₦airaland Forum

In my various engagement with religious folks, especially the emotive Christians folks, they have never failed to show how routinic, archaic, mechanical, stale and lifeless, the whole idea of God and salvation from sin are.

For instance, whenever i get to let them into the know, that i had experienced being "born again" for over 20 years, was a student pastor, secretary to JCF at UNILAG and was a freelance preacher after graduation, they all and without exception, always respond with this cliché -

"what you had is mental assent to the gospel, and not encounter with god".

The fact that these folks have no other response other than this cliché, shows how mentally marooning religious beliefs can be, as far as the function of the human mind is concerned.

The human mind is innately capable of acceptance and rejection, of any worldviews anytime and for whatever reason. There's nothing supernatural about acceptance or rejection of ideologies/worldviews (religious ideologies in this instance).

Using the very story book of these folks, I shall now prove that being born again is nothing but a mere mental assent to the religious idea of Jesus.

KingEbukasBlog:
New York Times , Wall Street Journal , Mayo Clinic , Discover Magazine , University of York , Phys.org , PZ Myers' blog are not credible ? I wonder why people pay attention to the nonsense you spew .

****

Blog site, newspapers and other non-journals publications can give you a summary of research work, but they usually don't give you what helps you to understand the details of the work - research design and mythology.

Except you find the very journal that published the work.

You're particularly limited, since you're ignorant of this, and you lack the requisite expertise to read, understand and make valid deductions from scientific works.

I have also observed that you and your likes on NL, don't know the difference between the works of mainstream scientists and pseudoscientists.

****

KingEbukasBlog:
[size=15pt]1[/size]. Dr. Joel McDurmon at the organization American Vision wrote about a University of York study involving magnetism and brain function:

“ This has to be embarrassing . . . if you’re an atheist. A new study performed at the University of York used targeted magnetism to shut down part of the brain. The result: belief in God disappeared among more than 30 percent of participants. That in itself may not seem so embarrassing, but consider that the specific part of the brain they frazzled was the posterior medial frontal cortex—the part associated with detecting and solving problems, i.e., reasoning and logic. In other words, when you shut down the part of the brain most associated with logic and reasoning, greater levels of atheism result.

[size=15pt]2[/size] On September 19, 2011, the Discover Magazine website had an article indicating that there were empirical results showing a positive correlation between atheism and high functioning autism and the article declared:

“This is why the empirical results on the correlation between atheism and high functioning autism are important.....some people were angry that I seemed to suggest that atheists were antisocial weirdos. Well, there is some data to back that up


[size=15pt]3[/size] Asperger's syndrome (sometimes referred to as "High-Functioning Autism" or "HFA" is an umbrella term used to classify problematic behaviours similar to, but less severe than, those within the lower reaches of the autistic spectrum.

Day wrote concerning atheist PZ Myers' blog audience:

“ It's by no means a scientific test, but it is interesting to note the coincidence that 59 of the virulent atheists over at Dr. PZ Myers place report an average score on the Asperger's Quotient test of 27.8. And this does not include the two individuals who actually have Asperger's but did not report any test results."

As PZ himself said: "I took the test and scored a 24, an “average math contest winner.” You need a 32 to suggest Asperger’s, and a 15 is the average. So there. I don’t have Asperger’s, I’m just cruel and insensitive."


Below is some information that Aspergerstest.com gives concerning interpreting their Asperger's quiz results:

"Basically the range for possible answers is 0 to 50. The information below shows you the different ranges as recorded from others sitting this same AQ quiz over the years.

* 0-11 low result – indicating no tendency at all towards autistic traits.

* 11-21 is the average result that people get (many women average around 15 and men around 17)

* 22-25 shows autistic tendencies slightly above the population average

* 26-31 gives a borderline indication of an autism spectrum disorder. It is also possible to have aspergers or mild autism within this range.

* 32-50 indicates a strong likelihood of Asperger syndrome or autism.

In fact, scores of 32 or above are one of strong indicators of having as ASD.


