Good evening, folks. Tonight, we delve into the intriguing realm where faith meets neuroscience. Recent research by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht sheds light on how believing in God can act as a shield against anxiety and stress. Through two compelling studies, participants underwent a Stroop task while their brain activity was monitored via electrodes.
The results revealed a fascinating contrast between believers and non-believers. Religious individuals exhibited reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a brain region crucial for regulating behavior in response to anxiety-inducing situations. The more profound their religious conviction, the less their ACC fired up when they made mistakes, leading to fewer errors.
Lead author Inzlicht likened this brain region to a ‘cortical alarm bell,’ indicating error or uncertainty. Religious individuals displayed lower brain activity post-error, suggesting decreased anxiety and stress levels. This calming effect of religious belief was consistent even after factoring in personality traits and cognitive abilities.
Interestingly, religious participants outperformed non-believers on the Stroop task, further emphasizing the positive impact of faith on error processing and performance. While acknowledging the benefits of anxiety as a motivator for change, Inzlicht cautioned against excessive fear-induced paralysis.
In essence, this research highlights how religious belief can offer solace in the face of uncertainty, reducing anxiety and enhancing error processing. It’s a captivating intersection of faith and neuroscience that prompts us to ponder the intricate workings of the human mind. Stay tuned for more intriguing discoveries on Coast to Coast AM.
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Let’s continue into the intriguing realm of faith and a very useful part of faith: stress relief. Can belief in just any faith do the trick? Could belief in, for example, the Flying Spaghetti Monster truly soothe our troubled minds?
This raises a profound query about the nature of belief itself, a contentious divide between atheists and theists. Atheists argue believers are too trusting, while theists claim nonbelievers ignore crucial evidence. Terence Penelhum sheds light on two schools of thought: voluntarist and involuntarist. Voluntarists assert belief is a matter of will, often embraced by theists like Christians. In contrast, involuntarists argue we can’t simply choose our beliefs at will.
What do you think? Can one genuinely adopt a new belief overnight?
Some may, while others cannot. It boils down to the evidence each person accepts to shape their beliefs. Reality, a malleable construct, is perceived through mental models that may not perfectly mirror the world outside. The less our mental map aligns with reality, the more content we might feel, yet also more vulnerable to certain dangers[1][2][3][4][5].
Citations
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6480109/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7821978/
[3] https://www.mentalhelp.net/stress/religious-spiritual-practice-for-stress-reduction/
[4] https://www.brooklane.org/blog/faith-based-stress-reduction
[5] https://psychcentral.com/stress/spirituality-and-stress-relief
7 comments
“Could you, tomorrow, honestly believe something you do not believe today? Could you do that just by talking yourself into it?”
I’ve asked myself that very question many times. I used to be a theist, now I’m not. But could I be if I tried hard enough? Or maybe I still am and don’t realize it, how can I know? It’s so confusing. I’m so good at fooling myself, convincing myself, ect… I would agree that I lean more towards the idea that we can’t just choose our beliefs.
For me, when I ignore any emotional responses, and just stick to evidence/reason/logic/ it becomes rather obvious that I am not a theist. But many theists say to me.. “Well, there’s your problem. You can’t ignore your emotions. That’s how God reveals himself”. Well shoot, why would he go and do a thing like that.
I’ll take the anxiety for now. For me personally, as a theist, God was a nice stress reliever yes. But it was only temporary, and sometimes dangerous because I truly believed God had the power (not me) to fix things, so I didn’t work as hard as I should have. Now, I have to deal with issues head on, or the stress won’t go away. It might be harder, but I just take a nice long bath afterwards. 🙂
Do believers get ripped off more? Try this Atheist meets God cartoon. This explains the origin of Eden:
The story of Moses and the tablets:
There is a balance point somewhere, between trust and fact checking. Overdoing either one can be problematic. Have faith, we are told. Based on what? The older Sumerian stories? Faith is useful, but add discernment too. Otherwise, you might buy a home for way more than it is worth and destroy your credit with a foreclosure.
Think of it this way. Having faith is having the ability to place trust into uncertainty. We can not possibly know all the variables to everything so we must have faith that when we deal with these unknown variables we will be able to survive them(how ever that may be, emotional, physical, etc). Of course we don’t know what we are all capable of so we use faith to make new achievement. I dare you to find me one person without faith in something. And if they argue they have no faith then they still have faith in them selves, or they would not be arguing the point(because they have faith in them self that they can convince you what they are saying is right).
Glad I found your blog. I’ve found a few good tips on your site. I’ll be a regular visitor from now!
Thank you Mr. President. Let me know what I can do to help our country out of the mess it is in.
Cool Blog! I’m Reddit-ing this! 🙂
Great post! I read your other posts as well and I subscribed to your RSS Feed!
Regards,
Mike