Religious brains more calm in face of anxiety

By Jenny Green, Canwest News ServiceMarch 4, 2009 10:01 PM

The brains of religious people are calmer in the face of error and uncertainty than doubters, Canadian university researchers have found.

“This is the first set of studies connecting individual differences in religious conviction to basic (brain) processes,” say authors Michael Inzlicht and Ian McGregor, psychology professors at the University of Toronto and York University, respectively.

Compared to non-religious subjects, the highly religious had 33 per cent less activity in the anterior cingulated cortex, the part of our brain that regulates anxiety. Those certain of God’s existence had 45 per cent less activity in this region compared to those convinced that there is no God.

The religious people weren’t just calm, they were more accurate.

“The more participants were zealous, the fewer errors they made,” said the paper, Neural Markers of Religious Conviction, published in the March edition of the academic journal Psychological Science.

“We suggest that religious conviction buffers against anxiety by providing meaning,” said the authors.

Ten men and 18 women of various convictions and faiths were asked to rate themselves on a scale of zero to five on questions such as: “I aspire to live according to (certain religious codes)” or “My beliefs are more correct than others.”

In a second test, nine men and 13 women from diverse ethnic backgrounds were asked on a scale of one to five whether God exists. Religious affiliations were not recorded for this test.

In both studies, the subjects then donned skull caps with electrodes to record brain activity, and quickly read words such as “purple” printed in purple ink or “red” printed in red ink. The next test was a little more confusing with “purple” printed in red ink, or “yellow” in blue ink.

Everyone stayed relatively calm for the easy test but the non-religious brain got much more agitated during the more difficult one. The religious people took their time, answered the questions more carefully, and made fewer errors. If they did make a mistake, they took it in stride.

Inzlicht said the team was taken aback by the results, so it tried the experiment repeatedly.

“We’re pretty sure it’s a robust finding, and not just an accident.”

“The anterior cingulated cortex is kind of like a cortical alarm bell. It rings when something’s not right; you’ve made an error. The things that tend to set it off are anxiety inducing, such as error, uncertainty and conflict.

Why do Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs fight each other?

We see that Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus all clash among each other. They have political grievances against each other. They fight for land. They fight for converting the other to one’s faith. They are natural enemies of each other, dividing the human race into warring factions that are perpetually fighting to each other creating holy wars, border territorial disputes, communal conflicts in civil life and now global terrorism.

Why do professional (scientific) denominations like Doctors and Lawyers NOT fight each other?

Why is it that doctors, do not fight lawyers in the manner in which Muslim fight Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. Or for that matter why is it that no professional denominations fight each other as members of different professions. They may still fight against each other, as Muslim doctors may fight against Jewish lawyers, but here we have Muslim fighting Jews and not doctors fighting lawyers.

Why does religion motivate humans to fight other humans, while science motivates people to live with each other and fight the challenges of nature instead of fighting with each other?

This is a profound question, which the authors of this webpage have not encountered anywhere so far. So we make an attempt to answer this question here. An attempt that strikes at the very root of the Quran, the Injil (Bible), the Tureth (Torah), the Bhagvad Geeta, the Guru Granth Sahib, and all other religious texts.

An answer that will be found offensive by the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Sikhs, and all other religious denominations all of which account for nearly 100% of the human species. Since very few humans declare themselves to be atheists, we take it that the nearly the entire human race is religious.
Religion is an emotion which is a dead-end and a roadblock to free-thinking and growth of knowledge.

Although we know that this is far from the truth, and many enlightened folks, have cast off religion, but would not admit to having done so, as that would make them, apostates(ex-Christians), murtads (ex-Muslims), pakhandis (ex-Hindus), tankhaiyas (ex-Sikhs). Such humans would also be targeted for social boycott and in the case of ex-Muslim, targets for assassination and murder by the Muslims. This and this alone accounts for the silence of those who have abjured all religion.

Again while all religions are organized into communities, the atheists are not. Humanist-Atheists are spread disparately across the world, and are found wherever the human spirit of quest has overcome the sub-human instinct of faith - an instinct bred by fear of the unknown and a desire to survive the challenges of life, an instinct that we have inherited from the lower animals.

