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This is a confusion between brain activity as measured and as expressed. It is pretty obvious that some people favor right or left brained thinking, or have left or right brain dominant personality characteristics, regardless of the physical activity or connections between the hemispheres. Perhaps we should get away from the term "left brain" or "right brain" as misleading terminology and express it more in terms of cognitive styles such as objective or subjective, but I still think the personality tests are largely valid in spite of that.
It may indeed be that any given individual is simply more aware of and attuned to a particular aspect of their thought processes, negating or wasting or ignoring some of the work the brain actually does. That would make for an interesting study.
Well, I'm a woman and an atheist, but that proves nothing. I'm just an anecdotal sample size of one.
Cannot speculate about anyone else's brain & how they make sense of the world in ways different from how I do.
I just discovered this thread today, so I'm giving it a bump with my thoughts.
I'm a liberal, feminist, atheist woman with a very left brain bias, as my degree in Physics will attest. Even with that being the case, I have to agree with NOTaTHEIST in the observation that women tend to be more emotional (right brained) on average and men tend to be more logical (left brained) in their methods of approaching a question/situation/problem. Not all, but definitely more than a random chance (which would generate an equal number of left brained and right brained men and the same with women). As others have said, that doesn't mean that women are less capable of being rational, or men have fewer emotions, but it does have an effect on the way women and men behave.
Actually, I don't believe women are more emotional than men.
Indeed, is it not men, rather than women, who do the craziest things in certain circumstances?
For example, it is men who are crazy enough to die for their countries or their rulers.
It is men who end up the most passionate about their religion.
It is men who seek the thrills from sports and taking risks and sex.
True. Men seem to be endowed with greater skills than women when it comes to logical analysis, mathematics, space and time, and more able to detach themselves from emotions, but it does not follow from this that men are, in general, less emotionally driven than are women
I do think there are more women atheists who are simply not out because they value their community and because they don't want their children ostracized by playmates.
This is a confusion between brain activity as measured and as expressed. It is pretty obvious that some people favor right or left brained thinking, or have left or right brain dominant personality characteristics, regardless of the physical activity or connections between the hemispheres. Perhaps we should get away from the term "left brain" or "right brain" as misleading terminology and express it more in terms of cognitive styles such as objective or subjective, but I still think the personality tests are largely valid in spite of that.
It may indeed be that any given individual is simply more aware of and attuned to a particular aspect of their thought processes, negating or wasting or ignoring some of the work the brain actually does. That would make for an interesting study.
Your are correct, mordant . . .but it is simpler than mere confusion. It really is myth. This is a typical misuse and misunderstanding of brain research that lay audiences, personality tests and frequently the media have been prone to. This cited study is about using the brain and it has never been alleged that anyone used one side of the brain more than the other. We always use our entire brain. It is the type of processing and functionality that differs in the hemispheres. The terms left-brain dominant and right-brain dominant are pop psych nonsense misrepresenting the differential modes of brain processing . . . NOT dominance or amount of each side used.
I do think there are more women atheists who are simply not out because they value their community and because they don't want their children ostracized by playmates.
This theory has also been debunked several times over already.
This theory has also been debunked several times over already.
You should frequent the atheist board at babycenter. Very few of the women there are out in real life. If you live in the south and you don't want your child to be isolated, you do NOT tell people you are an atheist.
In the Chicago area (suburb), it was NEVER a problem, but we didn't talk about religion because there were Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, etc. in our neighborhood. In our suburb of Houston? My son is considered *evil* by the neighbors and his Hindu ex-wife is being proselytized and goes to church with the neighbors just for the socialization. She still goes to her Hindu events though.
Atheist was never supposed to mean "anti-religion," but it definitely has become that way in a lot of cases.
Most women aren't necessarily up for fighting against something like that and will not be as vocal as their male counterparts. Women in general are not as vocal as men in sociopolitical arena.
I imagine there are plenty of women who are atheist/lean that way. They just aren't shouting about it.
Frankly, that makes more sense to me. If you don't believe in god, why talk about it? Then again, I am a woman.
Atheist was never supposed to mean "anti-religion," but it definitely has become that way in a lot of cases.
Most women aren't necessarily up for fighting against something like that and will not be as vocal as their male counterparts. Women in general are not as vocal as men in sociopolitical arena.
I imagine there are plenty of women who are atheist/lean that way. They just aren't shouting about it.
Frankly, that makes more sense to me. If you don't believe in god, why talk about it? Then again, I am a woman.
For the same reason many of the religious folks feel need to push their views on those that would rather not hear.
I don't know why it's fair game that they can talk about it but we can't. What is worse is that some think that religious lawmakers are allowed to make laws promoting Christianity but atheists have to be silent.
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