influences and stresses that can alter our functioning.

We can't even know what those changes are, since there is no 'natural' model to establish a standard from which to measure degrees of deviation.

Is there a perfect, undamaged human anywhere?

[doogles]

Take some heart in the following critique ronjanec. I’m an atheist, but I won’t support bad science to justify my lack of religious belief.

This thread has been placed in Behavioural Science, so I suppose one is allowed to comment on the ‘science’. The video showed a bloke just 'rabbiting on'. The only ‘science’ in his presentation was a 3-second flash of an article in the background that was titled ‘Religious Factors and Hippocampal Atrophy in Late Life’.

It can be found on this site and the full text is available free http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0017006

I’m always a bit sceptical when I find claims for anything being the cause of anything else. It’s virtually a prime indicator that science may have gone out the window. Nevertheless, a part of the abstract of this states “ ... Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was observed for participants reporting a life-changing religious experience. Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was also observed from baseline to final assessment among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared with Protestants not identifying as born-again. ... The findings of this study indicate that hippocampal atrophy in late life may be uniquely influenced by certain types of religious factors.”

Of the 268 men and women over 58 years old in the study, a group of 19 had ‘no religious affiliation’ at all. I would have thought that these should have constituted the control group, rather than the ‘protestants not identifying as born-again’.

The problem with this study is that the 19 with NO RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION showed a significant (P<0.05) mean decrease of 0.28 mL in left hippocampal volume from baseline to end measurement (Table 2).

They could have concluded that both ‘religious affiliation’ and ‘non-religious affiliation’ are both associated with hippocampal atrophy.

[Serpent]

What? You mean people age?
Then Seventh Day Adventists ought to have the largest decrease, since they live longer than practically any other group, except maybe ascetic Hindus. But then, those two groups may have something in common besides religion.

[Watson]

There are those people that have evidence that my beliefs are wrong. There are other people that have evidence that my beliefs are right. Those people that have evidence my beliefs are wrong, are themselves wrong. Those people that have evidence my beliefs are right, are themselves also wrong, because they are promoting their own belief. My beliefs are of my own soul.

[THEOutcastMIND]

Ya know, I'm concerned that the religious folks are being programmed unknowingly with brain intrainment soft wear. And I believe one definite church it's used at is calvary baptist Costa Mesa ca. And many other places.
I'm also concerned that they impower some of the church folk to go out and use this technology as a means of conversion.
I mean this is unknowingly shaping people's personalitys with scientific method to gane wealth.
Should this be let go or do we try and help? If I was having my head screwed with I'd hope someone helped my ass.