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Psychopaths Have Brain Structure Abnormality
mmmscience writes "A group of scientists has identified a structure in the brain of psychopaths that is abnormal when compared with controls. The change is found in the uncinate fasciculus, a bridge of white matter that connects the amygdala (emotion/aggression brain region) and the orbitofrontal cortex (decision making region). Interestingly, the greater the abnormality in the region, the more severe the levels of sociopathy in a subject. The results were published as 'Altered connections on the road to psychopathy' in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. A researcher on the team suggests the finding could have considerable implications in the world of criminal justice, where such scans could one day be presented as evidence in a trial." The study's results have not yet been replicated by other researchers.
Heh, sorry to say, but I doubt that very much. There is not one historic example of a society gaining power, or economic progress without said society first rallying around a particular religion. There is certainly no shortage of atheist societies in written history. There is however not a single example of such an atheist society surviving even 50 years. Note also that different belief systems are not eachother's equals. There are but a few religions that grew into huge societies, and even then the ones that did are not equal. Only 3 religions developed any significant understanding of the world, and only 1 of those did not (yet ?) destroy that understanding (that would be Christianity btw, in contrast, especially islam at one point had a very large body of scientific knowledge at it's disposal, but managed to destroy it so completely that but a few leftovers have been found).
It seems, to me at least, that shared belief in a deity is a property of social groups, and a very, very important one.
Religion is not in the genes, it's in the education. And in history it's easily the most important aspect of any society. And religions are not equal, different religions bring different things to a society. Most religions seem to bring mainly destruction. Or perhaps it's just much easier rallying people around a destructive ideology than around a constructive one (one pope remarked that it's amazing how devout some princes became the moment he mentioned the need for fighting. Even defensive fighting. It's a fact of history that said princes had little problem collecting armies).
I wasn't talking about religion. Belief in God is not the same as being part of a religion, and it is important to recognize that.
The parental figure in mammals is a very important one. It is the giver, protector, teacher, and (more importantly) the creator. And we mammals use these figures to explain what we don't know.
Go back 2000 years and there is even more that we didn't know, even with our parental figures. So people resorted to God to try and explain it. Nowadays we relatively know a hell of a lot more than back then. And, lo and behold, people don't resort to God to try and explain things. And even more exemplary, educated societies today generally don't come up with new Gods on a whim.
Despite the power and effect of organised religion on societies, I'm talking about belief in God.