Study finds atheists have smaller brains than Protestants who never had religious experience!!

Link

The study, which examined the hippocampus region of the brain, found that Protestants who did not have a "born again" experience had significantly more gray matter than either those who reported a life-changing religious experience, Catholics, or unaffiliated older adults.

Wow, does this mean Protestants are smarter than atheists? This study is amazing. It's just as I thought, though. I mean who could believe there's no God anyway?

reply to post by addygrace


Only shame is...they might have "bigger brains" but they fail to use the most basic of logic/reason that they may posses.

reply to post by addygrace


I'm not sure if this is a troll, I'm not even sure if your religious. But I can't wait for the Atheists on ATS to grill the living crap out of you.

Jamie.

reply to post by addygrace


Being religious just makes it easier to control that person.

Its why the U.S. military industrial complex doesn't allow Atheists to join up.

alstefanelli.wordpress.com...

hubpages.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thread the links were pulled from.

Interesting subject.

already a topic on this mate
you have to search

reply to post by addygrace


they gain that extra brain space to store all their quotes and scripture from the bible so they can keep annoying people who have no interest.

seriously, if this is a proper unbiased study then i am stunned it actually makes a difference to brain size.

reply to post by addygrace

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Templeton Foundation, included at least two MRI measurements of the hippocampus region of 268 adults between 1994 and 2005.

You call 20 people a year for 11 years a study???

Pretty small sample lot don't ya think..

BTW, I'm an atheist and my IQ is WAY up there..
Guess I didn't make the cut for their unbiased research..
Maybe they drew their quota from the soup kitchens.

Ah, the dangers of the mainstream media interpreting science and non-scientific readers adding their own conclusions.

More grey matter in the hippocampus region does not equate to having a bigger brain.

Even if it did, a bigger brain does not equate to being smarter.

Also, grey matter in the hippocampus is completely useless in determining which religious view is right.

I'm suspecting a third variable here. As an example: where I grew up, the more 'well-to-do' people tended to be protestants while us regular worker bees were usually catholic. So some people were raised in families that were both protestant and high on the social ladder. They were not smart because they were protestant, but because they grew up in a stimulating environment.

A third variable such as this is in fact pretty probable, considering the finding that born again protestants have no more grey matter in their hippocampi than atheists.

Ergo conclusio: people are NOT smarter than others by sole virtue of being a protestant.

Originally posted by lifeform11
reply to post by addygrace

 

they gain that extra brain space to store all their quotes and scripture from the bible so they can keep annoying people who have no interest.

Nah, do you remember SantaClaus' thread? Atheists more religiously literate than religious people

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

Source

Well if brain size had anything to do with intelligence, this would be interesting... but we have kind of moved on since craniometry eugenics...

Scientific Racism

That may be so, however, new scientific studies across several animal species, including humans, are challenging the notion that brain size alone is a measure of intelligence. Rather, scientists now argue, it is a brain's underlying organization and molecular activity at its synapses (the communication junctions between neurons through which nerve impulses pass) that dictate intelligence.Fact or Fiction: When It Comes to Intelligence, Does Brain Size Matter?

The study does not actually mention the size of Brains of atheists at all. The article does not even mention atheists, so yes this is a trolling thread.

The study, which examined the hippocampus region of the brain, found that Protestants who did not have a "born again" experience had significantly more gray matter than either those who reported a life-changing religious experience, Catholics, or unaffiliated older adults.

Not a mention of atheists having smaller brains anywhere in the article.
www.usatoday.com...

OP I hope your not a born again protestant, because then you really have made yourself look silly.

Stop measuring brains.
Measure deeds.

I'm an agnostic and i have an IQ of 122.... this study they did is absolutely poop

Some protestants may have parts of brain bigger than anyone else. That proves nothing else, tough.

But when comparing IQ and religion, or education and religion, atheists clearly win:

en.wikipedia.org...

religion among scientists

Size is not everything..

Originally posted by Symer

I'm suspecting a third variable here. As an example: where I grew up, the more 'well-to-do' people tended to be protestants while us regular worker bees were usually catholic. So some people were raised in families that were both protestant and high on the social ladder. They were not smart because they were protestant, but because they grew up in a stimulating environment.

I'm still going to research this particular study before commenting on it directly, I just was stimulated to point out the Catholic based ethics system and the Protestant ethics system that some sociologists distinguish.

In traditionally Catholic populations, the underlying idea was that having less is more virtuous than having more, therefore God loves the poor more than the rich. Less material power means more energy channelled into spiritual growth. Living a life in service of community and with self sacrifice is valued.

The Protestants split from that and believed that God blesses the good with material success, therefore the more rich one is, the proof that they are virtuous. Individual merit, and the belief that a community benefits from each individual within it that is successful is the values.

This is often cited as the European vs. American ethical roots, but even within Europe, you can see a split in the way this affects people place in their society.

As someone above mentioned the study doesnt specifically name atheists.

I started a thread on a similar topic some time ago asking for intelligent christians to answer how they felt about contradictions and blatant lies or fabrications in the bible and how it affected their faith.

In my opinion that thread proved that intelligence and a genuine, sincere blind faith are almost mutually exclusive.
99.99999999999% of intelligent religious people dont believe in the mythology of their religion they believe in the MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!

I literally had 1 person reply who I would say was genuinely religious and highly intelligent, the rest were either what I had come to assume from random religious types (idiots) or intelligent and dont get caught up or just plain ignore the stuff that defies logic and common sense.

To be able to believe something that not only defies logic but has been proven to have been written after the fact by people with an agenda is the complete opposite of intelligence.
Maybe having a bigger brain makes it harder for the different sections to talk to each other and alert our conciousness to BS.

reply to post by addygrace


I have a Christian friend who once told me that the moon is a star
Pretty religious he was and still is. he may have changed his opinion about the moon though
..and he was a protestant

Interesting that every single study says atheists are overall more intelligent...guess you don't need large brains for that (assuming the study you quoted is correct).

Atheists more intelligent

I mean, seriously...tons of religious people are clearly uneducated if they claim the earth is only 6,000 years old, or that evolution is wrong, or that a global flood really happened, or that the Genesis account is correct

/end thread

Originally posted by radkrish
reply to post by addygrace

 

I have a Christian friend who once told me that the moon is a star

Pretty religious he was and still is. he may have changed his opinion about the moon though

..and he was a protestant

edit on 29-5-2011 by radkrish because: add

That's nothing. I know a lady down the street that told me the New Testament was written by Jesus, and that the world is only 6000 years old, and anything that goes against her beliefs is the work of Satan. She spends her time alone sitting in a house her husband bought and waiting for her God to come save her.

Atheists and protestants are equally ignorant so what does it matter?