![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Eav8nqWZl-o\/Tfvxn-gRTgI\/AAAAAAAABjg\/EB6qKWCjbu8\/s1600\/Fullscreen+capture+6182011+12216+AM.bmp.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nThis week\u2019s Religion Dispatches has a rather disappointing rant from Louis A. Ruprecht<\/a>,\u00a0discussing a recent Duke University study<\/a> showing that the brains of \u2018born-again\u2019 Christians tend to atrophy (shrink) faster than others later in life.<\/p>\n Here is how Prof. Ruprecht begins his article:<\/p>\n Scientists are committed to studying almost everything; that is their virtue. Scientists are willing to say almost anything\u2014which is not quite as virtuous.<\/p>\n The latest scientific salvo fired across the bow of religion concerns, of all things, the size of the religious brain. Here\u2019s the storyline as reported in the media:\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cStudy suggests \u2018born again\u2019 believers have smaller brains\u201d (USA Today)<\/p>\n \u201cStudy suggests \u2018born again\u2019 believers have smaller brains\u201d (Beliefnet)\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cBorn-again Christians have smaller brains\u201d (Houston Chronicle)<\/p>\n In fact, that\u2019s a somewhat selective list of stories on the findings of a highly selective study.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Note first of all that scientists aren\u2019t the ones \u201csaying anything\u201d in a non-virtuous fashion. It\u2019s actually the media who have zeroed in on the matter so offensive to Prof. Ruprecht. Now, if this had been a story about media misrepresentation of science, it would be interesting, but instead Ruprecht misplaces his blame and frustration, meandering into a long, illogical anti-science diatribe.<\/p>\n Bracketing the question of who devises studies like this and who funds them, the conclusion the reader is supposed to draw from the headlines is obvious: the evangelically and \u201cborn again\u201d religious are pinheads. Small brain means little intelligence. Which is about as pinheaded a conclusion as one can imagine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read the study<\/a>. There is absolutely no mention of intelligence. Repeat: no mention of intelligence.<\/b>\u00a0It is therefore odd that Ruprecht suggests that these claims (again, NOT made in the article),\u00a0\u201cecho claims made by the now-suspect 19th century science of Phrenology.\u201d<\/p>\n Hmm\u2026 \u201cNow-suspect?\u201d Phrenology isn\u2019t \u201cnow-suspect.\u201d It\u2019s actually more in the realm of batshit pseudoscience (link<\/a>) (link<\/a>) (wiki<\/a>). Anyhow, that\u2019s just one of the many statements that puts Prof. Ruprecht\u2019s so-called article in the realm of ranting diatribe. Surely it couldn\u2019t get worse, right? Wrong!<\/p>\n Naturally, the Nazi pseudo-science of racializing the human head and face dealt a deserved death-blow to such nonsense [phrenology, that is].\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But in studies like this one, Phrenology\u2019s back again in a new form, implying this time that the size of the brain is any indicator of human intelligence. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n What?<\/p>\n So this study not only calls born again Christians pinheads, but it relaunches Phrenology, which led to Nazism in Germany and the second world war and\u2026 oh my god\u2026 Stop!<\/p>\n Did I mention that there is no mention of intelligence<\/b>\u00a0in the study itself? Even the article on beliefnet doesn\u2019t say anything about intelligence. This \u201cimplied\u201d finding is just made up<\/i>\u00a0by Ruprecht himself (perhaps others too, but it clearly<\/i>\u00a0isn\u2019t in the study).<\/p>\n He goes on to note that other studies have found brain growth in long-time Buddhist<\/a> meditators. And thus,\u00a0\u201cIf you\u2019ve got a small brain then you\u2019re more likely to be born again, and if you have a more active brain then you\u2019re more likely to be a Buddhist.\u201d<\/p>\n