Muslim prayer may increase alpha waves in the brain

Last updated on: March 29, 2014 at 8:00 pm By Connor Wood

Connor Wood The religious brain is hot stuff right now. Publications as diverse as Science and Newsweek seem to be gaga about how meditation affects the frontal cortex, how praying soothes the amygdala, or how religious belief affects the psyche. But there’s a catch to all this excitement: nearly all the research focuses on either Christian or Buddhist forms of religious practice. Where are the other religions? A team of researchers from Malaysia recently helped to answer this question by studying how Muslim prayer... Read more

Religious terrorism: an evolutionary explanation

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 7:12 pm By Connor Wood

Connor Wood Interest in the scientific study of religion has surged over the past decade. While this development is positive in many ways, it comes largely for an unfortunate reason – global terrorism, exemplified most clearly by the September 11th attacks of ten years ago. Since many terrorist attacks since then have been committed by hardline Muslim believers, researchers have put extensive effort into elucidating the complex relationship between religion and violent acts. Now, a team of investigators is applying... Read more

Disgusting religion

Last updated on: May 7, 2012 at 2:26 pm By Connor Wood

Connor Wood When you think of the word “religion,” what comes to mind? Candles flickering in darkened chapels, cheerful baptisms, or ancient texts in dead languages? Sure, those images are pretty good. But how about disgusting bodily fluids and revolting lovemaking practices? Some types of Tantra, a variety of Hinduism often associated with the goddess Kali, enjoin practitioners to participate in some of the the most disgusting acts imaginable. And new research suggests that there might be important biological reasons... Read more

God spot in the brain? More like God spots

Last updated on: August 7, 2013 at 4:21 pm By Connor Wood

Nicholas C. DiDonato Neurologists have long wondered whether a particular part of the brain can help explain a person’s experience of God. Stanley Koren and Michael Persinger, for example, famously developed the “God helmet,” a device that stimulated what they called “the God spot” and so induced its wearer to feel the presence of God. (Interestingly enough, the device had little effect on the popular atheist writer Richard Dawkins.) However, neuropsychologists Brick Johnstone and Bret Glass (both University of Missouri)... Read more

The new spiritual soldier

Last updated on: April 21, 2012 at 2:50 pm By Connor Wood

Jonathan Morgan When we picture boot camp, we think of yelling, push-ups, long marches, more yelling and… spiritual training? With the U.S. Army’s new Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, (CSF), spiritual fitness may become just as important as all those push-ups. The army wants motivated, resilient, and morally grounded soldiers, so they’ve paid heed to the research linking spirituality with health. By teaming up with psychologist Kenneth Pargament at Bowling Green State University and the Positive Psychology Center at the University... Read more

Drugs and spirituality in Eastern Europe

Last updated on: April 21, 2012 at 2:51 pm By Connor Wood

Connor Wood In most religious congregations, consuming illegal drugs during the service would result in a less than enthusiastic response from the ecclesiastical leadership. Indeed, survey after survey has shown that religiosity and drug use are reliably negatively correlated – the more religious you are, the less likely you are to do drugs of any kind. But the story may not be so simple. Researchers in Eastern Europe are finding a potential counter-phenomenon: consumers of certain drugs, particularly marijuana and... Read more

Protestants, Catholics, and the fundamental attribution error

Last updated on: August 7, 2013 at 4:22 pm By Guest Contributor

Daniel Ansted The fundamental attribution error, also known as correspondence bias or the attribution effect, is a cognitive bias that unduly favors personality or internally based explanations of behavior over situational or externally based explanations. For example, if someone does poorly on a test you might consider the following explanations: that the person is not intelligent, that she or he did not study adequately, or some other factor based on individual responsibility. However, if you are this person who received... Read more

Ideology and religion

Last updated on: August 7, 2013 at 4:23 pm By Connor Wood

Connor Wood If you watch the news or read the opinion pages, you could be forgiven for thinking that liberals and conservatives are members of completely different species. But why is it that these different groups have such a hard time getting along? A team of scientists from Nebraska thinks that the answer has to do with people’s bodies – specifically, how they’re physiologically predisposed to respond to the good and bad in their environments. The difference between conservatives and... Read more

How much are your sacred values worth?

Last updated on: April 5, 2012 at 4:30 pm By Connor Wood

Connor Wood The best things in life can’t be bought…but everyone has his or her price. The age-old wisdom about values and money can be contradictory. Fortunately, new research from both sides of the Atlantic helps clear things up – scientists using brain scanning technology have found that people will give up some values for money but not others. The values that people won’t sell light up regions of the brain associated with rules, not with utilitarian choices, implying that... Read more

Religion: is it sexist?

Last updated on: August 7, 2013 at 4:24 pm By Nicholas Didonato

Nicholas C. DiDonato For many in the West, religion seems to oppress women. Conservative Christians not uncommonly reject the idea of female clergy, educators, and leaders. While this may (all too) roughly characterize Christianity, the question remains as to whether other religions fare any better. Drawing upon world-wide data, covering most of the world’s religions, Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont) indeed found a correlation between how one views the importance of religion (whichever religion that may be) and one’s attitudes... Read more