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It does not state that all fundamentalists are brain damaged or compromised, however, it did find that "religious fundamentalism is partly the result of a functional impairment in the prefrontal cortex".
One cannot presume that all fundamentalism is because of prefrontal cortex impairment, however, it certainly explains some of it. Many in the study control group still identified as Christian, but the fundamentalist were the more brain damaged ones.
It would be interesting to see if a similar result would occur with Muslims, Jews, Hindus and other religions before drawing a final conclusion.
From the article:
"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."
They also throw in the caveat, that it only explains about 20% of why people become fundamentalists.
"The authors emphasize that cognitive flexibility and openness aren’t the only things that make brains vulnerable to religious fundamentalism. In fact, their analyses showed that these factors only accounted for a fifth of the variation in fundamentalism scores. Uncovering those additional causes, which could be anything from genetic predispositions to social influences, is a future research project that the researchers believe will occupy investigators for many decades to come, given how complex and widespread religious fundamentalism is and will likely continue to be for some time."
One wonders if these Vietnam vets who were compromised also suffered from PTSD, and if that had any affect on their fervency of belief? It seems the study is silent on that.
Is it really so hard to understand how a person's mind can affect their view of God? God is like the ultimate idea that people have about their opinions.
Even atheism is an extreme opinion on the end of the scale.
One side seems crazier, however. But that's all I'm going to reveal on this subject as far as my personal opinion.
I'd be interested to see if there is a difference between people raised in these groups who: stayed, left but didn't deprogram, left and deprogrammed. If a person is born into one of these sects damage wouldn't have an effect on joining but would it cause the same kind of damage as someone who joined as an adult?
I noticed a difference is behavior between joiners and people born in. I always assumed it had something to do with the fact that they had to defend their beliefs against family members not wanting them to join so they had an extra interest in being right.
Is it really so hard to understand how a person's mind can affect their view of God? God is like the ultimate idea that people have about their opinions.
Even atheism is an extreme opinion on the end of the scale.
One side seems crazier, however. But that's all I'm going to reveal on this subject as far as my personal opinion.
God's power is more than sufficient to overcome any problems a person has with their brain, wouldn't you agree, Ozzy?
Is it really so hard to understand how a person's mind can affect their view of God? God is like the ultimate idea that people have about their opinions.
Even atheism is an extreme opinion on the end of the scale.
One side seems crazier, however. But that's all I'm going to reveal on this subject as far as my personal opinion.
Yes, especially the side that refuses not search for as much verifiable truth as possible. Some people for some reason are adverse to rational thought.
Seeing the article finds a significant, but not an absolute, connection between prefrontal cortexes that are compromised, it cross-references to what else we know of its function. Most of us are aware that one of the reasons teen agers and those in their young twenties make irrational decisions that can be harmful to them is because the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until age of 23-25.
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It does not state that all fundamentalists are brain damaged or compromised, however, it did find that "religious fundamentalism is partly the result of a functional impairment in the prefrontal cortex".
....
Already known. And nothing in science is simply black and white. Indeed, previous alcoholism or alcohol binging would cause such damage to the Prefrontal Cortext (PFC).
The prefrontal cortex is heavily important in things like critical thought, abstract thinking, working memory, inhibition, hesitation, doubt, planning, focus, task shifting, etc.
God's power is more than sufficient to overcome any problems a person has with their brain, wouldn't you agree, Ozzy?
Just because people had defined such Omni powers into the God they want to believe in is no reason to suspect that God necessarily has any such powers.
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