69
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
69 points (93.7% liked)
Atheism
3984 readers
35 users here now
Community Guide
Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.
Statement of Purpose
- This is a support and conversation community for people who don't believe in gods.
- Superstition hucksters have no reason to subscribe or post here at all.
- If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar.
Acceptable
- Honest questions or conversations.
- Discussions on parenting or advice.
- Struggles, frustrations, coming out.
- Atheist memes. We can have fun!
- News headlines relevant to atheism.
Unacceptable
Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.
- Anything against site rules.
- Illegal and/or NSFW material.
- Troll posts and comments. There will be no attempt to explain what that means.
- Leading questions, agenda pushing, or disingenuous attempts to bait members.
- Personal attacks or flaming.
Inadvisable
- Self promotion or upvote farming.
- Excessive shitposting or off-topic discussion.
Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.
Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.
~ /c/nostupidquestions
If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!
Connect with Atheists
- Matrix: #atheism:envs.net
Help and Support Links
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- The Secular Therapy Project
- Secular Students Alliance
- Black Nonbelievers
- The Clergy Project
- Atheist Alliance International
- Sunday Assembly
- Atheist Ireland
- Atheism UK
- Atheists United
Streaming Media
This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.
- Atheist Debates - Matt Dillahunty
- Rationality Rules
- Friendly Atheist
- Making Sense with Sam Harris
- Cosmic Skeptic
- Genetically Modified Skeptic
- Street Epistemology
- Armored Skeptic
- NonStampCollector
Orgs, Blogs, Zines
- Center for Inquiry
- American Atheists
- Humanists International
- Atheist Republic
- The Brights
- The Angry Atheist
- History for Atheists
- Rationalist International
- Atheist Revolution
- Debunking Christianity
- Godless Mom
- Atheist Freethinkers
Mainstream
Bibliography
Start here...
...proceed here.
- God is Not Great (Hitchens)
- The God Delusion (Dawkins)
- The End of Faith (Harris)
- Why I Am Not a Christian (Russell)
- Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris)
Proselytize Religion
From Reddit
As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I think it's brain structure in general, not necessarily damage. I once contacted one of the people at the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research at the University of Minnesota (the largest academic group to study twins) and asked them if identical twins separated at birth had the same level of religiosity.
They replied in general, yes.
knowing that this leads to areas fraught with serious, serious issues... one could say the twins have similar levels/types of "brain damage". careful treading required.
The nature vs nurture debate is on a scale. While twins might share the same predilection for religiosity due to their genetics, upbringing plays a huge part as well, which is why Squid's researcher is careful to qualify the answer with 'in general'. There's also the concept of neuroplasticity which means damage to the relevant networks does not necessarily doom one to permanent deficits in the associated neural functions. The brain can often recover or adapt post injury.
Considering this, the research is useful in that it allows professionals to predict areas in a patient's behaviour that might need therapies to return to normal, guidance to set expectations, or as an indicator of damage should sudden related and unexplained behaviour changes occur. It ofc also adds to the body of evidence that associates these parts of the brains with various functions.
More to your comment: You're right. This needs to be considered carefully because there is a long troubled history with labels in neuropsychology becoming misnomers and insults. For example the terms 'moron' and 'idiot' used to be an official diagnosis once up on a time.
Hence my saying it's structural. I mean I suppose the brain damage could have happened in the womb because the mother was a substance abuser or something, but I think it's more likely that certain structures in parts of the brain, which can either be natural or caused by brain damage, increase religious fundamentalism.