Scientific proof that religion is an opiate (well, not really)

[synthesis]

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...placebo-effect

Pain, Piety & The Placebo Effect

Published on July 22, 2010

Can looking at a picture of the Virgin Mother relieve pain? Yes.

The real question is: how does this happen? In a recently published study in the journal Pain, scientists (Wiech and colleagues) measured pain perception in two groups of people, devout practicing Catholics and professed atheists and agnostics, while they viewed an image of the Virgin Mary or the painting of Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci.

Devout Catholics reported feeling more peaceful and compassionate when gazing upon a picture of the Virgin Mother. The devout Catholics also perceived electrical pulses to their hand as being less painful when they looked at Mary than when they looked at the lady in the painting by da Vinci.

In contrast, the atheists and agnostics derived no pain relief while viewing either picture. I would like to know whether atheists also benefit from aspirin, but that's a topic for another study.

MRI scans demonstrated that the Catholics' pain relief was associated with greatly increased brain activity in a small area located on the bottom left of their right prefrontal cortex. In contrasts, the atheists and agnostics demonstrated no response in this brain area.

There was already ample evidence to suggest that this brain region is involved in controlling our emotional response to sensory stimuli, such as pain. Perhaps this study has, in fact, now shown us the location of the placebo effect.

Much has been written about the value of the placebo effect in the practice of medicine, but how this effect emerges and whether it can be controlled are issues that not yet understood.

Essentially, scientists have analyzed the effect based on results of placebo-controlled studies of actual drugs on the brain or have compared only the effects of a placebo against the consequences of no treatment at all.

Their findings have been intriguing, if still largely inconclusive. However, in one area of study that is not directly related to an actual treatment, the findings are more definitive.

Numerous meta-analyses (which are later analyses of other researchers' data) have shown that only the perception of pain can be statistically demonstrated to be influenced by our minds, which scientists refer to as the emergent property of our brains. The impressive influence of our thoughts and expectations on how we experience pain is a true placebo effect.

[ComradeMan]

So if you are Catholic and look at the Madonna you get pain relief for free?

I bet a lot of people might convert for this reason alone.

Great!!! What science can't do- Renaissance religious art can!!!

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

So if you are Catholic and look at the Madonna you get pain relief for free?

I bet a lot of people might convert for this reason alone.

Great!!! What science can't do- Renaissance religious art can!!!

I think I'll stick with painkillers...

[ComradeMan]

I think I'll stick with painkillers...

But Saint cards are free here... painkillers are actually expensive!!!

[synthesis]

I think I'll stick with painkillers...

What do you think the article means, beyond just "religion as a placebo painkiller"?

[ComradeMan]

but how this effect emerges and whether it can be controlled are issues that not yet understood.

This is the interesting part, leaving jokes aside.

[synthesis]

Really? I thought this was the interesting part:

MRI scans demonstrated that the Catholics' pain relief was associated with greatly increased brain activity in a small area located on the bottom left of their right prefrontal cortex. In contrasts, the atheists and agnostics demonstrated no response in this brain area.

There was already ample evidence to suggest that this brain region is involved in controlling our emotional response to sensory stimuli, such as pain.

[ComradeMan]

Really? I thought this was the interesting part:

Well the bit that is not understood is the mystery, the bit that we appear to understand just becomes textbook.

However, I would like to see similar experiments done with Hindus and their religious statues/images for example and other religious people with their imagery or symbols.

[synthesis]

Well, in this case I'm not as interested in the "mysterious origins" of the placebo effect, but rather the ability of religion to mimic it. I suppose they go hand in hand, but it seems to me that you're interpreting it in a different way.

[Jalapeno Enema]

So if you are Catholic and look at the Madonna you get pain relief for free?

Actually, as I recall, it always made me kinda queasy. Course, that was after my grandmother caught me jacking off to her.

Young attractive female portrait next to the bed? I thought that's what it was there for! And she was a "virgin", which just made it naughty.

And don't get me started on the spiraling depression caused by staring at some poor fucker nailed to a hunk of wood.

[ComradeMan]

Actually, as I recall, it always made me kinda queasy. Course, that was after my grandmother caught me jacking off to her.

Young attractive female portrait next to the bed? I thought that's what it was there for! And she was a "virgin", which just made it naughty.

And don't get me started on the spiraling depression caused by staring at some poor fucker nailed to a hunk of wood.

Do you get a kick out of being childishly offensive and crude? What the fuck has this little gem of wisdom got to do with the thread, it's not even funny.

[Revolution starts with U]

Idk, Comrade... do you?

I thought it was funny, as a former catholic. It's not like he insulted christianity. He just offered his view of its symbology

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Indeed ComradeMan, who are you to say his interpretation is invalid?

[ComradeMan]

Indeed ComradeMan, who are you to say his interpretation is invalid?

Do we really need people's masturbatory habits in a thread that attempts to discuss something at least half- seriously?

I didn't see any interpretation other than the childish rant of a teenager trying his hardest to say the most radical thing his small brain could come up with, to be honest- but hey, that's just my interpretation too.

[Revolution starts with U]

You just don't get crude philosophy at all. What if he said it like this;
I find the symbology of christianity deplorable. Glorification of the virgin is just a measure designed to elicit a sexual response from the people, thereby clouding their reason, and distracting them from the real problems at hand. And then we move on to ritual sacrifice and bowing our heads to a greusome depiction of a half-starved, bloodied convict on a hunk of wood.

[ComradeMan]

You just don't get crude philosophy at all. What if he said it like this;
I find the symbology of christianity deplorable. Glorification of the virgin is just a measure designed to elicit a sexual response from the people, thereby clouding their reason, and distracting them from the real problems at hand. And then we move on to ritual sacrifice and bowing our heads to a greusome depiction of a half-starved, bloodied convict on a hunk of wood.

But he didn't. I doubt he would have been able to. Crude philosophy is for *crude minds.



*crude late 14c., "in a raw state," from L. crudus "rough; not cooked, raw, bloody," from PIE *krue-do-, from PIE *kreue- "raw flesh" (see raw). Meaning "lacking grace" is first attested 1640s.

[Milk Sheikh]

Let's disagree on all issues and let's disagree a million times. But can't we be civil while doing so?
-Saddam Hussein (to the Americans)

[Revolution starts with U]

But he didn't. I doubt he would have been able to. Crude philosophy is for *crude minds.



*crude late 14c., "in a raw state," from L. crudus "rough; not cooked, raw, bloody," from PIE *krue-do-, from PIE *kreue- "raw flesh" (see raw). Meaning "lacking grace" is first attested 1640s.

And what's wrong with a crude mind? Does it make you feel better than, because you have so-called refined tastes?
I got his joke, yet I was still able to put it more... shall we say "fancy."

I wouldn't call George Carlin a refined philosopher, yet he has probably had the most impact on my views, outside my family, that I didn't read in a book.