Religion Causes Brain Damage

[Tempus]

At least, according to this video. There's a study linked to in the description too which might be of interest. Here's a . I haven't read it yet myself.

[5thHorseman]

And there's me thinking it was the other way around.

[Nine]

Religious factors, including religious group membership and life-changing religious experiences, but not frequency of public and private religious practices, were longitudinally associated with hippocampal atrophy. Atrophy in this region has important clinical implications, having been identified as a marker of late life mental health problems such as depression [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43] and dementia [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49]. These results may reflect an impact of cumulative stress on hippocampal volume.

Great study. Looks like religion bites you in the ass when you get older.

[Minimalist]

...and fucks you up the ass when you're younger!

[Neo-Scholastic]

Sounds like its all about stress. Being overly concerned about Hell would be one form of stress, but I can think of many others.

[5thHorseman]

I know the exactly how they feel stress wise, I get stressed about the upcoming nuclear war between The Netherlands and Sweden. /sarcasm

[Tempus]

Ok, I just read the study. After going through it I don't think the there's much of a basis (from this single study) to say religion causes brain damage. In fact, the study was investing hippocampal atrophy; conflating it with 'brain damage' seems a little misleading. Here's a snippet from the discussion section of the study with a couple of highlights by me:

Greater hippocampal atrophy was observed longitudinally in this study among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those reporting no religious affiliation, compared with non born-again Protestants. These findings may reflect potential cumulative stress associated with being a member of a religious minority.

Having read the whole study I think the person who made this video went way beyond what is supported by the evidence they linked to. It seems to me (from this particular study) atrophy of the hippocampus can occur as a result of cumulative stress - of which religion may or may not be a factor. In the latter half of the video, the following line from the study's abstract is highlighted:

Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was observed for participants reporting a life-changing religious experience.

Curiously, however, the next (non highlighted) line says this:

Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was also observed from baseline to final assessment among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared with Protestants not identifying as born-again.

To me it seems the video's creator is one of the following:

• Operating under a confirmation bias
  
• Being deliberately deceitful
  
• Incompetent at research