It is Faith that originates from the human fear of the unknown that gives birth to religion in Man. Religion is an emotion which is a dead-end and a roadblock to free-thinking and growth of knowledge. As against this, Quest gets integrated into a thought process which is an open-ended path and gives birth to knowledge and science.

Why do we have religious fanaticism, but no professional or scientific fanaticism? Why are there fanatic Muslims, fanatic Christians, fanatic Hindus, but no fanatic doctors and fanatic lawyers?

All religions are based on fear of the unknown. While fear of the known can intimidate, like the fear of a stronger bully, fear of the law, etc., the fear of an unknown illusory power that is assumed to exist, can drive the victims of this fear to any paranoia in order to please that assumed illusory power. We find many religious people saying, “We fear nobody but god.” What they are telling you is that they have totally subsumed their existence to that power, in fact to those who represent that power in society - the priests, the Rabbis, Bishops, Cardinals, Popes, Maulavis, Pundits, Gurus of different religions.

With this kind of subsuming of personal human intellectual discretion at the altar of an overpowering fear of an illusory unknown power that is assumed to exist, all human reasoning ends. What remains is an unthinking and mindless desire to do anything to please that power, through the word of Messiahs, Prophets, Avatars, Deities, etc.

Emotion along with Denial of Quest is at the root of religious existence, while Quest is the overpowering instinct at the root of all science which makes us professionals of different denominations. Thinking intellectuals will not fight for no reason, while mindless robotic crowds at the mercy and command of religious preachers can do anything against others.

Hence we find religious people considering theirs to be the only right religion and all others to be on the wrong path, to be either converted or terrorized or even killed.

Why does no profession say that it alone is the right profession and all other professions are wrong.

Why does no profession, say that it alone is the right profession and all other professions are wrong, and that all doctors will have to become lawyers, or else the doctors will kill the lawyers who refuse to become doctors! The answer lies in the fact that while thinking makes people into professionals and scientists, the lack of and the ban on thinking makes people religious, as Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews or whatever else.

Since in the history of evolution of life forms, no species has fought for its own self-destruction as we humans are doing.

This is especially dangerous, since today we have the capability to self-destruct all across this planet, and in the process also destroy all other life forms - birds animals and vegetation!! So it becomes more than necessary to hold back this self-destructive tendency in humans that is bred by religion, and religious fanaticism, of which the most blood-thirsty expression is Islam.

The Jihad, the Crusades and other manifestations of holy wars in the name of religion are examples of the first tendency of grabbing land and resources being made paranoid by the second one based on our fear of the unknown, that drives us into mad acts to serve the cause of our tribe, nation, religion motivated by the desire to do anything and everything for the unknown �power�. So we see Muslims, Christians, Hindus willing to die or kill in the name of religion, with Muslims leading the pack of bloodthirstiness.

When evil geniuses combined these two factors and motivated humans to attack other humans in the name of religion to grab land and to dominate their lives, then human greed, coupled with religion became a major problem, a problem that today threatens to end all life on earth.

How will religions self-destruct?

The actual destruction of religion will begin in the form of next world war with the Christian, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists combining to destroy Islam. Violent form of Islam will be destroyed first of all, but in the process all the other religions too would be weakened and the most fanatic sects among them will be next in the line of fire. Therein lies the opportunity to give all violent, rabid and intolerant religious sects the final push, otherwise these will destroy the human species from this planet.

Save Tibet from Cruel Communists -- Boycott Beijing Olympics

In my opinion Humanity is much more important than just olympic games. So we should be morally courageous enough to stand up against Chinese atrocities in Tibet and save these peace loving followers of Dalai Lama from Cruel Communist rule of China.
The best way is to spread the message of Boycott of Chinese Beijing Olympics & pressurize your governments to do so.
That's how you can show your disapproval of communist aggression against a hapless neighbor.
Also start a movement to boycott Chinese products worldwide...

Dr. Rajesh Bhatia,
California,
USA