[size=15pt]4[/size] According to the leading science news website Phys.org:

“ Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.

In two studies led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, participants performed a Stroop task - a well-known test of cognitive control - while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity.

Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that helps modify behavior by signaling when attention and control are needed, usually as a result of some anxiety-producing event like making a mistake. The stronger their religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less their ACC fired in response to their own errors, and the fewer errors they made...

Their findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown.

Sources : http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/08/religiosity-and-personality-how-are.php
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/09/atheism-as-mental-deviance/#.WD4ef7KLTcc
http://www.piepalace.ca/blog/asperger-test-aq-test
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/08/01/im-mostly-normal/#comments
[url=Phys.org]Phys.org[/url]

I shall find time to appropriately respond, to this compilation, that is forced on you by your morbid fears of atheism.

Am now glad and excited, that atheism and atheistic post are gradually dominating this section.

We are gradually making your puerile proselytizing a rare post here.

Most of you theists here no longer have time to study your fictional story book again.

You folks now devote your time to surfing religious site, pseudoscientific sites, Avenger of God and Jesus sites etc.

That's a step in the direction that will gradually, help you folks find out how idiotic and useless God idea is.

naijadeyhia:
To your first comment I can tell you categorically that when anyone attempts to speak gibberish, in order to sustain that so called gibberish he would need the active participation of his brain.

Am responding to this, not because of you, in that your case, is that of deliberate choice to fooling around, what you lack capacity to comprehend.

But for the sake of folks reading this posts and humble enough to want to learn what is correct knowledge.

Scientifically speaking, uttering gibberish and nonsensical sound (eg speaking in tongues), DOESN'T REQUIRE THE ACTIVE AND CONSCIOUS MENTAL PROCESS EFFORTS.

I don't need to think or exert my brain to say:

skala de mugush, eskele braslego, nkooo nko ooo, baaaaaa ( typical speaking in tongues)

Your "categorical" ignorance induced foolery, would have been valid if am expected to repeat exact line of the above gibberish.

But nah, speaking in tongues is simply repetition of endless uttering of dissimilar lines of gibberish.

And even when it appears you are repeating the same lines, it's because you have said it severally over time, and it's now coded in your memory.



There's nothing supernatural in speaking in tongues, hallucinatory, demented and schizophrenics utter gibberish and nonsensical sounds.

naijadeyhia:
z
This has nothing to do with that. No frontal lobe activity at all.which means they were not in charge of the words being spoken so their brain was not part of the equation

No you are contradicting yourself.

If gibberish is PURELY- meaningless or unintelligible talk or writing (skala de mugush, eskele braslego, nkooo nko ooo, baaaaaa),

how does one require mental efforts to say this or repeat another lines of gibberish?

Is speaking in tongues not repetition of gibberish after gibberish?

So if you're not in charge, another phrase for this will be that your brain doesn't need to be conscious or active.
Since it's all about repeating sets of nonsensical sounds.

ever811:
following with kin interest how intelligent people finds logic in the post and are engaging them selves with intelligent debate while you sound like something I wouldn't want to mention..what do you have to say about that?

Fools party do have all comer.
Intelligent debate has another meaning, than court jesting.

KingEbukasBlog:
There are atheists in Religion , and there are Believers that are irreligious

The Greatest minds in the world have been theists and deists

This has been discussed ad nauseum .

Atheism is based on blind faith . Studies have revealed atheism has deleterious effects on the brain .

The case of your feeble and fixated brain is hopeless.

Even if your Bible deceptively told you, that you can know EVERYTHING by your holy spirit, how come you have not thought it right, to desist from dabbling in scientific works.

Whenever you comment on:

*concepts of atheism
* scientific work
*deductions from research works

You robb yourself with filth of ignorance and crass cognitive dissonance.

KingEbukasBlog:
I think AkinPhysicist and Akintom are the same person .

Now i can conveniently confirm that you have progressed from irrational fear, into morbid fear of the word "atheism" and "Akintom".

