Obviously this study was conducted only on people who believe in angels, God, and heaven. I wonder what would happen if it were conducted on atheists? Nothing? Or, what about conducting this experiment on people who are polytheists? Agnostics? It would be interesting to see how conviction of belief might be altered acrossed various belief systems. And...oh no I've gone cross-eyed. 😲
Belief in God Can Be Turned Off Like a Light Switch
by cofty 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
breakfast of champions
Maybe targeting another part of the brain could produce the opposite effect of increased belief in God. -SBF
I believe researchers have done this already, with some success. . .
However, I also recall a video of them trying it on Richard Dawkins -- and it didn't work!
-
Vidiot
Oh God, I can just imagine the gleeful Fox News headline now...
x
..."Liberals Support Medical Breakthrough That Will 'Turn Off' American Christians' Belief in God (Thanks, Obama)"
x
Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck probably have rock-hard chubbies...
-
OneEyedJoe
This raises an interesting question. If something like this could be used on someone without their knowledge would it be unethical to do so in order to, say, get my wife out of the cult? It sounds like this doesn't actually change what people think, it just allows them to think about concepts that would normally be threatening to them. So you're not really changing their thoughts, just helping them to explore their thoughts more effectively. -
Simon
Wait, so I really should keep wearing my tin-foil hat to protect me from the magnetic radiation that the spirits are using?!
Who knew the nutters were right !!
-
cofty
What if you secretly replaced the contents of the tefillin with a magnet?
-
cofty
More seriously if you read the article the effect of manipulating this part of the brain is to reduce resorting to ideological thinking.
So answer SBF's question it would not affect the thinking of a rational person. It would however leave Dinesh D'Souza absolutely speechless.
-
slimboyfat
Define "ideological thinking". If you think materialist conceptions of reality are not ideological you are kidding yourself. By accepting the prevailing ideology of today you are not escaping ideology, but rather swimming in ideology so completely as to be unaware. -
cofty
You can abuse words as much as you like.
Evidence based thinking is not an ideology.
Now go ahead and insert your hackneyed straw man and repeat "scientism" a few times blah blah blah.
-
Xanthippe
The fact that lowering the reaction of part of the brain that responds to perceived threat lessens belief in God confirms what I have thought for many years. That threats of poverty, famine, disease, political tyrants and eventual death have driven the belief in God and the need for religion.
Some assert that religion has only ever been about abusive religious leaders deceiving the masses for monetary gain. Whereas of course this is partly true this evidence suggests people have invented and clung onto religions because of the threatening world they have had to cope with for thousands of years.
Which is also why I don't think we can get rid of religion until people have their basic needs filled. The need for food, safety, medicine, politically stable countries.
