Study Finds Brain Damage & Religious Fundamentalism Linked.

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This is actually really cool.

All the 119 subjects had traumatic head injury incurred in Vietnam.

It would be more meaningful if we studied religious fundamentalists who haven't had head injuries. And many more subjects. In the thousands.

Of course, head trauma could lead to the inflexibility found in religious fundamentalism. What would have occurred had these subjects not incurred head trauma?

I'm not a lover of religious fundamentalism. I'm an atheist. Religious fundamentalists get on my nerves.

But reading the headlines could lead to a determination by those who don't read the study----that religious fundamentalists invariably have brain damage.

I did contribute.

I contributed my rebuttal.

So it goes.

I'm not knocking the people who "worked so hard" in that research. I laud them for working so hard.

I'm just knocking the potential intimate association between religious fundamentalism and brain damage.

We're going down to their level if we allege brain damage by fundamentalists......we're trying to knock them like they knock us.

We have to be above that.

I think there needs to be more research done but this study isn’t small enough to be mere anecdotal evidence, either.

I’ve been hoping to see studies like this one.

There hasn't, exactly, been an extensive amount of studies pertaining to religious fundamentalism and brain damage.

Yes, it needs to be further studied, but doesn’t it make sense from a logical standpoint?

What makes a seemingly sane and intelligent person believe something that’s so obviously idiotic and who’s so rigid he or she won’t listen to anything else?

That’s not normal behavior.

It’s ironic how religion has been lately. So far it looks like it’s being dominated by people who are using it for divisive reasons.

"These findings indicate that cognitive flexibility and openness are necessary for flexible and adaptive
religious commitment, and that such diversity of religious thought is dependent on dlPFC functionality."

There are approximately 60 Million Evangelical Fundamentalist Christians In the US Who Take 'the Bible'
as the Word of God Literally complete; This study that Finds Brain Damage and Religious Fundamentalism
Offers no Evidence For the Percentage of the General Public Having Brain Damage; as the Study is Restricted
to Brain Damaged Veteran's; It's Worth Noting that one can go to a Military Station and Will Rarely find anyone
Supporting anyone but a Republican For Office; and Most With Rigid Beliefs too; the Military Environment is not
Exactly a Haven for Folks Who are Open Minded And Curious About Life; in Fact, they Seek Rigid Routine and
Order in What they Do in Life; all anecdotal, yes; but i have spent A Quarter of a Century Working With these
Folks in Numbers of Over a Hundred Day-to-Day; Not exactly a Haven for Open-Mindedness for sure; Straight
Line Marching too. They Even Have the Same Frigging 3 Measures for Physical Fitness that haven't changed in Decades.

Jonathan Haidt's Research on Fundamentalist Religious Beliefs of the Moral Conservative Already points
to the Relationship of Open-Mindedness and More Flexible Religious Beliefs; as of course one will see
This Generally Speaking; Conservative Minded Folks who are not Nearly as Open-Minded as other Liberal Leaning Folks.

In other words; i totally Agree that the Personality Trait of Openness to New Experience is a kind of Inoculation
Against Religious Fundamentalism; and this Study basically Confirms Haidt's Work in a Biological Basis for the
Parts of the Brain Involved In whether or not someone is Open Minded or not; as those Parts of the Brain studied
in the Research Linked Provide A Vital Role in one's ability to handle change and be open to New Experience.

There are those who Stay in the Cave and insist on Doing the Same Boring Cave Art in Straight Lines...

And there Still
are others of
Us That Make
All of Life a
Work of
New
And Original
Art Holy And Sacred
In Every New Step of
Dance and Word of Song
Full of Ever Changing Now
Meaning and Purpose Now
And that Tends to Drive
the Folks who Don't
Like Change
and are
not Open
to New Experience
Nuts; seen it Happen;
Informal Personality Studies on this
Web Site Show Traits of Introversion
at about 95 Percent; i am surely not
one Who Does Not Dance or Sing in Life Free;
Religious Fundamentalism Slides off me Like
a Water Fall too; make that Niagra Falls; hehe..

i Recently Read a study that Showed Lower Levels of 'Latent Inhibition'
And Greater Exposure to Environmental Stimulus Coming in Trains the Brain
to Become More Naturally Open Minded to New And Changing Experience; and of
Course that only Makes Sense; literally as such; Sense more Feel More 'See' More and
Expect More in Life; do not and basically as a metaphor; Perhaps no New Dance And Song To Dance And Sing..

This is a Spectrum of Course as Folks Who Receive too much Stimulus; both Sensing and Feeling From the Environment
may Literally go Nuts too; if they do not have enough Reasoning Power in Standard IQ Measures to 'Come Back to Earth';
My Mix of Bi-Polar And Asperger's Syndrome are Balanced Enough Where i will Go Both Ways on a Turn of a Dime; and
Yes Come Back With Relative Free Will Instantly; Not everyone can do this Obviously; i Just learned to Exercise my other
Human potentials after Being Stuck in a Very Rigid Military/Information Technology Environment of Work for a
Quarter of a Century, Overall.

