Proof that religion = delusion...

[GenesForLife]

Serotonin, the brain chemical crucial to mood and motivation, also shapes personality to make you susceptible to spiritual experiences. A team of Swedish researchers has found that the presence of a receptor that regulates general serotonin activity in the brain correlates with people's capacity for transcendence, the ability to apprehend phenomena that cannot be explained objectively. Scientists have long suspected that serotonin influences spirituality because drugs known to alter serotonin such as LSD also induce mystical experiences. But now they have proof from brain scans linking the capacity for spirituality with a major biological element.
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The concentration of serotonin receptors normally varies markedly among individuals. Those whose brain scans showed the most receptor activity proved on personality tests to have the strongest proclivity to spiritual acceptance.
Reporting in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers see the evidence as contradicting the common belief that religious behavior is determined strictly by environmental and cultural factors. They see a biological underpinning for religiosity, and it is related to the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Research paper here
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/con ... f_ipsecsha

So, religious belief and spirituality are as valid as hallucinations from LSD... all the hallucinating gits

[GenesForLife]

Basically, the 5-HT1A receptors that are responsible for serotonin uptake also interact with LSD, which is what induces hallucinations.

[Feck]

Hooray for LSD then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!wibble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GenesForLife]

Hooray for LSD then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!wibble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now look, religion has the same effects as LSD, if LSD is a banned substance, then...

[Feck]

Hooray for LSD then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!wibble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[charlou]

Reporting in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers see the evidence as contradicting the common belief that religious behavior is determined strictly by environmental and cultural factors.

It could be the other way around, though. People are trained/indoctrinated (encultured) into a mindset that accepts the idea and their brain produces more receptor activity as an integrated biological response to the input.

People can think themselves into temporary 'transcendence' with meditation (which increases serotonin activity), too, and without being superstitious about it.

[GenesForLife]

Reporting in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers see the evidence as contradicting the common belief that religious behavior is determined strictly by environmental and cultural factors.

It could be the other way around, though. People are trained/indoctrinated (encultured) into a mindset that accepts the idea and their brain produces more receptor activity as an integrated biological response to the input.

People can think themselves into temporary 'transcendence' with meditation (which increases serotonin activity), too, and without being superstitious about it.

Still invokes the same biochemical pathway that hallucinogens use...

[charlou]

Oh, no doubt! I was just responding to that particular conclusion of the study, which I think may be wrong.

[charlou]

At the very least, the conclusion seems like an unjustified leap.

[Feck]

God VS Hallucinogens Well that's a Tricky one which one will I choose to replace my missing serotonin with ??????

You can commit genocide singing onward Christian soldiers ........Have you not seen what happened when they gave troops LSD
I think religion is much more like an opiate that any decent 'hallucinogen'
bloody great time to have thisdebate

[GenesForLife]

At the very least, the conclusion seems like an unjustified leap.

The conclusion from the actual research paper is this...

RESULTS: The authors found that the binding potential correlated inversely with scores for self-transcendence, a personality trait covering religious behavior and attitudes. No correlations were found for any of the other six Temperament and Character Inventory dimensions. The self-transcendence dimension consists of three distinct subscales, and further analysis showed that the subscale for spiritual acceptance correlated significantly with binding potential but not with the other two subscales.

CONCLUSIONS: This finding in normal male subjects indicated that the serotonin system may serve as a biological basis for spiritual experiences. The authors speculated that the several-fold variability in 5-HT1A receptor density may explain why people vary greatly in spiritual zeal.

[CJ]

At the very least, the conclusion seems like an unjustified leap.

The conclusion from the actual research paper is this...

RESULTS: The authors found that the binding potential correlated inversely with scores for self-transcendence, a personality trait covering religious behavior and attitudes. No correlations were found for any of the other six Temperament and Character Inventory dimensions. The self-transcendence dimension consists of three distinct subscales, and further analysis showed that the subscale for spiritual acceptance correlated significantly with binding potential but not with the other two subscales.

CONCLUSIONS: This finding in normal male subjects indicated that the serotonin system may serve as a biological basis for spiritual experiences. The authors speculated that the several-fold variability in 5-HT1A receptor density may explain why people vary greatly in spiritual zeal.

In other words God communicates to individuals with this high level of sensitivity. An LSD high simply mimics the communication system used by God. Prove me wrong! No seriously, prove me wrong. This research has inadvertently given delusional theists a mechanism to communicate with God that non-believers don't have. Meditation would simply be another means to activate the 'God Com' communication path. This is not a proof of delusion from the deluded person's point of view, but then again nothing ever could be.

[devogue]

A question - is religious belief by nature actually addictive?

[CJ]

A question - is religious belief by nature actually addictive?

If it's involved with positive serotonin feedback in the brain that would appear a reasonable supposition.

[devogue]

A question - is religious belief by nature actually addictive?

If it's involved with positive serotonin feedback in the brain that would appear a reasonable supposition.

That would explain a lot.

To get more of a rush the belief has to be topped up with even bigger doses until you end up with a Ken Ham habit.

Scary.