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.”
Seven out of ten hippos.
There ya go...
LOL! Best laugh in a long time.
Silly apostates - what will their large brains come up with next.
The chicks.
The chicks.
Awww . . . ya think?
ergo Born-Again brains are more efficient.....
this is a fake interpretation.
The size of the brain does not correlate with intelligence. If that were so, then small petite Asian women would all be stupid, and huge Irishmen would be smart.
Second, it was measuring the elderly, of people over age 58, whose brains tend to shrink with age. This is a loss of connective tissue, but not necessarily of the ability to think.
Third, by measuring only the elderly, it means that some folks have died already.This is especially important since malnutrition and poverty is associated with a smaller brain.
Since religiosity correlates with a healthy lifestyle, perhaps the poor atheists with small brains were underrepresented because they were dead, but the poor religious folk were in the study.
Four, the small number makes it probable that there was a “selection bias”...
Yes, but of course, this is PC science, so it is not only acceptable, it is truth.
Anyone that argues against it will be labeled a “denier,” just like in the AGW debate.
Where can I get my brain measured.
This really concerns me.
And white lacross players are automatically guilty of rape when the accuser is a black harlot.
I wouldn’t send my child to that liberal zoo.
I’m guessing that Neanderthals have larger brains.
and they wonder why people don’t take their word as gospel about global warming.
...and run cooler.
“Reminds me of the researchers of a bygone era who used to study the brain cavities of Negroes and others ~ to draw conclusions”
First thing I thought of also.
Did they also evaluate HOW MUCH of the BRAIN these people USED....as compared to others....we all have a LOT of brain...much of which we do not use...because we don’t CHALLENGE ourselves to....sheesh....this study is idiotic.
feh...
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