Fundamentalist ideologies act like mental parasites.

I wasn't going to post this but can't help myself (poor impulse control).

It is not accurate to call religious fundamentalism a disease, because that term refers to a pathology that physically attacks the biology of a system. But fundamentalist ideologies can be thought of as mental parasites. A parasite does not usually kill the host it inhabits, as it is critically dependent on it for survival. Instead, it feeds off it and changes its behavior in ways that benefit its own existence. By understanding how fundamentalist ideologies function and are represented in the brain using this analogy, we can begin to understand how to inoculate against them, and potentially, how to rehabilitate someone who has undergone ideological brainwashing—in other words, a reduction in one’s ability to think critically or independently.

In this regard, it is often not the brain that controls the mind, but the memes that compose the mind that control the brain. This is especially the case when the meme is a religion.

www.psychologytoday.com...

This article is based on a recent paper in :

Neuropsychologia is an international interdisciplinary journal devoted to experimental, clinical and theoretical contributions that advance understanding of human cognition and behavior from a neuroscience perspective. Thus, the journal will consider for publication studies that explicitly address functional aspects of the brain and use data to link neural processes with perception, attention and awareness, action and motor control, executive functions and cognitive control, memory, language, and emotion and social cognition. Neuropsychologia has a long tradition of publishing studies on patients with brain lesions. While continuing this tradition, we would like also to strongly encourage submission of papers using other appropriate methodologies.

Good Read. I just read a fiction book "The Genius Plague" that explored a similar concept.

Enjoy.

Your description of a parasite fits a fetus perfectly, robbing energy and nutrients from the mother to form.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Your description of a parasite fits a fetus perfectly, robbing energy and nutrients from the mother to form.

Symbiote - not parasite in the case of the fetus.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Ironically, the article is so stridently subjective in its assumptions and assertions that it literally constitutes its own fundamentalist ideology.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I do agree with the premise.

Now if only someone in academia could expand the concept to point out that Progressivism is a form of cancer then the analogy would be complete.

originally posted by: FyreByrd

originally posted by: rickymouse
Your description of a parasite fits a fetus perfectly, robbing energy and nutrients from the mother to form.

Symbiote - not parasite in the case of the fetus.

Like Teal'c has on Stargate SG1? Yeah, for sure, Pregnant women are not always in control of their mind. I could swear their eyes glow when they eat ice cream when they crave it.

It's funny when the Left pretends that only religious people can be fundamentalist.

a reply to: FyreByrd

How much did you give to charity in 2018?

originally posted by: Carcharadon
It's funny when the Left pretends that only religious people can be fundamentalist.

Not as much funny as sad.

They are incapable of seeing their own hypocrisy

I would have though that mental parasites are fundamentalists, both sides of the argument.

In fact the atheist fundamentalist has become more common than the religious fundamentalist in the West
But is seems more common in society now more than ever, not just religion.
A human condition of I am right and you are wrong, I am smart and you are dumb

a reply to: Raggedyman

Dude, you're distracting from the agenda, stop it.

originally posted by: Majic
a reply to: FyreByrd

Ironically, the article is so stridently subjective in its assumptions and assertions that it literally constitutes its own fundamentalist ideology.

As you say....

Just how is it stridently subjective - it's definition of 'fundamentalism' is not limited to religous fundamentalism. Any ideology can have fundamental adherents.

Political, economic and social ideologies can all have fundamentalists.

It's the 'mindless' adherence to the ideology that, to paraphase, rots the brain.

originally posted by: Carcharadon
It's funny when the Left pretends that only religious people can be fundamentalist.

Nobody here is saying that - only you.

originally posted by: NthOther
a reply to: FyreByrd

How much did you give to charity in 2018?

Quite a bit actually at least $2,500 but I don't keep track because I do it "because it's the moral thing to do" not for a 'tax writeout"

How is your question at all relevent to fundamentalism?

