SITE NOTICE | MORE..WordPress Widget v1.6! New, CSS-friendly version of the Sermon Browser is now available with further customization. Please note that updating from the previous version will reset all of the saved widget settings. .. click for more info!
Study suggests 'born-again' believers have smaller brains
The study, which examined the hippocampus region of the brain, found that Protestants who did not have a "born again" experience had significantly more gray matter than either those who reported a life-changing religious experience, Catholics, or unaffiliated older adults.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Templeton Foundation, included at least two MRI measurements of the hippocampus region of 268 adults between 1994 and 2005.
It found an association between participants' professed religious affiliation and the physical structure of their brain. Specifically, those identified as Protestant who did not have a religious conversion or born-again experience — more common among their evangelical brethren — had a bigger hippocampus....
1) What Christians are they asking? With so many movements and denominations who are you asking? Seeker-senitive type groups? Or confessionals or groups that support higher learning.
2) Who did they ask for non-Christians? College Professors, businessmen?
3) Should this advise us as Christians to be building our knowledge in a non-prideful way?
4) With many Christians homeschooling their children why isn't their data input from the fact that Homeschoolers generally achiever higher test scores than public schoolers?
5)Remember that Christianity isn't for the smart or foolish, its for the sinful, and we are all sinful, while secularism often tries to convince by saying "If your smart you wouldn't believe that" and people WANT to be smart.
Hilarious! What will religion-haters try to dream up next?! And anyway, when Einstein died and they examined his brain in the autopsy, everyone was quite stunned at how small it was. So, to all the born-again folks out there, take heart...maybe a smaller brain isn't a bad thing. What a ludicrous study.
Wow....now I understand why I lost so much information when I was born again.......Stupid! It is probably because we don't care of so many things of this present evil world....that our mind is just doxuse to be Christ-like.....duh...
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head; for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamity. Psalm141:5
EP wrote: I don't believe that was what Frank said and if you think 9th commandment violations are comical, you might want to rethink why God doesn't think so.
What do you mean my edumacaxion went to nothin'? The problem I have is the size of my head and brain shoot this whole theory right out of the water. I have one of the biggest of both on earth...
Mike wrote: "The study, which examined the hippocampus region of the brain, the hippocampus is a fairly small part of the brain, so the "significantly more gray matter" phrase is bogus. For another, the size of the brain doesn't necessarily imply anything. Some of the whales, dolphins, elephants have larger brains than humans. Maybe they're liberals, too.
Isn't the Hippocamus where the hippopotamuses go to school?
"The study, which examined the hippocampus region of the brain, found that Protestants who did not have a "born again" experience had significantly more gray matter than either those who reported a life-changing religious experience, Catholics, or unaffiliated older adults."
A bit of nonsense here. For one thing, unless I'm mistaken, the hippocampus is a fairly small part of the brain, so the "significantly more gray matter" phrase is bogus. For another, the size of the brain doesn't necessarily imply anything. Some of the whales, dolphins, elephants have larger brains than humans. Maybe they're liberals, too.
I seriously doubt if the size of the human brain makes any difference at all in your level of intelligence. It's what you do with what you have that matters.
SteveR wrote: 1 Corinthians 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 1 Corinthians 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 1 Corinthians 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
I agree fully with the thoughts behind the scriptures you used. If the world doesn't think something is wrong with me, then something is wrong with me. Thanks for your thoughts!
Joe the Protestant wrote: Let's see. People in Christian History that had small brains?: Augastine Anselm Aquinas Bernard Beza Calvin Edwards Farrell John Gill M.L.Jones ..... To mention a few.
And people with large brains: Stalin Mousalini Mao Tse Tung Idi Amin etc.....
Also, whats interesting is that they put born-again Christians and nonbelievers on the same side of the ledger.
So the headline should read: "Christians and atheists have same size brains."
Can't argue with good Darwinian science, I guess.
12
There are a total of 31 user comments displayed | add new comment |
COMMENTS | 
