a grim insight...""Who would have more 'new thoughts'..

A committed Theist
who accepts that 'this is so'?

Or...""

i guess it it whoever is getting
the most 'new' inputs

a fixed minded athiest/religionist
is as close minded mind numb dullard
as..a think to know it all..religionist/athieast

but new neuron connections
hasnt got a lot to do..with assimulating it's info
[new info..needs to be logically processed/judged etc][ie the hungy hippo]

its this..that suits the 'growth' of the hippo
[to wit..*using it..increases the bloodflow...
and strengthens its linkages
to neurons/nerves/muscles

and neurons connections
with/to yet other neurons

[the key bit needs be where they inter-sect..[inter/connect]

the key as you suggested
is in...who is having..the new thoughts
yet ithink the hippo is about processing the links

quality
..not quantity

"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."

Why on earth were they wanting to compare the hippocampus of people with no religious affiliation and various Christian sub groups?

People with no religious affiliation, Catholics and born agains had hippocampi that atrophied quicker but what about the rest of the brain? I just wonder why they picked a small area of the brain and did this?

According to this absurd topic, the brains of cetaceans, being larger than any human's must mean that they are the most religious and christian creatures on earth.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=are-whales-smarter-than-we-are

Time to put down your rulers and edge quietly away from each other.

Ammonite they're looking at size of the various brains versus healthy brains, not size per se. And they're not making any claims about the size of the brain and Christianity, just relative sizes of a specific part of the human brain that degrades with time and particularly with Alzheimer's disease.

Graham

I know that - out of a test sample of 264 people. I really thought you were trying to be humorous.

You can't be serious. And now you are linking this very non-scientific test with Alzheimer's? Are you suggesting the Christians are less likely to develop dementia?

OLO the gift that keeps on giving (thanks Pericles).

I'm not suggesting anything, just correcting your post. It might not make a lot of sense what they've done, but at least we should describe it accurately.

I wasn't trying to be humourous, just see what came out of it.