It's the same psychological processes at work that compel a person to pursue conspiracy theories and claims of extraterrestrial visitation.

One of the driving factors that make mysteries (puzzles, stories, novels, movies, etc.) so widely compelling is that the brain receives an increase of endorphins as a product of problem solving. It's a simple way to get a "pleasure fix;" it's an addictive behavior, and many people get hooked.

In the case of fundamentalism and conspiracy theories, confirmation bias also plays a huge role because, as social commentator Frank Zappa wisely pointed out, "People don't know what they like--they like what they know." A person that consumes lots of information supporting a position or case begins to believe it, no matter how unbelievable it may appear to an outsider.

Fascinating stuff.

a reply to: NthOther

How much did you give to charity in 2018?

Not cool... especially in terms of a religious context. Our alms are to be paid in private -- not for the world to see and judge. And for what it's worth, many people pay their alms in deeds... not cash.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Another idiotic article from psychologists. It used to be mostly sociology that promoted cultural marxism but now the psychologists are unloading the same crap full bore. The more social scientists we have the worse it gets. Society is already flooded with degenerates thanks to this nonsense. They should all go back to their funny farms in imbecileland.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
I wasn't going to post this but can't help myself (poor impulse control).

It is not accurate to call religious fundamentalism a disease, because that term refers to a pathology that physically attacks the biology of a system. But fundamentalist ideologies can be thought of as mental parasites.

Now, why don't you throw this fact at the current globalist elite who have OBEYED ISIAH 17:1 Word for word and we will catch your head in a sack as they throw their dogma down your throat.

Out of every single city on this planet the Stupid dumb HUMAN elite have followed the Bible word for word and devastated Damascus to a heap of rubble.

So who are the fundamentalists ? Peasants or the MIC ? Simple Question.

Don't worry, Christian fundamentalists will soon be removed from this hell-hole world via the Rapture and this world can then go to hell. Oh how the Tartarus Repheim reapers are going to have so much fun during those 7 Years Tribulation.

I wanted to post this quote from an article on Ted Talks. The gist is a look at similarities and differences between the revival tent of the past and the TED talk of today.

I post as it clearly shows how any ideology can have a fundamentalist faction.

Those who think the thread is only about 'Christian' factions are hearing/reading what they expect to hear/read and not what is actually stated.

Also the title of the thread is the subtitle of the article. The main title is "How Religious Fundamentalism Hijacks the Brain"

Christian Lundberg, an associate professor of rhetoric at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, argues that the arc of a typical TED talk follows a common pattern in evangelical homiletics.

In the classic arc of an evangelical sermon, the preacher identifies some moment of fallenness in the world, and then appeals to a text or idea that, properly interpreted, can redeem the rupture. I

ts a narrative of discovery; the sermon-giver offers “a nugget of truth that transforms my existence,” as Lundberg puts it.

In an evangelical sermon, that nugget of truth comes from the Bible. I

n something like a TED talk, the nugget usually comes through science or a technical breakthrough. But the basic appeal is the same: here is an idea—here is the Word—that will change your life.

TED, Lundberg argues, is tapping into “this really powerful cultural story about the character of redemption and the redemptive power of ideas.”

www.alternet.org...

originally posted by: TheTruthRocks
It's the same psychological processes at work that compel a person to pursue conspiracy theories and claims of extraterrestrial visitation.

One of the driving factors that make mysteries (puzzles, stories, novels, movies, etc.) so widely compelling is that the brain receives an increase of endorphins as a product of problem solving. It's a simple way to get a "pleasure fix;" it's an addictive behavior, and many people get hooked.

In the case of fundamentalism and conspiracy theories, confirmation bias also plays a huge role because, as social commentator Frank Zappa wisely pointed out, "People don't know what they like--they like what they know." A person that consumes lots of information supporting a position or case begins to believe it, no matter how unbelievable it may appear to an outsider.

Fascinating stuff.

Nicely said and nice Zappa quote.