Study: By believing in God, humans suppress analytical areas of brain

Posted by | March 25, 2016 09:19 | Filed under: Religion

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This is why people who otherwise need rational, scientific proof, can believe in the unprovable.

Humans suppress areas of the brain used for analytical thinking and engage the parts responsible for empathy in order to believe in god, research suggests.

They do the opposite when thinking about the physical world, according to the study.

“When there’s a question of faith, from the analytic point of view, it may seem absurd,” said Professor Tony Jack, who led the research.

“But, from what we understand about the brain, the leap of faith to belief in the supernatural amounts to pushing aside the critical/analytical way of thinking to help us achieve greater social and emotional insight .”

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Copyright 2016 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

8 responses to Study: By believing in God, humans suppress analytical areas of brain

  1. DogsRgoodpeople March 25th, 2016 at 10:13

    yeah, I’ve noticed

  2. mistlesuede March 25th, 2016 at 11:27

    I think for some people their faith is the only thing they feel they “know.” I’m not sure how they do that. For those of us who who are more agnostic, we can question everything and not be stuck in one position which is very healthy.
    I always come back to these questions. How did the world start from nothing? If the world was not here, what would there be instead? Thinking about that gives me ooglies.

  3. Dwendt44 March 25th, 2016 at 11:38

    Lots of people are uncomfortable with reality. Faith is a way of escaping from that uncomfortable feeling.

    • Dwendt44 March 25th, 2016 at 11:39

      “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so!”
      Mark Twain

  4. Um Cara March 25th, 2016 at 11:40

    This is why people who otherwise need rational, scientific proof, can believe in the unprovable

    Folks who believe in omnipotent supernatural beings would be irrational to expect natural world ‘proof’. If you are omnipotent, you don’t have to be bothered to show up on any natural world proof.

    I’m not necessarily suggesting it rational to believe in the supernatural, but if a person does, it would definitely be irrational of them to expect natural world proof of an omnipotent critter straddling the two worlds.

  5. jybarz March 25th, 2016 at 12:04

    Exhibit A: GOP/Rightwing Xtians!

  6. Mike March 25th, 2016 at 15:22

    I’m an atheist but there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary…

    Copernicus
    Descartes
    Leibniz
    Newton
    Kepler
    Volta
    Ampere

    And that’s just a couple….there are thousands

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