"My belief is Equal to Your Belief: Neuroscientist Examines Belief

[jenai]

When the subjects experienced uncertainty, yet another pattern emerged. A different portion of the cingulate cortex, located closer to the front of the brain, showed a much stronger signal. This so-called "anterior cingulate" cortex frequently shows up in studies of conflict monitoring, error detection and cognitive interference. When compared to both belief and disbelief, the state of uncertainty also showed a decreased signal in the caudate, a region of the basal ganglia, which plays a role in motor action.

Noting that uncertainty differs from both belief and disbelief by not allowing us to settle upon "a specific, actionable interpretation of the world," the authors suggest that the basal ganglia may play a role in mediating the cognitive and behavioral differences between decision and indecision.

Taken together, these data offer insight into the way in which our brains work to form beliefs about the world.

"What I find most interesting about our results is the suggestion that our view of the world must pass through a bottleneck in regions of the brain generally understood to govern emotion, reward and primal feelings like pain and disgust," Harris said. "While evaluating mathematical, ethical or factual statements requires very different kinds of processing, accepting or rejecting these statements seems to rely upon a more primitive process that may be content-neutral. I think that it has long been assumed that believing that two plus two equals four and believing that George Bush is President of the United States have almost nothing in common as cognitive operations. But what they clearly have in common is that both representations of the world satisfy some process of truth-testing that we continually perform. I think this is yet another result, in a long line of results, that calls the popular opposition between reason and emotion into question." -- Different areas of brain respond to belief, disbelief, uncertainty / UCLA Newsroom

1) Uncertainty, when its impact is great, makes us feel physically unbalanced and unsteady on our feet
2) Disbelief is similar to, and may feel like, pain and disgust.
3) There is no difference between believing that a mathematical equation is true and that Gordon Campbell is Premier of BC.

This study proves my hypothesis that there is no difference between believing in God and believing in feminist theory.

Furthermore, regardless of content, be it based on emotion or reason, belief is equal. The belief in God is equal to the belief that Gordon Campbell is Premier of BC.

Indeed, religious belief is equal to ideological belief.

This looks like a great way to start an argument with someone who has a different worldview from you due to hir experience by stating truthfully,

"When we ignore the content, my belief and your belief are equal."

I.e. regardless of emotional or rational content, belief affects the brain in similar ways in everyone, whether she be an atheist, a scientist, a priest, a poor man, a rich man, a beggar or a thief.

Then perhaps this is true of faith.

[FireWire]

This thread needs more rhodiola.

[wishbone]