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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Brain Differences Found Between Believers In God And Non-Believers

Belief reduces the ability to self-correct. What good is believing in a God that wants you to be moral when belief in a God disrupts the mechanism needed to know when to change behavior?

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2009) — Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.

Their findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown. But Inzlicht cautions that anxiety is a "double-edged sword" which is at times necessary and helpful.

"Obviously, anxiety can be negative because if you have too much, you're paralyzed with fear," he says. "However, it also serves a very useful function in that it alerts us when we're making mistakes. If you don't experience anxiety when you make an error, what impetus do you have to change or improve your behaviour so you don't make the same mistakes again and again?"
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1 comment:

Gandolf said...

Has a calming effect alright.Crikey

Have you even seen that peaceful zombie type look on some cult members faces?.Family in great sadness can even beg them in ernest to please change their ideas,ideas that might even be boardering on danger like with folks involvement in the joanstown incident.

But the calming effect is just far too calming/numbing.. Not so many are able to be talked out of what they doing.You can even explain you fear for their life!,but they are so calm/zombified thought of death doesnt cause any anxiety.

And how calm does faithful folks have to be, to even allow children to be sacrificed?

Calming effect alright.Freaking brain numbing effect too!