"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.
Religious fundamentalism refers to an ideology that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and discourages progressive thinking about religion and social issues. Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview.
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7 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Damage alone would not explain regions of fundies. That is could explain cases yes, Not whole religions and their herd. One would not need a damaged brain to believe such things. Did those that have converted out of fundie sects get healed? I would think not.
CapriKious
Level 7
Mar 14, 2018
0
Do you have a citation for this study?
I am skeptical that they found actual "damage" to the prefrontal cortex. I think what is more likely to be the case is that these areas are not fully developed or function differently or perhaps are responding to genes expressing differently.
It's established that conservatives and liberals have different thinking styles, different ways of responding to the environment (these terms here are used generically, and the insights apply to both religion and politics). Conservatives are more rigid and protective, liberals more flexible and curious.
I think we risk going off the rails pretty quickly by implying that conservatives are, effectively, brain-damaged. I think how they think is easily and fully explained by operant conditioning. If you're raised in a conservative family / church / cuture / society then certain ways of being are encouraged and others are discouraged. So what ends up happening is that certain mental and emotional characteristics and habits are brought forward and others that are repressed. Conservatism is essentially a repressive / denialist regime, which is why it tends toward authoritarianism.
mordant
Level 8
Mar 13, 2018
1
yes there are 7% of the population that hear voices . some are religious some are fearless psychopaths [ politicians c e o s ] and some are actors and lastly artists. this was an experiment conducted 20 years ago and it all points to an over active front right lobe. so us normals will always have the lunatics running the asylum
markdevenish
Level 7
Mar 13, 2018
0
Here's the abstract: [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Atheopagan
Level 6
Mar 13, 2018
0
Ah, thanks for that. So they are demonstrating association, not cause. Further research would be needed to draw more meaningful conclusions. It sounds like possibly a more fundamentalist mindset COULD be produced with a well-placed brain lesion, but I'm sure there are other mechanisms unless they're going to suggest that entire families and communities have deep brain injuries.
Besides, how did they control for other factors that might have tended to make the persons studied more fundamentalist? How many of these people were born to areligious or religiously liberal families and BECAME fundamentalist? For those who were born into fundamentalism, wouldn't their fundamentalism just reflect the happenstance of the beliefs their family and culture and society marinated them in as children?
Did they look at the overall percentage of people born to fundamentalism who drift away from it by adulthood, vs the percentage of studied people who did so?
Lots of questions here, more than answers.
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