I have told you that 1000 theists on NL, are too small for me to contain in the below average mental capacity, that you all belong.

This i have proven over time.

naijadeyhia:
On your thread i told you the very same thing he is echoing here. I told you that you spew a lot of vitriol but in all that you drop no points and vitriol is not a sign of intelligence and here he told you the same thing and your intelligence could not tell you to quickly adjust. Instead you dropped further vitriol.

Indeed common sense isnt common.

Akingbade pls drop all this Bile. Life is beyond what you can control on the internet

All of these your childish and nonsensical compilation, point to one thing common to most of you theists that i have engaged here, you are all made of the same mental fabric of illusion.

The same decerebrate symptoms, manifesting at the injection of rational dye.

I thought you and all your feeble brain friends, vowed few days back, to ignore my thread?

And i can't remember cc anyone of you, in my recent threads.

AkinPhysicist:
Religion is not based on reason but faith. If it were then all religious people will be atheists instead. It takes a certain degree of suspension of reason to believe for example in a talking donkey. Even a greater degree of suspension of logic to believe that 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish can be multiplied by prayer to feed thousands of people. To accept religious claims you have to mentally disregard the immutable laws of nature. This is why MOST of the world's great thinkers and scientists shun religion and embrace agnoticism or atheism.

I acknowledge your submission.

This is the fact that theists, especially on NL find VERY difficult to accept.

Religious folks don't have stand points, when it comes to the subject matter of reason and empiricism.

Emmanystone:
A resounding gong. Many words without saying anything.

Certainly beyond your mental ability.
The very thinking of religious junky.

naijadeyhia:
Ask your fellow atheists for my Name. They obviously know me as well.

Your name is of no use to me.

naijadeyhia:
You do realise that you just responded to ebuka and still did not make 1 single point. smh

I already established that, both of you are being wagoned by speaking donkey.

KingEbukasBlog:
Implicit and explicit atheism were just coined by atheist George H. Smith . Smith's views on implicit atheism are regarded as deceptive .

I guess you reading the word "deceptive" in the criticism of the Smith's concept, by other folks gave you some gloating blues.

You're simply ignorant of the scientific culture. Whatever theory or concept a scientist comes up with, that same scientists and others start the process of falsifying the discovery. It's normal science tradition.

This is how science has been able to gradually improve our world. Making it better by the day.

KingEbukasBlog:
Here are the critics' views on implicit atheism you should cogitate on

1. Graham Lawton in the New Scientist , a science magazine said :

"Atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think... They point to studies showing, for example, that even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul."

This has to do with the variant nature, of different concepts of atheism. It has nothing to do with your erroneous assertion.

KingEbukasBlog:
2. Pascal Boyer, in the British science journal Nature said : "A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith."

All these are congruous with the bible's position that God ingrained the desire for man to seek knowledge of Him .

You will have to go learn about faith that is based on religious beliefs and faith based on empirical facts.

Development of faith (complete trust or confidence in someone or something),is a natural mental function.

I can explicitly change my faith whenever the basis, on which i initially formed the faith becomes invalid.

Your God didn't ingrain naada. Your creationist disposition is derailing you.

KingEbukasBlog:
3. Dr. Joel McDurmon of American Vision wrote about a University of York study involving magnetism and brain function , he said :

"This has to be embarrassing . . . if you’re an atheist. A new study performed at the University of York used targeted magnetism to shut down part of the brain. The result: belief in God disappeared among more than 30 percent of participants. That in itself may not seem so embarrassing, but consider that the specific part of the brain they frazzled was the posterior medial frontal cortex—the part associated with detecting and solving problems, i.e., reasoning and logic. In other words, when you shut down the part of the brain most associated with logic and reasoning, greater levels of atheism result."

what a foolish and puerile deduction. In the first place, the study is pseudo idiocy from religious junky.

If anyone ever lost ability to believe anything, that he earlier believed, it means the memory section of the brain has been altered.

