“According to the study, people who said they were a “born-again” Protestant or Catholic, or conversely, those who had no religious affiliation, had more hippocampal shrinkage (or “atrophy”) compared to people who identified themselves as Protestants, but not born-again.”
Being ‘Born-Again’ Linked to More Brain Atrophy: Study.
The study is available at Public Library of Science.
I’d love to see the baseline data on the study. Did they take measurements before and after subjects joined the groups, or this is a straight-out comparison? Does joining cause shrinkage or did they have diminished hippocampal mass prior to joining, with the corollary question of did this make those precepts tolerable and so allow people to join? Just a thought.