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You and I don't share the same perspective. You can remain a supporter of evil souls and I will just laugh at your futile attempts to make excuses to support them. I am so thankful I don't share your perspective.
I can only hope you never serve on a jury case involving a human raping, torturing or killing an innocent human or other animal species that deserved no such treatment.
However I am certain most attorneys that are slimy and don't care who is violated unjustly would love to have you on the jury.
Your perspective fits the title of this thread perfectly.
That you equate my noting the lack of any objective basis for determining "Good", "Bad", "Right", "Wrong"...with being supportive of actions I know to be considered "evil"...shows that you do not get the point I am making.
Of course I do not sanction rape and torture. I go by "GldnRule", after all.
My point is (in line with the OP) that just because some people believe certain things that others don't, does not mean they have a "brain impairment".
For example: In some cultures and societies it is common, and celebrated, for men in their 50s to marry girls in their early teens. Other cultures and societies see that as such a terrible evil that they criminalize it at the highest level. Each culture thinks the other is wrong for believing what they do about it.
Both are steadfast in their opinion relative to what they believe about the matter. They may each determine that there is something wrong with the others brain..because they cannot understand how anyone could believe in the virtue of something that they see as so obviously "wrong" and "bad".
I gave the example of the military to illustrate this dilemma. Society teaches that killing is wrong...but slap the label "war" on it and even mass killing becomes not only acceptable, but a commendable thing to do. The military teaches an alternate view of "killing".
Is this indicative of something wrong with their brain? I would say not...just a differing view of the same behavior in some contexts.
The same with religious teachings. People that embrace some theology, and adopt a belief of what it teaches them, are not brain damaged...they just accept as valid what they are taught by those theological ideas. They even see the tenets of the theology as a objective moral standard. They believe it because that's what they have been taught how it is...not because they have something wrong with their brain.
"A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.
Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group. ...
...These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness."
(Bolding mine.)
This explains quite a bit. I may have to temper my scorn with a little more pity. Many fundies can't help it.
Science is good, specially for practical reasons. I was referring to this study, which is supposed to be scientific. That is complete garbage.
Couldn't you gathered that much from my comment? And you call yourself a writer? You need to spend some time learning to read.
You didn't have to disparage his writing to disagree with what he was saying. Unless your intention was to be a jerk, in which case, by all means continue.
Trout is an amazing writer. But since you have never read his book, you wouldn't know that.
Last edited by geekigurl; 01-11-2019 at 04:02 AM..
and thats the real point. anti-religious far left and theist far right look like they have brain damage. I can't prove it, but by their actions they sure look like it.
people in the middle, I am middle left, may be on opposites of the fence but we are generally leaning on the same fence.
You didn't have to disparage his writing to disagree with what he was saying. Unless your intention was to be a jerk, in which case, by all means continue.
Trout is an amazing writer. But since you have never read his book, you wouldn't know that.
Reading comprehension is seriously lacking. I did not disparage his writing ability, I was talking about his reading ability. I was clearly talking about this study and not of science in general as he made it sound.
Other than a couple of persons who gave me possible feedback on post #8, it is amazing that people can't see how flawed and deceiving this so call study is.
A link between brain damage and religious fundamentalism has now been established by scientists
You might as well just change the underlined part and insert whatever you want: poverty, lack of romance, etc. and still only be able to learn something about brain damaged people, and nothing about religious fundamentalism, poverty, romance, etc.
[snip]...it is amazing that people can't see how flawed and deceiving this so call study is.[indent]A link between brain damage and religious fundamentalism has now been established by scientists
I always encourage people to locate the actual published paper and read it vs. reading an online news and opinion website that discusses a published paper. You almost always find the online news article quote mining the actual study and then adds on their own take...as can be seen in the title of the news article. Do you see the differences between the actual study and the online news opinion?
This study is interesting in that I know a young lady that had experienced traumatic brain injuries from a serious car accident years ago. She was not a religious fundamentalist at the time of the accident...she is now one of the most fundamentalist type religious people I know. Her FB timeline used to be filled with photos and funny snippets and even music. Today it's filled with fundamental christian speak.
Thus the study is not "so called", it's an actual study that tried to predicted that pTBI patients with lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) would exhibit greater fundamentalism, and that this would be modulated by cognitive flexibility and trait openness.
Instead, what they found was that participants with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) lesions have fundamentalist beliefs similar to patients with vmPFC lesions and that the effect of a dlPFC lesion on fundamentalism was significantly mediated by decreased cognitive flexibility and openness. These findings indicate that cognitive flexibility and openness are necessary for flexible and adaptive religious commitment, and that such diversity of religious thought is dependent on dlPFC functionality.
Last edited by Matadora; 01-11-2019 at 11:47 AM..
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