Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Brain differences between Theists and Atheists

braisler · 03-05-2009, 11:17 AM

I'm not sure that I see your point, Willravel. The last sentence of your post seems to indicate that you find this study to the counter of absolute and certain belief in god. It is quite the opposite. The tone of the article suggests that people of faith have lower anxiety about making decisions that that this benefit is arrive at through their faith.

On the original article, I wish that I knew more about the kind of testing they were doing. As BG pointed out, they do seem to reach the conclusion that people of faith actually did better on the test, fewer errors, in addition to having lower ACC levels, less anxiety. I guess I'll have to go RTFA... or is that RTFJA in this case.

---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

Ok, I've read the article. It is an interesting read even though it is well outside my field. The Stroop test they are referring to in the article is something I encountered playing Brain Age on my wife's Nintendo DS. Seriously! A word for a color is presented in either the same color as it actually is, like this: red, or other than what the word actually is, like this: green. The test is to see whether you can correctly name the color of the word rather than just reading the word. A further explanation and an example test can be found here Stroop Test

Having read the article, I now understand better what the authors were referring to when they discussed an improved score on the test being positively correlated with religious belief. The believers tended to answer more slowly, and more correctly than the non-believers. Likely to be a side-effect of the lower anxiety. The test interval was timed, and all participants answered within the required amount of time. Believers just tended to answer more slowly within that time frame than non-believers.

The authors of the paper also held forth that, "Strong convictions of all kinds, then, may lower anxiety and uncertainty and their attendant brain activity." So my earlier allusion to belief in SkyNet, which was meant as an offhand jest, might not be so far off the mark either.

03-05-2009, 11:17 AM	#6 (permalink)
braisler Addict Location: Midway, KY	I'm not sure that I see your point, Willravel. The last sentence of your post seems to indicate that you find this study to the counter of absolute and certain belief in god. It is quite the opposite. The tone of the article suggests that people of faith have lower anxiety about making decisions that that this benefit is arrive at through their faith. On the original article, I wish that I knew more about the kind of testing they were doing. As BG pointed out, they do seem to reach the conclusion that people of faith actually did better on the test, fewer errors, in addition to having lower ACC levels, less anxiety. I guess I'll have to go RTFA... or is that RTFJA in this case. ---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ---------- Ok, I've read the article. It is an interesting read even though it is well outside my field. The Stroop test they are referring to in the article is something I encountered playing Brain Age on my wife's Nintendo DS. Seriously! A word for a color is presented in either the same color as it actually is, like this: red, or other than what the word actually is, like this: green. The test is to see whether you can correctly name the color of the word rather than just reading the word. A further explanation and an example test can be found here Stroop Test Having read the article, I now understand better what the authors were referring to when they discussed an improved score on the test being positively correlated with religious belief. The believers tended to answer more slowly, and more correctly than the non-believers. Likely to be a side-effect of the lower anxiety. The test interval was timed, and all participants answered within the required amount of time. Believers just tended to answer more slowly within that time frame than non-believers. The authors of the paper also held forth that, "Strong convictions of all kinds, then, may lower anxiety and uncertainty and their attendant brain activity." So my earlier allusion to belief in SkyNet, which was meant as an offhand jest, might not be so far off the mark either.