If you have shut ability to remember or recollect in a man, what do you expect? This has nothing to do with atheism. Any folk will lost any prior beliefs held, when the memory section is altered.

This useless experiment. Even you, if i electrically alter your memory, you will become an empty dude as far as any belief is concerned. Then You will have to relearn your God idea all over again.

KingEbukasBlog:
4. Ernest Nagel contradicts Smith's definition of atheism as merely "absence of theism", acknowledging only explicit atheism as qualifying for the label "atheism":

"I shall understand by "atheism" a critique and a denial of the major claims of all varieties of theism... atheism is not to be identified with sheer unbelief... Thus, a child who has received no religious instruction and has never heard about God, is not an atheist – for he is not denying any theistic claims. Similarly in the case of an adult who, if he has withdrawn from the faith of his father without reflection or because of frank indifference to any theological issue, is also not an atheist – for such an adult is not challenging theism and not professing any views on the subject"

There are different concepts of atheism, he's saying nothing. Since atheism is evolving, the concepts will continually get refined.

KingEbukasBlog:
Please when you are reading trash on the internet especially Wikipedia , also pay attention to what critics say not just to rush to gorge on whatever information without being incisive simply because it supports your views as an atheist

You're simply speaking from the deepest depth of your abysmal ignorance of my mental and intelligent capacity.

You lack the possible ability to read and understand scientific works, not to talk of your ability to make intelligent deductions from them.

KingEbukasBlog:
Atheism has never been and will never be a natural state in humans , it will always be what it truly is , a transitive state

You're simply bereft of the conceptual evolvement of atheism.

KingEbukasBlog:
cc : Naijadeyhia , felixomor , promise10

One thousand of your likes, can't match me on the topic of atheism and inherent idiocy in religious beliefs.

KingEbukasBlog:
Atheism has never been a natural state in humans - this explains its extreme low retention rate .

Wrong, ignorance and mischief induced assertion from you.

Atheism is both implicit and explicit concept.

No human is born with any form of beliefs system, beliefs system is acquired (including God idea, in this instance), via immediate and extended environmental input.

Because a child is born without a God idea, a child is said to be an atheist implicitly.

KingEbukasBlog:
God created man with the propensity to seek knowledge of Him .

Natural and normal human brains can by its anatomy and physiology, process any information made available to it.

Take every information about God idea away from a baby, the baby will never develop such propensity.

ever811:
I have come across this comment made by African atheist several times..../ the white man sold lies to you by giving you religion which claim there is a creator (God) of all things and you accepted it. they even accused the believers for not having sense of reasoning. but this same white man brought education to them which also claim there is no creator (God) they accept it and claim they have brain. and i Wonder where there brain is located.if the white man has given you reasons trough scientific findings that there is no God..which by instincts, your ancestors never accepted. and the same white man gave me the bible to understand better what my ancestors already knew by instincts there are gods which of this two shows the presence of sense of reasoning? our ancestors already knew there is the supernatural even before the coming of the white mans religion..they never accepted to be dependent on there brains,but instincts showed them the presence of the supernatural.that is why they had different traditional gods.everything an atheist claim to know about the non existance of God comes from the same white man he accuses the African religious man of learning from. religious text's were written thousands of years before the first foolish man who will letter spread atheist ignorance came to exist. the bible has its first verse ..Gen 1:1..in the begin God created the heaven and the earth.. note:-(God is the course) because he is an external force as it is..but no atheist texts has ever started with the beginning of creations.. they must prove its non inspirational.. by talking a lot of nonsense b/4 they jump to the middle were matter and energy created all things. the same set of creatures would agreed to the law of course and effect but there brains will reformat within a second and they will come up with another theory that matter and energy defile the law of course and effect.I still ask there brain location.. ..hypocrisy... hypocrisy.. and need of brain cleanser..

