# Being "Born Again" Linked to Brain Atrophy **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 13, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048 "2012-06-13T19:19:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/21 "2012-06-15T00:11:09Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > An Irish Protestant who converts to Islam will remain in some important sense an Irish Protestant until the day he dies – it’s less a matter of religious than of ethnocultural identity. I think that’s a very different debate… But I would say that it depends. Some people incorporate the teachings of their old religious affiliation into new beliefs. Some do not. That said, I don’t think you can quantify this “some important sense” you speak of in any case. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/22 "2012-06-15T00:14:56Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > I don’t see how the reasons make a difference… If the religion you were born into is convenient, that works for you. If you are ignorant of other religions, that doesn’t mean the current one isn’t working. If you’re scared to change religions, you still are actively choosing to stay that way, just for reasons that others might find ridiculous. > > And even if there might be one that works BETTER, that doesn’t mean the one they were born into doesn’t work for them just fine. And just because the reasons someone chooses to stay at a certain church or sect might seem ridiculous or silly to me… Well, a lot of people find religion in general ridiculous or silly. It’s still a choice. Wanted to add this in edit but was too late: The only way religion is NOT a choice is if the adherant knows of no other religions at all and thinks that everyone in the world believes as they do. And not many people live in caves isolated from the rest of the world these days… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/23 "2012-06-15T00:15:10Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > And just because the reasons someone chooses to stay at a certain church or sect might seem ridiculous or silly to me… Well, a lot of people find religion in general ridiculous or silly. It’s still a choice. Did you miss the “certainly not” part of my post? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/24 "2012-06-15T00:17:13Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Did you miss the “certainly not” part of my post? I interpreted that as you were saying a negative to what I was saying, not agreeing with me. So we agree that even someone staying with the religion they were born into is still a choice? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/25 "2012-06-15T00:21:20Z")
Unquestionably. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/26 "2012-06-15T00:31:23Z")
Cool. Wouldn’t want any Pit threads started about me… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/27 "2012-06-15T00:37:12Z")
There’s a perfectly good one already. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048/28 "2012-06-15T09:52:45Z")
As a scientist, I’d say “very interesting, but preliminary until replicated on an independent sample”. PLoS ONE is an odd journal as traditional scientific journals go. I’m not knocking it - I have several papers published there (2 this year alone). PLoS ONE reviews papers only on the technical aspects of the science, not the context or “sexiness” of the work. That is, if the authors sampled their population correctly, measured their data according to proper procedures, and analyzed their data by proper statistics, it’ll get published no matter how crazy. Not to say the reviewers take it easy. We had extremely thourough reviews on our work. But PLoS ONE will eventually publish almost anything, as long as it is techically correct. In my view, this is a good thing, as many scientists have data sitting there that would never have been published an a regualr journal; PLoS ONE gives an outlet for these data. Some crazy stuff has been published there. But I’m willing to bet that some of that crazy stuff will turn out to be very important. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-born-again-linked-to-brain-atrophy/625048.md?page=1)