Berns and his colleagues found that values identified as sacred were processed in areas of the brain that are associated with semantic rule retrieval. Basically subjects were reading off moral rules; what another conference participant would later refer to as “moral platitudes.” In addition, when sacred values were contradicted by their opposites (e.g., to a believer asserting “You do not believe that God exists”), the researchers found arousal in the amygdala, which is associated with negative emotions.
Once again, though, just because these values were processed "in areas of the brain that are associated with semantic rule retrieval," it does not follow than any and all things processed there fall under that rubric. That the contradiction of such values would elicit a negative response is, shall we say, a no-brainer.
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