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Religion Is Good For Your Brain
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Sheila M. Elred writes in Discovery Magazine that a recent study has found that people at risk of depression were much less vulnerable if they identified as religious. Brain MRIs revealed that religious participants had thicker brain cortices than those who weren't as religious. 'One of the worst killers of brain cells is stress,' says Dr. Majid Fotuhi. 'Stress causes high levels of cortisol, and cortisol is toxic to the hippocampus. One way to reduce stress is through prayer. When you're praying and in the zone you feel a peace of mind and tranquility.' The reports concluded that a thicker cortex associated with a high importance of religion or spirituality may confer resilience to the development of depressive illness in individuals at high familial risk for major depression. The social element of attending religious services has also been linked to healthy brains. 'There's something magical about socializing,' says Fotuhi. 'It releases endorphins in the brain. It's hard to know whether it's through religion or a gathering of friends, but it improves brain health in the long term.'" (Read more, below.)
"Listening to sermons and reading religious works like the Bible may also invoke a cognitive benefit. "You're exercising your higher cortical function, thinking about complex concepts that require some imagination," says Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at Duke University and a professor of psychiatry. According to Koenig the benefits of devout religious practice, particularly involvement in a faith community and religious commitment, are that people cope better. "In general, they cope with stress better, they experience greater well-being because they have more hope, they're more optimistic, they experience less depression, less anxiety, and they commit suicide less often. They don't drink alcohol as much, they don't use drugs as much, they don't smoke cigarettes as much, and they have healthier lifestyles. They have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, probably better cardiovascular functioning, and probably a healthier hormonal environment physiologically—particularly with respect to cortisol and adrenaline And they live longer." So where does that leave non-believers? "Out of luck, I guess," Koenig jokes. "Actually, I would suspect that people doing the types of things like religious people do — socializing, doing similarly complex cognitive tasks, would have similar benefits. But it is interesting that religion provides that whole package of things that people can adopt and pursue over time." Dr Dan Blazer says the study is very interesting but is still exploratory and that spirituality may be a marker of something else, such as socioeconomic status. "It's hard to study these things," concludes Fotuhi . "It's why research has stayed away from them. But there does seem to be a strong link between spirituality and better brain health.""
'“My personal belief is that having a strong belief is key to getting the benefits,” - a conclusion starting "my personal belief.." renders the study biased
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
It's clear you have no understanding of religion. Everyone likes to focus on the nutcases running around foaming at the mouth. Any group has a percentage of these people who are unhinged. Many people who attend church do not, in my opinion, truly believe in a God. Many are there for the social aspects of it. A lot of people are there because it feels good to be around people of a like moral perspective. They like performing charitable works and helping others. It's a community. I've been to lots of churches and every single one of them had a different focus. Some are no more than glorified country clubs. The best ones though are the ones that have a strong faith that focuses on the soul. Not the ranting on and hatred of sinners but the love of others and the searching of ones own heart. Silly to you it may be but I know I've seen amazing changes in the lives of people for the better.
Lisa Miller have a spiritual agenda.
Here is her TEDx talk about love and stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Also this study is in contradiction with this study:
Being Religious or Spiritual Is Linked With Getting More Depressed
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.u...
From Lisa Miller:
http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.co...
"We previously reported a 90% decreased risk in major depression, assessed prospectively, in adult offspring of depressed probands who reported that religion or spirituality was highly important to them."
From Being Religious or Spiritual Is Linked With Getting More Depressed
"A key finding of the study, conducted in several different counties, is that a spiritual life view predisposed to major depression, especially significantly in the UK, where spiritual participants were nearly three times more likely to experience an episode of depression than the secular group."
Lisa Miller have first to explain this contradiction. Maybe some people get cortical thickness from religion, and some don't. I don't have access to Lisa's article.
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
...when it is religion itself that is causing you stress?
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
her "charity" work consisted of gaining a fortune for her order, depriving people of pain medicine (she believed suffering made you closer to the sky fairy)
But for her when she had health problems, amazingly she went and got the best health care.
But for all the people she supposedly help all she did was give them a painful death.
If there was any "Sky fairy" she would have been damned to hell forever.
Not to invoke an argument, but the TFA talks about listening to sermons and reading the bible.
No. Here is what it says.
"Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at Duke University and a professor of psychiatry"... author of "The Healing Power of Faith", "Faith and Mental Health"... "Listening to sermons and reading religious works like the Bible may also invoke a cognitive benefit, Koenig said."
I.e. Faith guy says maybe faith good for brain.
Also, that Discovery article is crap.
That "One recent study, published in December of 2013 in JAMA Psychiatry" - no it wasn't.
And which study does this sentence refer to? The supposed December 2013 JAMA one (actually published in February 2014) or the 2011 one?
And while a 2011 study found a shrinking of the hippocampus among people of certain religions, Koenig, a co-author of the study, points out that no one has replicated that work yet.