Ignoring the annoying clerical errors strewn in your piece, i begin to wonder now, how you possibly can make a logical sense, not to talk of intelligent discuss, out of this your puerile gist.

naijadeyhia:
Akingbade Thomas Get a life! This much bile is not good for anybody

At least my identity is obviously known. Not like most of you with unknowable monikers.

naijadeyhia:
And what does that translate to?

Let me paraphrase

When speaking known language the test subjects engaged their frontal lobes which showed human effort but when speaking in tongues the frontal lobe was not in use which shows it was not by their effort.

Those tests were carried out on Buddhists and others and showed that they engaged their frontal lobes so what makes speaking in tongues different from them all and clearly showing no human participation in the brain?

Can you draw your conclussion?

This is another evidence of my alleged difficulties that most theists on NL, have in relating intelligently with science, and how to show above average intelligence when they dare comment on scientific works.

To make intelligent, coherent, comprehensible and rational SPEECH, you will NORMALLY require CONSCIOUS mental efforts.

But to utter GIBBERISH and nonsensical SOUND, you CERTAINLY don't require conscious mental efforts.

These are what the study revealed.

Therefore, there's nothing supernatural about speaking in tongue (nonsensical sounds).

A delusional will effortlessly make nonsensical sounds and gibberish, simply because the folk has lost ability to consciously coordinate his thoughts.

naijadeyhia:
So says a Bitter, Sad soul.

Ntor! Ntor!! Ntor!!!
Coward!

PDBonline:
1. I don't have any reason to claim infallibility and I didnt so don't bother trying to say I did.
People can discuss without trying to demean someone else.

2. Read the link on Wikipedia and you will understand how they are related. The link you posted is not the research. It's dailymail an online news paper. Okay.

In the end it is how objective the interpretation is what what obtains in real life that counts and that studies conclusion holds no ground. There are better conclusions that can be drawn from it. Follow the Wikipedia link : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence

You certainly don't expect me to start threading the 60+ papers here.

The newspaper presented a conclusion of the study.

All you need do is search out the study and do your own study of the whole work.

That you didn't do, and to make it worst, you started referring me to other works with different designs.

PDBonline:
Bye pls.

I left you folks on the floor yesterday for a reason. Now as always, defeatist way out.

naijadeyhia:
Ahemm Akintom your part 1 thread was demolished. Your Part 2 thread has also been demolished.

I suggest you go do a check on your own IQ because if you would post a part 1 and you were shown how stupid it was in clear terms like putting a Pitbull in a ring with a rat (you being the rat) yet you still went ahead to put up a part 2 then seriously you need to submit yourself for an IQ test.

I have repeatedly warned you against ARMCHAIR ATHEISM but you never seem to take counsel. Now behold your IQ

You know me before now, that none of you mentally indecent theists on NL, can match me when it comes to the use of derogatory and condescending use of adjectives.

But i did that to confirm how unreal and hypocritic you folks are, when it comes to what your religion called fruit of the spirit.

All of you are stinking of the worst filthiness that can be seen in the folks that you arrogantly and hypocritically called sinners.

Otherwise you wouldn't be exhibiting a thinking quality that falls below that of kg 1 pupil.

PDBonline:
A studies from Havard shows that Cognitive Style rather than IQ reveals why peolle change what they believe and gravitate towards theism or atheism : http://www.anth.uconn.edu/degree_programs/ecolevo/divineintuition.pdf

To have many researches on the subject in one place just Google religiousity and intelligence, Wikipedia : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence

akintom if you finished reading the Wikipedia article and still believe in the hasty conclusions of researchers published on dailymail then...

Let me help your obvious difficulties now!

The study i posted looked at variables that helps to manage life challenges more rationally and realistically.

According to the study, if the measurements of ability to rationally and realistically manage life challenges, is a function of the quality one's thinking and reasoning processes (IQ), then the atheistic mental construct performs higher than theistic mental construct (for obvious facts). According to this study.

It's highly unfortunate that none of you could deduce this, since yesterday.

