Comments on: Positive belief changes your brain

By: stuffed

stuffed — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:20:29 +0000

Indeed the fact that people are willing to do things which adversely affect their or their family's wellbeing on religious grounds is sheer idiocy. Surely if you care about someone the best thing is to keep them alive – surely you can pray for them later if you are so inclined to be stupid. Praying once while the child is dying and again at the funeral makes it seem a lot like they just wanted the child to go to their particular afterlife. Insane.

By the way Michael how do I get my hands on your book? "Dear John"
I live in Australia, and read the blurb on the net, but can't seem to find it anywhere?

By: Michael Nugent

Michael Nugent — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:43:00 +0000

This fits in well with the findings of positive psychologists in recent years.

Absorption in activities and relationships, and a personal sense of meaning, can all contribute to psychological well-being.

You can trigger these benefits with beliefs that are either religious or non-religious.

By: Michael Nugent

Michael Nugent — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:40:12 +0000

I agree. And the beliefs can continue, despite their usefulness for survival lessening over time.

By: Michael Nugent

Michael Nugent — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:38:18 +0000

That would be an interesting survey.

At one extreme, believing in afterlife rewards can help people to decide to become suicide bombers. Religious beliefs can also help to cause parents to mutilate the genitals of their children, who they presumably love. Recently, an American couple prayed over their dying child instead of calling an ambulance.

If you sincerely believe that the creator of the universe wants you to do something, that must be likely to override whatever ethical concerns you might naturally have about it.

By: stuffed

stuffed — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:11:52 +0000

A belief in general will be positive for mental health as it keeps the persons mind active and fixated on a particular point. I would love to see the differences in the willingness of the person to do something for a particular belief, that is say; incredibly stupid, or life threatening and whether there is a strong difference between ones tendency towards gullibility in beliefs or rational thought. I think I shall go create a survey and find out some statistics. The IQ average IQ of people with certain beliefs would also be something well worth checking out. If we feel comfortable and at one with what we profess I suppose it is advantageous evolutionarily Lorena.

By: Lorena

Lorena — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:36:03 +0000

Great post! It confirms that people's success/failure rate is independent of theistic beliefs. Positive people get good results. Some of them plan, others pray, others meditate, others visualize. The point is that it has to do with the person's attitude toward life, not with anything external.

By: makarios

makarios — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:54:59 +0000

Well, that makes sense. If a belief helps us to survive, then we evolve in such a way a to adopt that belief as truth, regardless of whether it's true or not. This of course includes the belief that God does not exist.