#195853 - 12/01/10 11:43 AM
This is Just so true
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ævory
Member
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 9657
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Health
Thinking About God Calms Believers, Stresses Atheists
By Rick Nauert PhD, Senior News Editor
posted: 05 August 2010 04:57 pm ET
Buzz up!
Researchers have determined that thinking about God can help relieve anxiety associated with making mistakes. However, the finding only holds for people who believe in a God.
The researchers measured brain waves for a particular kind of distress response while participants made mistakes on a test.
Those who had been prepared with religious thoughts had a less prominent response to mistakes than those who hadn’t.
“Eighty-five percent of the world has some sort of religious beliefs,” says Michael Inzlicht, who cowrote the study with Alexa Tullett, both at the University of Toronto-Scarborough.
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“I think it behooves us as psychologists to study why people have these beliefs; exploring what functions, if any, they may serve.”
With two experiments, the researchers showed that when people think about religion and God, their brains respond differently—in a way that lets them take setbacks in stride and react with less distress to anxiety-provoking mistakes.
Participants either wrote about religion or did a scrambled word task that included religion and God-related words.
Then the researchers recorded their brain activity as they completed a computerized task—one that was chosen because it has a high rate of errors.
The results showed that when people were primed to think about religion and God, either consciously or unconsciously, brain activity decreases in areas consistent with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC is associated with a number of things, including regulating bodily states of arousal and alerting us when things are going wrong.
Interestingly, atheists reacted differently. When they were unconsciously primed with God-related ideas, their ACC increased its activity. The researchers suggest that for religious people, thinking about God may provide a way of ordering the world and explaining apparently random events and thus reduce their feelings of distress.
In contrast, for atheists, thoughts of God may contradict the meaning systems they embrace and thus cause them more distress.
“Thinking about religion makes you calm under fire. It makes you less distressed when you’ve made an error,” says Inzlicht.
“We think this can help us understand some of the really interesting findings about people who are religious. Although not unequivocal, there is some evidence that religious people live longer and they tend to be happier and healthier.”
Atheists shouldn’t despair, though. “We think this can occur with any meaning system that provides structure and helps people understand their world.” Maybe atheists would do better if they were primed to think about their own beliefs, he says.
The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
http://www.livescience.com/health/thinking-about-god-calms-believers-100805.html
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#195856 - 12/01/10 12:15 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: ævory]
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Deo
Member
Registered: 02/11/08
Posts: 127
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I wonder if I should respond to your posts since you never respond to mine. Anyway...
Thanks for posting. It would be interesting if the tests were carried out with participants of opposing religious viewpoints or from an atheist viewpoint.
Is you statement "this is Just so true" based on your personal experiences with atheists?
Deo
Edited by Deo (12/01/10 12:31 PM)
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#195859 - 12/01/10 01:04 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Deo]
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Greg
Member
Registered: 08/20/05
Posts: 10000
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I wonder if I should respond to your posts since you never respond to mine. Anyway...
she might respond if she can locate an appropriate article to cut and paste.
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#195865 - 12/01/10 02:11 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Greg]
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Paulwa_dup1
Member
Registered: 02/12/05
Posts: 4951
Loc: Washington
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There is nothing wrong with cut and paste if the article reflects your beliefs and explains more clearly than maybe you yourself could speak those ideas. Saves much time doesn't it?So what is wrong with it? And don't say the postershouldposthis/her own thoughts because they have by posting a clearly written synopsis or full explanation of statements that agree with themselves.
You guys are just nitpickers and naysayers for sure!!! :-(
Paul
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#195917 - 12/02/10 08:37 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Paulwa_dup1]
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ævory
Member
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 9657
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thank you, paul. take care.
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#195967 - 12/04/10 01:06 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Paulwa_dup1]
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Deo
Member
Registered: 02/11/08
Posts: 127
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You guys are just nitpickers and naysayers for sure!!! :-(
Paul
Sorry Paul don't understand what you mean. As usual aevory didn't respond. Is she happier than me? Doesn't sound so from her posts.
Deo
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#195968 - 12/04/10 02:10 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Deo]
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Paulwa_dup1
Member
Registered: 02/12/05
Posts: 4951
Loc: Washington
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Just think that you guys don't like that Ronda uses cut and paste to get points across that express her view. Nothing wrong with that in my view and much of Ronda's posts is not cut and paste. Pay attention. Don't know if Ronda is happier than you Deo but she is a searcher and gives it everything she's got. She likes justice and kindness and attacks any who don't show those qualities with appropriate wrath. Ronda has a kind heart and doesn't need the vehemous attacks on her every words.
