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Real0ne -> RE: Religious People Use More of their Brain than Atheists! (7/18/2017 7:17:57 PM)
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ORIGINAL: MrRodgers
quote:
ORIGINAL: Real0ne
scientific tests however prove the opposite.
Science has not proven the existence of any god. Logic however proves that to imagine a god is to create an emotional crutch for one to lean on...nothing more.
My anti-theism does not render me otherwise defective in any way at all.
Sure does, religious people live 7 - 10 years longer on the average than atheists.
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
I rest my case.
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ORIGINAL: MrRodgers
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ORIGINAL: Real0ne
truly I feel the pain atheists are suffering now that science can prove the greater processing capacity and brain power of religious people. [not]
Atheists do not suffer from or even engage in anything, that's not of the divinity (logic & reason) of their own minds.
Furthermore, science has proven no such thing and if [it] have proven anything, it is that monotheists often suffer from what they diagnose as a religious-based, delusional mental illness, believing mostly in 3 of only history's most recent plagiarisms of the ancient past.
.....and [it] poisons everything.
Of course it has, as I said religious people use more of their brain than atheists the thalmus and frontal lobes light right up far brighter than any atheist can go.
This is not about proving the existence of god, its about proving that religious people use more of their brain than atheists.
that of course leads to a more exhaustive understanding of the abstract principles and the world around them
Current research has not explored the question of existence so
much as it has attempted to differentiate how religion and reli-
gious beliefs affect the brain, both in the short and long term. The
long term studies of spiritual practices such as meditation and
prayer have increasingly shown that the brain does change over
time. Individuals who practice prayer and meditation over many
years have been found to have thicker and more active frontal
lobes than nonpractitioners.
My research group performed one of the frst longitudinal studies
to show that meditation practices actually change the brain over time.
In particular, structures such as the frontal lobe and thalamus were
different over an eight-week period of daily meditation. The thala-
mus is a central structure that helps regulate many brain processes
and also is the primary pathway for sensory perceptions. Some have
even argued that the thalamus is the seat of consciousness. If the
thalamus can be affected by only eight weeks of meditation, one can
imagine what might happen to the brain when a religious individual
participates in services and prayers over many years of a lifetime.
And since the brain functions are changing, the person’s beliefs and
behaviors are also changing. The brain changes reported to be associ-
ated with religious and spiritual practices hint at how they also re-
duce anxiety and depression while enhancing compassion and love.
Most individuals also relate religious beliefs and practices to better
coping during stressful life events, and improved relationships.
In addition to brain studies, there are many other ways to invoke
scientifc methods in the context of Jewish thought. For example, as
mentioned above, the defnition of God is quite complex. However,
it would be fascinating to do either a formal or informal evaluation
of the beliefs Jewish people actually hold about God. It would be fas-
cinating if most Jewish people were found to hold beliefs about God
that are antithetical to primary Jewish teaching. Or perhaps it would
be interesting to determine how similar beliefs about God are across
Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist Jews.
revealed some interesting fndings. For example, approximately 20
percent showed God in an anthropomorphic way, such as a person
or face. Approximately 33 percent drew a natural scene such as a
forest or mountain with the sun in the sky, or perhaps a picture of
the galaxy. Still another third drew something abstract with circles,
hearts, or swirling patterns. These results show that only approxi-
mately 20 percent of our sample actually conceived of God in some
type of humanized form. Most viewed God as a spiritual or abstract
essence of the universe. Interestingly, about 15 percent of the pages
we handed out were returned with nothing drawn. But these blank
pages did contain descriptions of why they were left blank. For the
atheists, they left it blank because they did not believe God existed,
so there was nothing to draw. On the other hand, some religious
people stated that God was “undrawable” and so they left it blank.
In much the same way that the name of God is represented as the
Tetragrammaton—YHVH—in Judaism, God sometimes cannot even
be conceived in any kind of human mental process.
In conclusion, there are many ways of utilizing neurotheology
in the context of Jewish thought and practice. The examples and
ideas I have expressed here are only to give a very limited ex-
ample of the possibilities. There are so many elements of Judaism
for which neurotheology might provide a new perspective. The
data support the power of various types of religious and spiritual
practices. Neurotheology also helps show that concepts of God,
religion, and spirituality have a substantial impact on the function-
ing of the brain. And the brain’s abilities and functions affect the
way we think about God, religion, and spirituality. Hopefully, neu-
rotheology can provide an important nexus for bringing together
the best of what science has to offer with the ancient wisdom of the
Jewish tradition.
https://andrewnewberg.squarespace.com/s/how-god-changes-your-brain.pdf
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