LINK Are the brains of atheists different to those of religious people? Scientists are trying to find out
I find this subject of the relationship between psychology and neurology and religious belief very interesting, through I'm not qualified in any way. The fact that serious research is being done on this subject is great in my view. I am aware that research findings on this subject vary a great deal.
One key paragraph:
"Together, these studies suggest that atheists have a propensity to engage more in analytical or reflective thinking. If believing in gods is intuitive, then this intuition can be overridden by more careful thinking. This finding certainly raised the possibility that the minds of atheists are simply different from those of believers."
But other studies are not as suggestive.
I know some atheists believe that religion is a purely acquired characteristic from the socialization process. I am far from convinced about this, myself. That's why this is interesting to me.
Also, I don't know if "atheist" here includes anyone who denotes as non-religious, or specifically atheists only.
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Over the many years that MRI's have been around, some people, a very small percentage, have reported see/hearing god.
Experiments have shown that the number of people who react to one is very small, but there. Further looking has brought the thought that believers have a piece of brain that does/does not do /feel something and you are a believer or not. If you have the right neural network, you are open to belief.
Now they used electronic brain wave pattersn plus a GOD HELMUT in experiments to figure this out.
This does not end with that. There are Scientists who developed treatments for depression that involve
Coils kida like those used in a current meter Pick Up (or a metal detector), and they pulse them with very intense fields of magnetism which is helpful. The idea is to try to find a way o/t pills to help people with issues.
On a personal note, years ago I worked with a gent who believed in magnetics as a way to treat backpain. I listened I read, I scoffed.
then a day later I had a cut on a finger. I took two disc magnets maybe 100 gauss each. Place then across my finger over the cut. I thought perhaps the magnets would attract blood to the area, in the capillaries. I taped them onto my gloved hand. few hours later my finger was in way worse pain, so I stopped that. I did not bang it and pain dissipated in 20 minutes or so. I never tried that again.
I do love MRI's so I always say yes, and They did my thigh once, a solid 60 minutes no movement. In a giant magnetic C clamp. It always feels good, no belief boost though.
here is a link for GH
I was thinking of trying to make one, but one needs to know more about what it does, very precisely.
If I did it wrong I could maybe become a Born Again Moron. My old persona might come through and my right hand my try to stab the left side of my brain.
Other experiments seem to nullify the idea.
I say, just smoke weed, or eat the proper catus/mushroom/rye molds
praytothemilkjug
Level 6
Jan 31, 2021
0
Are you suggesting that there is a god (which one, btw) and some lucky people with the right brain wiring are able to see it or hear it?
First as an atheist my view is that some people may be brain wired to believe in supernatural nonsense, including gods, but they simply have a neurological weakness that predisposes them to get feel good chemicals in the brain through such beliefs. Feel good chemicals in the brain is the basis of all addictions, so i understand, though I'm not an expert on this area.
Secondly, it occurs that if there a god (again, which one? ) and only some people could 'sense' that God because their brains were hard wired in some way to do that, wouldn't that be a very strange god to create only some people like this?
Truthfully, the great bulk of people who follow religions just do it out of ritual, identity, social inclusion and habit through socialisation, hardly really believing it, while a few are neurologically dependent on religion and just have to have it. Atheists just don't, and just maybe brain wiring applies here, but it's an evolving field.
Also, the God Helmut thing you referred to is a joke, as I understand it.
@David1955 Hi Dave, I do believe there maybe is a creator god, but the creator could care less. I also think that the observations were real enough and like you, some people can feel the happy juice, their own bodies make. Or They can ingest it.
Personally MRI machines do produce some feelings, physical ones, and I enjoy it.
I tell them, no music and I meditate, Hard to do with the noise level of an MRI machine. To me if this induces in the mind a feeling of godsomeness, it just shows how complicated our brains are. Any why it can get people to fly planes into buildings or elect total shitheads to political office.
I would love to take a ride in a brain bucket, but even the home sized units are not something I will spend money on. I can get similar results if I could meditate every day. 2 times a day. But I no longer can maintain that.