Paul
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#195969 - 12/04/10 02:30 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Paulwa_dup1]
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Greg
Member
Registered: 08/20/05
Posts: 10000
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There is nothing wrong with cut and paste if the article reflects your beliefs and explains more clearly than maybe you yourself could speak those ideas. Saves much time doesn't it?So what is wrong with it? And don't say the postershouldposthis/her own thoughts because they have by posting a clearly written synopsis or full explanation of statements that agree with themselves.
You guys are just nitpickers and naysayers for sure!!! :-(
Paul
Ronda complains that people don't respond to her posts. Why respond to someone who is just parotting someone else's opinion? It is one thing to cut and paste occasionally to help reenforce your personal point of view. But to do it repeatedly makes her irrelevant to the conversation.
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#195971 - 12/04/10 02:35 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Deo]
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Greg
Member
Registered: 08/20/05
Posts: 10000
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You guys are just nitpickers and naysayers for sure!!! :-(
Paul
Sorry Paul don't understand what you mean. As usual aevory didn't respond. Is she happier than me? Doesn't sound so from her posts. Deo
Deo is correct, this maybe more irritating than the robotic cut and pastes. To engage another poster than just turn your back on the conversation and move on is why generally I don't bother responding to her anymore.
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#195995 - 12/04/10 09:34 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Greg]
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Deo
Member
Registered: 02/11/08
Posts: 127
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Paulwa, I always thank aevory for her posts whether cut and paste or not. I have however never gotten answers to
1. Why she thinks scientists have no ethics or are greedy bastards
2. Why she thinks Darwin couldn't have been very smart
3. Why she thinks believers are unhappy compared to believers
I joined this message board to interact with pwd's like myself and share in diverse opinions, but its no fun when sometimes a fellow poster gives the impression of shouting and not listening. It's very gallant of you to come at her defense. I think of you as a venerable uncle but have never gotten an explanation from you also, of why you link evolution (a natural process like gravity etc) with evil.
Deo
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#196025 - 12/05/10 01:24 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Deo]
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Deo
Member
Registered: 02/11/08
Posts: 127
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Thank you Greg for your posts. It's just that I am so intrigued by this human condition to place people into groups eg. saved and unsaved, believers and unbelievers etc.
While this characteristic may have been important for our survival as a species, it has been the cause of all wars.
Deo
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#196047 - 12/05/10 06:58 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: Deo]
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ævory
Member
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 9657
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Sweet words, Paulwa, thank you.
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#196063 - 12/05/10 07:54 PM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: ævory]
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ghoti
Member
Registered: 04/06/02
Posts: 8469
Loc: Ishpeming, MI 75.128.229.255
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Paulwa, the biggest issue about cutting and pasting entire articles is that it's technically illegal. The copyright law says you can quote short exerpts for the purpose of critique but it should be very limited.
NM only has this to say in the FAQ:
Participants shall not post any material that is likely to cause offence, protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right - without the express permission of the owner of such copyright
so maybe they don't care, but several other websites I post at are very strict about this. Here's an exerpt from one of them:
Copyright
1) As a general rule, users are only allowed to post text and/or images that they own. If you wrote it or you snapped the photo, then you are within the rules. Reposting a cool image from another site that's relevant here is not allowed.
2) Fair use allows limited reposting of others' content, but this is an increasingly grey area in the online world. The US Copyright Office has guidelines, but they are imperfect at best. While many of us were taught that "a paragraph or two" was a reasonable use, there are instances where even this may qualify as copyright infringement depending on the length of the original publication.
3) Because fair use is such a grey area, we would strongly encourage users who wish to refer to material owned by others to post the links to other sites along with their own brief summary of the content they are linking to. If appropriate, you may, as an alternative or addition, quote a sentence or two from the site you are linking to, but this should not exceed one paragraph of copied text.
http://www.thehighroad.org/announcement.php?a=26
Technically both the poster and website could get sued for violating the copyright laws, and it has happened in a few cases. Not that it's likely, but you never know, and we shouldn't encourage people who overdo it.
Edited by ghoti (12/05/10 08:06 PM)
_________________________
Feisty survivors populate this site. Avoid controversies unless you have a very thick skin.
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#196075 - 12/06/10 09:11 AM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: ghoti]
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ævory
Member
Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 9657
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Technically both the poster and website could get sued for violating the copyright laws, and it has happened in a few cases. Not that it's likely, but you never know, and we shouldn't encourage people who overdo it.
You busy busy man. You DO come across as a relatively benign person but truly you are the kiss of death. You are dangerous!
[any Real discussion on religion or politics will further be ignored. This, however, is where I come in]
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#196076 - 12/06/10 09:27 AM
Re: This is Just so true
[Re: ævory]
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Greg
Member
Registered: 08/20/05
Posts: 10000
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better you then me ghotti 
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