Comments on: Religious fundamentalism linked to brain damage of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:35:36 +0000

Related to this study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22787439

“Patients with vmPFC damage were (1) more credulous to misleading ads; and (2) showed the highest intention to purchase the products in the misleading advertisements, relative to patients with brain damage outside the prefrontal cortex and healthy comparison participants. The pattern of findings was obtained even for ads in which the misleading bent was “corrected” by a disclaimer. The evidence is consistent with our proposal that damage to the vmPFC disrupts a “false tagging mechanism” which normally produces doubt and skepticism for cognitive representations.”

So someone with this type of damage would be more likely to fall for unsubstantiated claims like those of religious extremists or conspiracy theorists.

It doesn’t necessarily work the other way round though. Such beliefs don’t indicate that type of brain damage.

By: Goy

Goy — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 13:35:10 +0000

In hoc signo vinces† As protests sweep the world in response to the video Innocence of Muslims, normative values and the truth became solely what the Religion of Peace dictated them to be. The Innocence of Muslims and the death of cynicism, the video was used as a ruse and a pretext for the violence.

By: John Richardson

John Richardson — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:50:02 +0000

Reading the abstract, I would say it is as full of holes, at least potentially, as a Swiss cheese.

By: Roger Pearse

Roger Pearse — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 06:42:57 +0000

Well that’s good enough for me! The police must now lock up every Christian until they can be “cured”.

Stalin must be laughing in hell to see his favourite lie repeated again.