Do hormones and physiology have
any role in whether you believe in God? Such is the implication of a recent
study published in the journal Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology.
The study’s author Aniruddha
“Bobby” Das of McGill University conducts research on how social factors
influence human physiology and “the other way around”. His research found that
religion has a great impact on the human body. In particular, older men with
higher levels of the sex hormone testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
are less religious.
“Religion seems to influence all kinds of
physiological processes,” said Das. “There’s a lot of work these days on
spirituality, church attendance — multiple dimensions of religiosity — as
buffers against cardiovascular and metabolic problems. There’s a separate
strand of research on how hormones and social factors cause each other.
Hormones are not just static ‘internal’ factors — they respond to our social
lives.”
The study looked at data from
1,071 older (57+) American men who took part in the 2005-2006 and 2010-2011
waves of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP).
Das determined that men who showed
higher levels of testosterone and DHEA at wave 1 actually exhibited weaker
religious ties when it came time for the follow-up. They attended fewer
religious services and had less contact with religious figures.
“Hormones seem to lead people to avoid contact
with religion,” concluded Das.
While the researcher controlled
the statistics for the effects of age, ethnicity, socio-economic status,
hormone supplements, waist size, diagnosed conditions, and overall health, he
cautions that there are some “caveats” and more studies need to be done. What
is especially unconfirmed is what happens at younger ages. Das cautions that
sex hormones may be just one factor influencing religious activities.
Other studies, like this 2017 one
from Imperial College London, that have looked at physiological differences
between religious and non-religious people found that "religiosity
correlates inversely with intelligence". In that research, the scientists
found that atheists surpass religious people in reasoning skills but not
working-memory performance. The religious were found to rely more on intuition
and showed poorer cognitive performance.
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Source: Big Think