The article, “Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke Universityrepresents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion. The study, published March 30 in PLoS One, showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus in individuals who identify with specific religious groups as well as those with no religious affiliation. It is a surprising result, given that many prior studies have shown religion to have potentially beneficial effects on brain function, anxiety, and depression.

A number of studies have evaluated the acute effects of religious practices, such as meditation and prayer, on the human brain. A smaller number of studies have evaluated the longer term effects of religion on the brain. Such studies, like the present one, have focused on differences in brain volume or brain function in those people heavily engaged in meditation or spiritual practices compared to those who are not. And an even fewer number of studies have explored the longitudinal effects of doing meditation or spiritual practices by evaluating subjects at two different time points.

In this study, Owen et al. used MRI to measure the volume of the hippocampus, a central structure of the limbic system that is involved in emotion as well as in memory formation. They evaluated the MRIs of 268 men and women aged 58 and over, who were originally recruited for the NeuroCognitive Outcomes of Depression in the Elderly study, but who also answered several questions regarding their religious beliefs and affiliation. The study by Owen et al. is unique in that it focuses specifically on religious individuals compared to non-religious individuals. This study also broke down these individuals into those who are born again or who have had life-changing religious experiences.

The results showed significantly greater hippocampal atrophy in individuals reporting a life-changing religious experience. In addition, they found significantly greater hippocampal atrophy among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared with Protestants not identifying as born-again.

The authors offer the hypothesis that the greater hippocampal atrophy in selected religious groups might be related to stress. They argue that some individuals in the religious minority, or those who struggle with their beliefs, experience higher levels of stress. This causes a release of stress hormones that are known to depress the volume of the hippocampus over time. This might also explain the fact that both non-religious as well as some religious individuals have smaller hippocampal volumes.

This is an interesting hypothesis. Many studies have shown positive effects of religion and spirituality on mental health, but there are also plenty of examples of negative impacts. There is evidence that members of religious groups who are persecuted or in the minority might have markedly greater stress and anxiety as they try to navigate their own society. Other times, a person might perceive God to be punishing them and therefore have significant stress in the face of their religious struggle. Others experience religious struggle because of conflicting ideas with their religious tradition or their family. Even very positive, life-changing experiences might be difficult to incorporate into the individual’s prevailing religious belief system and this can also lead to stress and anxiety. Perceived religious transgressions can cause emotional and psychological anguish. This “religious” and “spiritual pain” can be difficult to distinguish from pure physical pain. And all of these phenomena can have potentially negative effects on the brain.

Thus, Owen and his colleagues certainly pose a plausible hypothesis. They also cite some of the limitations of their findings, such as the small sample size. More importantly, the causal relationship between brain findings and religion is difficult to clearly establish. Is it possible, for example, that those people with smaller hippocampal volumes are more likely to have specific religious attributes, drawing the causal arrow in the other direction? Further, it might be that the factors leading up to the life-changing events are important and not just the experience itself. Since brain atrophy reflects everything that happens to a person up to that point, one cannot definitively conclude that the most intense experience was in fact the thing that resulted in brain atrophy. So there are many potential factors that could lead to the reported results. (It is also somewhat problematic that stress itself did not correlate with hippocampal volumes since this was one of the potential hypotheses proposed by the authors and thus, appears to undercut the conclusions.) One might ask whether it is possible that people who are more religious suffer greater inherent stress, but that their religion actually helps to protect them somewhat. Religion is frequently cited as an important coping mechanism for dealing with stress.

This new study is intriguing and important. It makes us think more about the complexity of the relationship between religion and the brain. This field of scholarship, referred to as neurotheology, can greatly advance our understanding of religion, spirituality, and the brain. Continued studies of both the acute and chronic effects of religion on the brain will be highly valuable. For now, we can be certain that religion affects the brain–we just are not certain how.

Source: Scientific American

The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a veritable who’s who of prominent American religious leaders, is Christian climate change and environmental thinktank.

They have just released Resisting the Green Dragon, A 12 part DVD series that slams the environmental movement. It calls the ‘Green Movement‘ the greatest threat to society and the church.

Watch the ‘Resisting The Green Dragon’ Promo Video:

From the Cornwall Alliance Website:

At a critical moment in the global environmental debate, many of America’s top Christian leaders have joined with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation to produce an explosive new 12-part DVD series, Resisting the Green Dragon, which begins shipping today both in the United States and abroad.  The series sounds the alarm about dangerous environmental extremism and brings a Biblical viewpoint on environmental issues and creation stewardship to evangelical churches, ministries, and schools.

The new video series comes at a time when environmental advocacy groups are frustrated that their top priority for the past two decades—a global treaty to curtail fossil fuel use to fight alleged catastrophic global warming—is losing steam.

Attributing their trouble to politics and public relations campaigns rather than mounting scientific discoveries that undermine their theory, supporters of drastic reductions in carbon emissions recently persuaded the American Geophysical Union to try to revive the message by asking members to speak out in a “rapid response” media effort.

Resisting the Green Dragon is therefore particularly timely because it not only refutes the scientific case for dangerous manmade warming and other “crises,” but also exposes how environmental organizations use sophisticated media campaigns and even seek increased global governance to promote their agenda among policy makers, religious leaders, and youth.

“One of the greatest threats to society and the church today is the multifaceted environmentalist movement,” says Cornwall Alliance founder and national spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner. “There isn’t an aspect of life that it doesn’t seek to force into its own mold.”

Many well-known Christian leaders agree.  Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery joined Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s Richard Land, Concerned Women for America’s Wendy Wright, Home School Legal Defense Association’s Michael Farris, National Religious Broadcasters’ Frank Wright, WallBuilders’ David Barton, and radio talk-show host Janet Parshall in filming introductions and commentary for the 12-part DVD series, which rolled out today.

“Resisting the Green Dragon is the result of Cornwall’s efforts in studying the environmental movement, analyzing its errors and identifying expert speakers who could address them with outstanding authority and grace,” Beisner said. The 12-part DVD series, and bonus 33-minute documentary, unite an impressive array of respected evangelical experts in science, theology, economics, and the environment.  It includes a discussion guide, practical suggestions for small group projects, and other print and broadcast resources.

“Today’s environmentalism isn’t a neutral set of ideas that can be tacked onto the Christian faith without theological compromise,” Beisner said. “Instead, it promotes its own worldview and its own doctrines of God, creation, humanity, sin, and salvation. And those doctrines aren’t Biblical.”

Resisting the Green Dragon is a major, innovative education initiative that helps churches, schools, and other ministries to understand the difference between Biblical creation stewardship and both secular and religious environmentalism.

“It’s important that churches ‘test all things, hold fast what is good,’ as the Apostle Paul put it,” says Beisner. “Some of what goes under the name of ‘creation care,’ even in evangelical circles, is infected by the false worldview and theology of secular and pagan religious environmentalism.”

Even when evangelical “creation care” is not theologically at fault, it often uncritically accepts claims of crisis that aren’t well supported by science, or offers solutions that are more harmful than beneficial. Since 2005, the Cornwall Alliance has warned evangelicals of this concerted, well-funded effort to infiltrate churches. The Resisting the Green Dragon DVD series provides evangelical churches with Biblically accurate resources on creation stewardship.

Watch another 3 minute teaser: