he researchers found that Protestants who did not identify themselves as born-again had less atrophy in the hippocampus region than did born-again Protestants, Catholics, or those having no religious affiliation.
From the link.
So, non evangelical Protestants > Evangelicals, Catholics, or Atheists.
Your title isn't making sense. Old atheists seem to be dumber than non-evangelical protestants, if we go by the way you proposed in your title.
Um, when I read the article, I thought is said that non-born again Protestats had LESS brain shrinkage than Christians and athiests...
The researchers found that Protestants who did not identify themselves as born-again had less atrophy in the hippocampus region than did born-again Protestants, Catholics, or those having no religious affiliation.
The site is called Medical Xpress (yes, Xpress, not Express), so it's obviously reliable. If the name doesn't convince you, just take a look at the Google Ads halfway through the article.
The researchers found that Protestants who did not identify themselves as born-again had less atrophy in the hippocampus region than did born-again Protestants, Catholics, or those having no religious affiliation. Study participants who reported having had a religious experience that changed their life were also found to have more atrophy in the hippocampus than those who did not.
So first it says the Protestants had less brain shrinkage in the hippo camp (that's what I'll call it now) than those without religious affiliations, and then it says people who had a religious life-changing experience had more shrinkage in the hippo camp? I think this was written by a hippo.
Maybe I'm misreading this, 'cus it had a lot of fancy words, but this seems like nonsense to me.
Well yes it does shrink. But they say it's due to stress from conflict between religon and socities change. This makes a lot of sense though. I get stressed and my memory is terrible.
Actually the gist of it is that those who are basically quiet about their beliefs, and whose beliefs are in concert with their peers experience less stress and thus less atrophy of the hippocampus. It has nothing to do with religion at all but with the lack of emotional stress in your life. In this study religion is the portion of that emotional stress that was looked at.