The Bottom Line Here too; is Environment Counts a Whole Lot; one would have to Study Non-Veteran's
to Confirm this Study for the Natural Bias at Play among Military Folks with Generally Speaking 'Red Personalities'
As That Definitely Commonly Shows up in 'Simulated Societies" that Communities Entertain for Leadership Classes,
Community Wide; i participated in such a Leadership Class in 2004; and My Personality Traits were almost in the Center
of the Pie Diagram of Yellow Caution, Red Military Authority, Green Sales, and Blue Arts; Chameleon as they 'Say' And 'Do' too; Just a Nudge this a way or that a way for a Different Color of Lizard or Mammal too; hehe; Thinker, Feeler, Perception,
Judging, Intuition, Sensing, Introvert, Extrovert; Some Folks Will Move All around the Spectrum in Flow of Zen Personality
Changes as an Art too With Relative Free Will to 'Boot it All Up' As Fast as 'The Processor' in Cognitive Executive Functioning of Laser Focus in Flow and Ferrari Style Short Term Working Memory Will Flow in Tandem too..

It's Kind of Like Being In Bed With Everyone and No One too; as Not too many People Can and Will Fit in that many Beds..

In Other Words, in Reality, i Really Have no Where to 'Rest my Head'; And that's Okay, i Like New Stuff; Endless Opportunities now online; This is Just one Stop-off Hitch-Hiking the UniVerse Free; The Meaning of Life Now; Purpose
too; as 42 or 24 are both a Symbol That Can And Will Be Holy And Sacred For What We Co-Create; the Symbols in Essence of Form of Transformation to Be of Who We Are; And Come to Be Now; 24 or 42; Or Any Other Symbol For That Matter;
Infamous Occultist Aleister Crowley Put it this way in his "The Book of the Law": "76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it." See; He left out 42 that is the Key; In Other Words, There is No Limit to Meaning and Purpose; We Co-Create it Differently As We go Now For Real; Ever changing no matter How Fast or Slow Beyond Infinity
As Human Imagination is beyond Discrete Scientific Study.

The Conclusion 'Here' Specifically is; Really, You've met one Human; You've Met one Human; one will Have to Study Many More Humans to gain any other Conclusion that hasn't already been Made per What Jonathan Haidt; And Others already Suggest and that's great; We've Got Greater Confirmation of What is Generally Speaking Already Suggested now; Science for the Win too; Open Minded Folks For the Liberal Stuff; and Closed Minded Folks for the Conservative Stuff; My God Such Common Sense; Who with any Real Life Experience Would Have to Second Guess this for One Moment; Research Money Counts too!..

That's Okay; not too Long ago, i had someone tell me that Friends Shouldn't have to Appreciate or Forgive Each other With Thank You's and Apologies; And they had to do Research to Find Out if You Should Be With someone Who Doesn't Love You; We Live in a Much Different World Now; the Avatar World is not too conducive for Humanity Empathy Matters stuff now.

Life Has Basically Become an online App for Way Too Many Folks Disconnected With 'Real Life'; Lack of Empathy in General Will Destroy the Human Species Sooner than Soon; That's Common Sense too; And That's the Problem Inherent in the 'App Beast of Humanity Now'; Even More Concerning Really than Fundamentalism as at Least 'those Folks' Do Not "Eat Their Own". 'They' Get Along Great; i've Studied Them in Detail Every Frigging First Sunday, 73 Months now at a Southern Baptist Get together on a Southern Baptist Pastor's Farm on Their 'Green Acres'; If You are Part of the "In-Group"; You are Part of 'Warm Chicken Soup'; but of course the Younger Folks are Peering-off Lost in 6-inch Screens; so much to study when we are the Scientist, the Study, and the Guinea Pig already now; Soon, there will be Literally no 'Reference Point back' as change is happening Astronomically for the Human Soul in a Line Some Where else that is neither straight or spiraling; basically chaos out of Order; So Ironically So; So Delicious For the Rest of Nature that is Likely Sick and Tired; And Yes, Literally Dying from Humans Overall Over-Consuming; "Eating the Face of God (Nature)" too as well; Actually Sick; really sick.

A Best Birth Control For Real is When Human Empathy Dies;

Nature Smiles; 'Fundamentalism' Eventually Dies; And Eventually
Us Sooner than soon; give it a Few Hundred Years; Be Careful What We
Wish for; Fundamentalism Gives me Boredom out of the 'Yin Yang'; But it has Always Served the Purpose of Social Bonding Glue that Really Sticks for the 'In-Group' now; Lose that Glue and Things Really Fall Apart; i've studied this in details to the extreme; And Honestly, even though i am not a 'Real Part' of that Chicken Soup it is really Sad to See it slowly Losing all
of its Warm Ingredients; i'm Glad i am among the last perhaps in the Rest of the 'Human Race' to actually Be an
Anthropology Observer and Participate in it; truly it Rivals the 291 Weeks Spent Dancing With Young Adult
Women at the Largest Metro Dance Hall; And Observing Male Reaction to that too; as i have Learned so
much about that Demographic that is both almost too much fun; and concerning too; They have
no idea i have a Pocket Protector, A Pen, and i am doing more than Taking Smiling Selfies with
them on my Smart Phone too; But they Are Surely Lovely And Worth Visiting Over and Over again..

Y'all This is kind of a complicated case; This Larger Cake and Icing of Humanity now; takes a bit more
expansive research to even hope to get a handle on any of it; not the Environment for 'Specialization'
to get a much Bigger View of all of what is involved. And Honestly, if You Become Part of any 'one Group'
You are Basically Lost from the Bigger View. That's Why i get around; do detailed research; and don't come back
for a while as the World is a Big Fascinating Place; the Best of all Eras to Be Super-Open-Minded and that is for sure.

That is really interesting. Perhaps, that is why they cannot understand Evolution.