In God we Trust
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There are I think at least three possibles. One, that yes religion is a purely acquired culturally, two that there is a positive need in some people for religion, which is genetic. But the is also the third possibility that religion is acquired, but that some people lack defenses against it, and those defenses could themselves of course be innate, acquired or a combination of both.
Its a complex can of worms. Personally I tend to be with the, purely acquired culturally, group, because of the observation, that there are so many very different religions offering so many different things, and entered in so many ways, that they could not all be answering to the same hard wired needs, or exploiting the same failings.
Unless those needs/ failings are of course only very simple, such as the hard wired inclination to false positives, which has been much written about, and is worth looking up if you are not familiar with it.
Fernapple
Level 9
Jan 19, 2021
1
Good reply. Can of worms indeed. Though I respect my atheist brothers and sisters who feel that religion is an acquired characteristic through socialisation, I rather feel that some people are born predisposed towards religion -- hard wired, if you like --- and some, like myself, are simply not wired to believe in the nonsense of religion. This leaves a large other group neither predisposed for or against religion but lean towards it through cultural conditioning and life experience. My view is that the great bulk of people in religions are like this, and religions need them in order to exist. This is like the third possibility you mentioned. I am not dogmatic about any of this however, and look to see where the science and the research goes on this.
Since believing in Gods is not intuitive, the remaining suppositions are worthless.
Alienbeing
Level 8
Jan 19, 2021
1
Yes - ALL brains are different.
The question is not one of difference, but one of similarity.
Are there specific characteristics that Atheist brains have in common, that indicate those brains are ( a ) closer related to each other than they are (as a group) related to the brains of theists, and ( b ) have demonstrable corellation to perception of reality and critical thinking.
edited to add spaces after I realised that '( b )' WITHOUT the spaces was replaced by a picture of a beer! - > 
ToakReon
Level 8
Jan 19, 2021
1
I had thought that the answer to your question had been found some years ago. It is that the prefrontal cortex of believers' brains was significantly less neurologially active than the brains of sceptics, and that more recent research had come to the same conclusion.
It would seem reasonable from this to call all religious zealots "dumbfucks" (which I often do).
anglophone
Level 9
Jan 19, 2021
2
Well two points: first, there is anything but a consensus about that, and second, how does one explain really really smart people who are religious? At Uni, my closest friend got a Rhodes scholarship and went to Oxford, and was one of smartest people I ever knew, but he was also very religious. However, I always thought he said dumb things when we argued about religion. Maybe religion impairs smart people's brains when they talk about religion, but else-wise function well. One of my (admittedly not very scientific) theories.
@David1955 One often quoted, and possibly mistaken, statistic is that if you removed all atheists from prison and from the American Association from the Advancement of Science, you would get a 0.1% and 97% reduction in both populations respectively. This does not indicate causation, of course, but I would suggest that it does indicate correlation. One of the world's leading geneticists, Francis S. Collins, is both a world class science and a believer, so he would fall into the 3%.
From this, I infer that it is a mistake to conflate being smart with the ability to avoid what is known as "compartmentalised thinking". While Francis S. Collins is undoubtedly smart, he also falls into the trap of compartmentalised thinking as demonstrated by his failure to apply the Scientific Method to the question of the existence of the God of the Bible.
Do not ignore the confounding effect that in many places admitting atheism would get you fired. Pretending to have religion lets you keep your job (or, perhaps, get out of jail).
@Detritus I went to a wedding in NC, I practically was sneared at, certainly looked down on. Those NY License plates ya know. Then I put on my NRA hat. I swear, in seconds I was getting smiles, and women talked to me unbidden. A hottie came over to me and said "I like a man with a nice had" then made other statements that indicated other, more private interests. A couple of people asked me "What Kinda toys ya got?"
So I wear an ankh I made from cow bone. Dumassholes think it is a cross. I usually can not dissuade them from this, so I don' try. If that gets me over the top, it is worth it. Now I just need a MAGA hat.
Maybe I will make a cross or two. Perhaps it and my NRA hat will keep me safe.
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