Website review: Neuroscience and Fundamenta...
laodan discovered this in Science/Tech
•7 reviews since Oct 1, 2007
science
•tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/neurosc...
People who like this website
- quinnsight
California
- dancingmangoe
Wisconsin
- laodan
Wisconsin
- hacool
Cleveland
- lbdumont
Monroeville
- Clax
Galway
- FigBoy
Ireland
- Fatgadget
Wales
- Bunty
Stirling
- Grnasher
England
StumbleUpon is the best way to discover great web sites, videos, photos, blogs and more - based on your interests.
Everything is submitted and rated by the community. Discover, share and review the best of the web!
Reviews of this website
laodan discovered 8 months ago- Neuroscience and Fundamentalism via Arts&Letters, in Tikkun by Kenneth M.Heilman and Russell S. Donda
Adherence begets consistency or stability; questioning, searching, and discovering innovative alternatives, which is creativity, leads to change. ... Certainly, human acts of consistency or creativity require a highly elaborate and functional brain. ... The implication that adherence behavior could involve a more primitive or phylogenetically older portion of the brain should not be an altogether startling notion. ... Could this same logic begin to offer some insight into why, today, some people seem unwilling to break free from certain beliefs or ideologies which are contrary to sound science, or worse, lead to terrible acts of inhumanity? Especially when those beliefs stem from an unconditional adherence to religious fundamentalism? ... ... how is it that one person can find it utterly intolerable to believe anything other than a given interpretation of religious doctrine, while another appears comfortable with adding his or her own meaning to the same literature? ... ... unqualified disdain for divergent beliefs,for personal interpretation, and for creative theories like Darwin's theory of evolution, may indeed have, at least a partial, biological explanation: a reduced utilization of that section of the brain which has played such a vital role in humanity's creative advances - the frontal lobes. By unconditionally obeying religious tenets or any dogma some people may be relying on the phylo-genetically older, more posterior portions of the brain that store knowledge and enable consistent or stable behaviors and, unknowingly, circumventing the portion which has been gifted to humans alone through evolution. Neuroscience and Fundamentalism The problem with science is that it invariably approaches its object of analysis in a vertical fashion. In other words the use of the microscope and the telescope project always further vertically into the object. But this raises the question of the linkage of the information that is so gained with all that lays around. In other words what about the horizontal linkages of what is observed through a vertical approach? The least one can say is that "Neuroscience and Fundamentalism " is particularly weak at horizontal linkages. The object of this article is change on the road of humanity and its answer is thought to reside in the brain of the individuals. Fortunately the authors are conscious of the limits of their theory. From a holistic point of view change on the road of humanity resides in the interactions between the polarities of humanity: individuals and society. Adherence behavior is being promoted and defended by societies while innovative alternatives are being devised by individuals. The success or failure of an innovative alternative is then to be understood as the outcome of the interactions between society and the individuals. What resides in the brain can eventually participate in explaining how individuals come about an innovating alternative but it can't explain how an emerging alternative succeeds or fails.
- Neuroscience and Fundamentalism via Arts&Letters, in Tikkun by Kenneth M.Heilman and Russell S. Donda
- Grnasher rated 7 months ago
- Religious people have bad brains.
- redshift13 rated 7 months ago
- "Certainly, both convergent and divergent reasoning serve to enhance our well being. But it is an individual's ability to diverge from what is familiar and move beyond the known into a new understanding which is the essence of creativity, and that which gives rise to advancement. In the words of Frank Zappa, "Without deviation from the norm, 'progress' is not possible." Whether a person chooses to question and think on his or her own or remains unconditionally adherent to religious dogma, might relate to how specific areas of the brain are utilized--or not." "With respect to convergent and divergent reasoning, should this matter? The divergent thinking ability of children who attended secular versus religious schools was studied by Dafna Hirschmann of Haifa, Israel. The result? Students who attended the secular schools had higher scores in divergent reasoning tests than those who attended religious schools."
- FigBoy rated 7 months ago
Certainly, human acts of consistency or creativity require a highly elaborate and functional brain. If stone was an adequate tool material, we at least had the good sense to continue using it after the first try. Still, there is something special about the desire for novel alternatives. No other being with which we share the planet demonstrates the human capacity to continuously spawn newness. It is the height of evolution and stems from some of the most evolved and sophisticated parts of the brain.
- ztlane rated 8 months ago
- Makes sense, really. I mean, if conservative/fundamentalists had their way all the time, we never would have left the trees we originally clung to.
- brainstew rated 8 months ago
- cant still figure out why I read through the whole article, good article nonetheless......
- Jyot rated 8 months ago
- I hadnt known that fundamentalism can affect the evolution of our brain and thinking in such a phenomenal way
