The Upper-Right quadrant's role in Belief

I stumbled upon an article that somehow measured brain activity in subjects according to their level of belief in god.

Re: The Upper-Right quadrant's role in Belief

More later, and more on the point, but a drive-by post about Red having no self-critical anxiety. I see Red as having plenty of opportunity for being self-critical and anxious about making mistakes. Just as the first example that comes to mind, people had to be very careful what they said to whom, so as not to offend someone powerful enough to do harm to them. I am sure they made mistakes in this, which caused much self-criticism (I should have known better) and anxiety.

Red folks would also get into self-criticism if they were artisans and failed to live up to their own or someone else’s standards for craftsmanship, especially someone else who had power over their ability to get paying work. And women were constantly afraid of offending men, because their lives depended on them. 

In fact, because violence was so prevalent, to sum it up, there were plenty of opportunities for mistakes which could get you hurt, for self-criticism about these, for anxiety about past and future mistakes, etc. 

So, I think you were a mite global about Red wrt this issue. 

And I don’t even believe the research. Believers can get extremely self-critical and anxious about displeasing God, which is very easy to do, haha.

And I could probably think of other sources of such s/c and anxiety too. I would take a good look at the exact research methodology.

Blessings, OM Bastet

Re: The Upper-Right quadrant's role in Belief

I definitely think the article is incomplete in it’s overview–as I’m sure it was designed to grab the attention of either side of the “science vs religion” debate.  Many examples of people being self critical (at many Levels) abound and the research could be easily biased if issues were painted with a religious brush i.e. “How would you feel if you did nothing to defend a Muslim who you had witnessed being berated in the public square?” 

Now assuming that, according to the stated research, if a subject had made a decision based on a belief, particularly through a belief that was shared by family plus majority of a community then, yes ANYBODY would feel less critical of themselves.  It doesn’t matter if those people were your parish, the scientific community, or the IP!  That’s all the Lower Left and likely not being taken into account by the researchers!

I suppose I do agree with Red being able to self criticise.  Anyone with values holds themselves to those values, and if you don’t measure up, then you will either wallow in self defeat, or take action.  I suppose that the Red i’ve seen has too often been expressed without restraint (or seemingly without grasp of the concept of restrain). At it’s worse it will value belittling, revenge, ”no conscience,” I guess the behavior that comes from that mentality is hard to see at first, but yes, it’s all in the name of not being, or be seen as weak.  

Re: The Upper-Right quadrant's role in Belief

Yes to all that, Bryan. Very perceptive, IMO. Plus:

The term “belief” is susceptible to many definitions. How strongly held? About what kind of thing? Etc.In order to affect brainwave functioning, a belief would have to be pretty deep, not shallowly held….

And, remember in Red, historically anyway, loyalty to the king or lord was a paramount value, at least for men. Breaches with respect to loyalty would be occasions for much inner anguish or at least guilt or self-berating. (Unless, of course, perceived as justified.)

I agree with you, the research probably was not only interpreted but designed and carried out to prove someone’s viewpoint……

Blessings, OM