Some here may find this interesting.

"Religious brain, pragmatist brain" "Nov. 19, 2009"

http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2009/11/religious-brain-pragmatist-brain.html

"Basically, the deal is that they boiled their subjects' religious beliefs down to four factors:

"1. Intimacy of relationship with God, including praying and religious participation.
"2. Religiosity of upbringing
"3. Pragmatism (which covers the sorts of ideas that the non-religious would agree with)
"4. Fear of God’s anger

"Then they looked at the thickness of the cerebral cortex, and measured which bits were thicker (or thinner) in subjects that endorsed each of these beliefs.

"The idea is that the thicker bits have more neurones, which means that they work harder. If you know what those regions that have more neurones do, then you can start to figure out what religion (and non-religion) actually is, at least in terms of brain processing."

The finding is that there is correlation between increased thickness of the brain - interpreted as more neural activity - and most of the 4 factors listed above.

For example: "The first factor, intimacy with god, was greater in people who had more neurones in an area of the brain that deals with interpersonal relationships.

"Now, that's interesting stuff because it shows that people who have a prediliction for feeling intimate with God (praying to god, going to church) may essentially be highly social. The God thing is just an extension of that into the supernatural.

"The other interesting thing to ponder, according to the researchers, is that this same bit of the brain is also associated with mental disorders. People with a lot of neurones in this area are at risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and people with few neurones are at risk of schizophrenia."

Of course, corollary data does not imply cause or effect. The observed phenomenon could be genetic or it could develop from use of these regions of the brain. Or, it could be the result could be a combination of these factors.

Finally:
"The researchers draw two overall conclusions from this. Firstly, this is more evidence that there is no special bit of the brain for 'religion'. Rather, religion taps into neural pathways that evolved for other reasons:

* "This implies that religious beliefs and behavior emerged not as sui generis evolutionary adaptations, but as an extension (some would say ‘‘by product’’) of social cognition and behavior.

"Secondly, the type of god a religious person believes in is a consequence of their underlying neural makeup:


* "...the current study suggests that evolution of certain areas that advanced understanding and empathy towards our fellow human beings (such as BA 7, 11 and 21) may, at the same time, have allowed for a relationship with a perceived supernatural agent (God) based on intimacy rather than fear.

"In other words, it seems that the way a religious person conceives of their god is a reflection of their own ingrained personality."