I am doing this to show you folks, how religious sentiments and religious inhibitory effect on mental processes, can become obvious, via simple test like posting a study.

peacesamuel94:
really ? what about religious people that later turn atheist, does atheism automatically enhance their IQ level ?


Aside that, i Will say that your belief system has no effect On your intelligence, anybody can be dumb or intelligent irrespective of their belief system.
Religious people have contributed To science Just as much as atheists if not more, as a matter of fact the Father of modern science was religious, did his belief reduce his IQ ? The thread is really unnecessary.

Waoh, you just committed the same show of lack of discipline in reading before responding. Just like your other folks.

Did you read and strive to understand the study before responding? No you didn't.

mrmrmister:
Mr Op, where the hell did you come up with your theory?
Yes, it takes reasoning to be able to doubt religion
But what makes you think every atheist became atheist through their own reasoning?
What makes you think some weren't simply influenced?

I can't really type an epistle right now
But my conclusion is:
Being an atheist doesn't necessarily mean you're intelligent, neither does being religious mean you're dumb.

It all depends on the circumstances that led to whichever one you are.

You guys are good study sample again and again.

Intelligence measurement, takes ability to comprehend focused effort into cognizance. And that's what most of you lack here.

You simply didn't understand the study and how to make inference from it. Otherwise you wouldn't post this off comment.

Vick4rill:
guy am not in for baseless arguement this afternoon. it is very foolish to claim that atheist are more logical than religious people simply cus they are atheist. anybody can be logical base on the way he or she uses his brain. please try reading other intelligent post from fellow atheist and theist, in other to get some sense.

Your thoughts lags behind in comprehensive ability.

Are you sure you read the study without your religious lens?

Otherwise, you will not be ranting what is not the focus of the study.

PDBonline:
Why asking me such a rude question. Are you that arrogant? If I don't know anything I will (and I have been) quoting the works of those who do. Just follow the links I am assisting you and your cohorts with. Then come back and teach me what is wrong with their analysis instead of distracting yourself about me okay. That's if you really want to learn.

Why are you so consumed with complex.

What makes you think, that i can't point out your error to you?

You didn't read my response to you with understanding, that's why you're claiming infallibility now.

I told you that the design of the study i posted is different from the one you're referring me to.

A montessori pupil knows that there's is no basis, of comparison between two studies, with different research designs.

Vick4rill:
wat meaninful contribution will i make in a dump thread like this one?? infact akintom let keep our differences aside and answer this questions honestly. our comment and post here go along way to show people with better IQ. with all sincererity, do you think you are more logical than theist on this forum such as kingebuka,winner01 and 4ever? guy we know intelligent atheist on this forum and i can assure you that Akintom is not one of them.

The only way you can prove that you have anything close to average intelligence, is to look into this study, and disprove each of the conclusions reached, with superior works.

You sure don't know how philosophy, metaphysics and physical sciences shape reasoning.

PDBonline:
This Is A Scientific Analysis and Interpretion of A Studies (Quoted By Wikipedia)

Do you for any reason know something about research DESIGNS?

can you review different researches with different designs together?

jonbellion:
Akinton you're on your own on this athiests have higher IQs stuff

I seek no coalition.

naijadeyhia:
He never learns. His superiority complex is his problem as evidenced in his threads. He even grouped atheists under RATIONAL ATHEISTS and IRRATIONAL ATHEISTS and hates the alleged irrational ones with a passion.

He is having ego issues which is giving him a false sense of importance and superiority.

Someone needs to pour him some iced water to snap him out of it

Your unguarded and decerebrate thinking is unsurprising to me.

Your thoughts are full of malice and infantile messes.

Vick4rill:
with all due respect. opening this thread alone, have already tell us the level of IQ.

Your admission of lack of meaningful contributions.

PDBonline:
2. Significant relationship between Christian Spiritual Maturity and Emotional Intelligence
http://gradworks.umi.com/37/23/3723416.html

Irrelevant stuff to this thread.

You're still confirming the study (lack of discipline in thinking and reasoning),