Ridiculous Study, Born Again Christians/Catholics

[kantuckyII]

I'm amazed at some of the garbage out there..and let me say too. There IS no other Christian than a "Born Again Christian" Now, that's what Jesus said, Not KantuckyII so you'll have to take it up with him if you care to dispute that. Now, does that mean that only Churches are 'Christians' because they're described as Born Again? No, I believe that there's many Christians who aren't members of these churches who are born again, even if they aren't described as such. Secondly, all Christians are to be evangelical. That's also something Jesus said so again, not me, get mad at someone other than me.

Study suggests 'born-again' believers have smaller brains

DURHAM, N.C. — For decades, mainline Protestants have been beset by bad news: declining numbers, aging membership, waning cultural influence.A new study from Duke University Medical Center, however, gives these Protestants one reason for cheer: they seem to have larger brains than born-again Christians, Roman Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated.

The study, which examined the hippocampus region of the brain, found that Protestants who did not have a "born again" experience had significantly more gray matter than either those who reported a life-changing religious experience, Catholics, or unaffiliated older adults.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Templeton Foundation, included at least two MRI measurements of the hippocampus region of 268 adults between 1994 and 2005.

It found an association between participants' professed religious affiliation and the physical structure of their brain. Specifically, those identified as Protestant who did not have a religious conversion or born-again experience — more common among their evangelical brethren — had a bigger hippocampus.

Amy Owen, a psychologist who did a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke and was the main writer for the study, said she hoped others would try to reproduce the study or offer other reasons for the association.

"There may be more factors responsible for the correlation," she said of the study published on March 30 in "PLoS One," a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication.

Participants, all 58 or older, were initially recruited for a larger study on the effects of depression in the elderly. That study is ongoing. For this study, researchers ruled out depression or lack of social support as reasons for the smaller brain size, or hippocampal atrophy.

The hippocampus is an area buried deep in the brain that helps regulate emotion and memory. Atrophy or shrinkage in this region of the brain has long been linked to mental health problems such as depression, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

So why would born-again Protestants, Catholics and those with no religious affiliation have a smaller hippocampus?

Researchers speculate it may have something to do with the stress of belonging to a minority group. Chronic stress floods the brain with hormones that, over time, may damage the hippocampus.

Sociologists of religion, meanwhile, aren't buying it. They say the researchers' theory flies in the face of U.S. religious demographics. While it's true that evangelicals are a minority, they're a sizable one — 40% of the U.S. population, according to Gallup Polls — and not exactly a stressed-out minority, especially in the South.

"There are probably more born-again Protestants than non-born-again Protestants, and just about as many Catholics as either born-again or non-born- again Protestants," said David Roozen, sociologist of religion at Hartford Seminary.

[wildthingRV]

This catholic's brain just shriveled a little after reading that. Wow. What absolutely drivel! Where do you find this junk? Paranoiacs Daily?

[kantuckyII]

USA Today I think u "may" have heard of it lol

[LucasJackson]

Actually there is plenty of drivel in that publication

[moose]

Our pastor read the article at beginning of services this morning.

None of us could figure out what he was getting at. Sister Mabel was shocked to find out that she even had a hippocampus.

[abuck76]

I think the article is very interesting and thought provoking. This explanation is just part of a larger document, that I have given to you as a reference.

Speaking of Christ, Paul wrote, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature…And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence” (1:15, 18).

Christ is the firstborn “from the dead.” This is a big key to understanding when one is born again. Believe God, and fix this phrase in your mind. This verse states that one’s new birth occurs after death—and involves returning from the dead. Once again, accept what the Bible says, without adding to or subtracting from it. Verse 15 uses the phrase “firstborn of every creature,” thereby adding double emphasis to Paul’s statement—and meaning.

http://www.thercg.org/books/wdbam.html#c
.................... :12224

[kantuckyII]

The scriptures teach that if one isn't born again, they're already dead..spiritually. We possess, a body, a soul and a spirit. We use our body to carry us around, it is already dead in the sense that it's already dying. Our Spirits are with what we commune with God, it is what separates us from the animals, having a spirit. We cannot commune or fellowship with God because we are dead spiritually if we have not been born again.

We only have our souls...if we do not receive Christ, then, we lose our souls too. That is the only possession we have to give, our souls because our body and spirit is dead.

When we are born again, we are born spiritually, our souls aren't lost and we receive a new body one day. If we're not born again, we are dead to God.