Cause, it either says that Koenig is a co-author of the JAMA study (which he isn't, but which is no made clear anywhere in the article which doesn't even name the study it discusses) and he disagrees with the data from the 2011 study...
OR, he is a co-author of 2011 study (which he was) which says that certain religious people have a shrinking hippocampus.
With which he disagrees as well, pointing out "no one has replicated that work yet".
Koenig is essentially saying "Fuck my study which shows how religion may actually be bad for your brain. Don't look at it. Nothing to see there. Not replicated. Bad study. Bad!"
Also, everything Koenig and that other guy who had nothing to do with the study (he apparently has not even read it) but they asked him to comment on it anyway, Dr. Majid Fotuhi, said about the social effect... pure bullshit.
From the actual study:
Importance of religion or spirituality, but not frequency of attendance, was associated with thicker cortices in the left and right parietal and occipital regions, the mesial frontal lobe of the right hemisphere, and the cuneus and precuneus in the left hemisphere, independent of familial risk.
Going to church does not matter. How much you THINK that religion or spirituality matter to you matters.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Religion is better for your brain... if your brain is broken in particular ways.
Religion is not better for your brain, if your brain is not broken in those particular ways.
'Nuff said.
The point isn't just prayer/meditation. It's that religion combines a half dozen or so different
activities together that are good for your health. There are currently no non-religious avenues
that I know of that provide the complete package like religions do. Yes, you can meditate,
take philosophy classes, join a book club, try to find like minded people, start a supper club,
make a pact with people to take care of each other when sick, etc... but it's alot more work than
to just "accept" a religion and they do all the work for you. I know plenty of "non-religious"
people that are members of church just for the social and other benefits. There are even books
and articles written about the many benefits an atheist gets "for free" by joining a church.
I also know people who joined a church for the social and latter got sucked into the doctrine
or joined the church because "it was the first place I felt like I really belonged" People also
join gangs for the same reason but the point is, that sense of belonging is an important part
of the human psyche and is why many people are drawn to and stay with religion even if they
don't believe it.
I'm an atheist myself, but if you don't think there are real benefits from the community and support involved in group religious participation you're just as deluded as they are. My parents are involved with their church and I see a lot of benefits that they gain from it, in addition to the sense of hope and protection their "delusional" beliefs bring (which provide some value as well, regardless of their truth).
They have a community of people they've gotten to know fairly well over the years, some of whom they have become good friends with. They take part in numerous "extra-curricular" activities made available to them such as softball leagues, YMCA outings, book clubs, etc. One summer when there was lots of flooding a bunch of them helped put sandbags around people's houses. When I was moving apartments and had a 3-day gap between move-out and move-in, someone from their church let us borrow a large trailer for the week so we wouldn't have to rent a U-haul and deal with unloading it just to load it back up in a couple days.
Then there's the fact that they regularly get together with their fellow church-goers with the express intent of discussing deep topics. Things getting to the core of what makes them who they are. What the purpose of life is. Why things are they the way they are. Discussions of right and wrong. Although I really wish those discussions wouldn't be limited to biblical analysis and based off what I see as extremely flawed premises, at least they're discussing these significant topics. And even if they aren't discovering fundamental truths, there are big emotional and cognitive benefits to just having those discussions.
I really wish there were similar groups for the non-religious. Where we could meet weekly to discuss philosophy and the state of our existence. Get to know a group of people at a deep level, where it's encouraged to discuss our feelings, hopes, fears, and beliefs to get support and feedback. A community that will help each other out in hard times, and organize fun events for good times.
Because people can't live apart from society, and a society is is its myths. Or, as Baelish put it: "Do you know what the realm is? It's the thousand blades of Aegon's enemies, a story we agree to tell each other over and over until we forget that it's a lie." Myths are the reality people live in, "objective reality" is just the scenery.
And it's not "so much" of the population, it's every single human being who has ever existed. The current financial crisis is no more tangible, objective reality than Zeus was. The European Union is a system of interlocking myths, just like United States is. Democracy is a mythic system, monarchy was one, and priest-kings ruled by it. Everything in you that isn't harwired instinct is a myth, either instilled from outside or invented by you, constantly interpreting reality for you and making you see things which aren't really there - family, nation, corporation, law, etc. Remove those, and all that's left is "Chaos, a gaping pit, waiting to swallow us all."
So the relevant questions are not whether a particular myth is "real" (consistent with the metaphysical structure of physical reality, which is generally impossible to know at this time), but whether it is whether it's "true" (let's you accurately predict the consequences of various social actions) and "useful" (is likely to inspire people to productivity rather than murder, altough this obviously depends on your viewpoint and goals). That's why everyone should study various religions, specifically the structure of their mythology and its practical results. Mythology is the social equivalent of fundamental physics, it makes up our reality, and we either master it or it continues to master us.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.