Is there a "God Gene?"

[Tannhauser]

I find this highly entertaining. 'God gene' discovered by scientist behind gay DNA theory at News.Telegraph

'God gene' discovered by scientist behind gay DNA theory
By Elizabeth Day

Religious belief is determined by a person's genetic make-up according to a study by a leading scientist.

After comparing more than 2,000 DNA samples, an American molecular geneticist has concluded that a person's capacity to believe in God is linked to brain chemicals.

His findings were criticised last night by leading clerics, who challenge the existence of a "god gene" and say that the research undermines a fundamental tenet of faith - that spiritual enlightenment is achieved through divine transformation rather than the brain's electrical impulses.

Dr Dean Hamer, the director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute in America, asked volunteers 226 questions in order to determine how spiritually connected they felt to the universe. The higher their score, the greater a person's ability to believe in a greater spiritual force and, Dr Hamer found, the more likely they were to share the gene, VMAT2.

Studies on twins showed that those with this gene, a vesicular monoamine transporter that regulates the flow of mood-altering chemicals in the brain, were more likely to develop a spiritual belief.

Growing up in a religious environment was said to have little effect on belief. Dr Hamer, who in 1993 claimed to have identified a DNA sequence linked to male homosexuality, said the existence of the "god gene" explained why some people had more aptitude for spirituality than others.

"Buddha, Mohammed and Jesus all shared a series of mystical experiences or alterations in consciousness and thus probably carried the gene," he said. "This means that the tendency to be spiritual is part of genetic make-up. This is not a thing that is strictly handed down from parents to children. It could skip a generation - it's like intelligence."

His findings, published in a book, The God Gene: How Faith Is Hard-Wired Into Our Genes, were greeted sceptically by many in the religious establishment.

The Rev Dr John Polkinghorne, a fellow of the Royal Society and a Canon Theologian at Liverpool Cathedral, said: "The idea of a god gene goes against all my personal theological convictions. You can't cut faith down to the lowest common denominator of genetic survival. It shows the poverty of reductionist thinking."

The Rev Dr Walter Houston, the chaplain of Mansfield College, Oxford, and a fellow in theology, said: "Religious belief is not just related to a person's constitution; it's related to society, tradition, character - everything's involved. Having a gene that could do all that seems pretty unlikely to me."

Dr Hamer insisted, however, that his research was not antithetical to a belief in God. He pointed out: "Religious believers can point to the existence of god genes as one more sign of the creator's ingenuity - a clever way to help humans acknowledge and embrace a divine presence."

 

[Ratty Sr.]

I have a God-gene, but the kind that makes me God.

 

[Roshambo]

Wait...I thought the entire point of Creationism was to have some crackpot "scientist" "disprove" evolution, and then someone comes up with a possible genetic tie to inclination towards deity belief (which, if you've seen Dogma, could explain a lot ) and the Theologians are having problems with it.

IRONY!

 

[calculon000]

Maybe this is why religion isn't dying out at the rate one would expect, Christian couples having umpteen children.

I propose that this is linked to inbreeding in the Deep South based on statistics I just pulled out of my ass.

And Dogma was a great movie.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Maybe this is why religion isn't dying out at the rate one would expect, Christian couples having umpteen children.

You're assuming, of course, that Christans make up a lot more of the religious community than they do. Though it's one of the "Big Three", Christianity accounts for less than 1/3 of the world's faithful (and the percentage is dwindling, at that). Besides, the only Christians I know that have more children than sense are Catholic.

 

[John Uskglass]

Maybe this is why religion isn't dying out at the rate one would expect, Christian couples having umpteen children.

You're assuming, of course, that Christans make up a lot more of the religious community than they do. Though it's one of the "Big Three", Christianity accounts for less than 1/3 of the world's faithful (and the percentage is dwindling, at that). Besides, the only Christians I know that have more children than sense are Catholic.

It's by far the biggest religion in the world with over 2 Billion people. Islam may fairly presently take that title, but I don't really care.

This is really pretty absurd. So, for instance, the rebirth of the Orthodox Church after the fall of the USSR is because of.....a gene?

 

[The Vault Dweller]

Interesting...as much as I would like to think of a person's spiritual journey as being programmed into them, that would explain why some people born into un-religious home's suddenly becoming very faithful and spiritual.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

 

[quietfanatic]

were more likely to develop a spiritual belief.

Thats right. It is not the only factor, just one factor that might have a large influence. Nobody be like a stoopid fundamentalist and say that it is the only reason.

I have heard about similar research before and also the effects of magnetic fields on detecting a 'presence' or spiritual experience (Some stuff about the magnetic fields can be found here.). Some people have such screwy brain chemistry, that they think that they are Jesus, or whatever spiritual figure they have in their respective culture. These are the same chemicals in excess amounts.

Most cultures go through the same stages of spiritual development, and then claim that their god(s) is the only one. I am agnostic and think that this superior stance is irrational and dangerous. Just because there is a slight change in dogma, millions go to war. Tomato tomado. Everyone has spiritual needs and no system is the 'true' faith.

A strange thing I have noticed with my very religious friends, is that they almost never accept that such things as genetics or evolution might just be God's work, and prefer to ignore everything. There is no room for compromise. Even with irrefutable proof, many still just claim that 'literally the bible is true, therefore scientific theory is wrong'. As I am not religious, I can only see negative reasons for such viewpoints.

 

[Sander]

So, basically, a bunch of religious people are saying that this can't possibly be true because that would mean that their faith could be false?

"No, mommy, it's all wrong, because I don't like it."
Pft.

I'll wait for some responses from other scientists, first, though. The scientific community has this nice ability to criticize itself.

 

[alec]

Hehe. I kinda like this theory. I have no doubt whatsoever that this so-called god-gene is situated somewhere between the gay-gene and the moron-gene.

 

[Corpse]

One thing I have always wondered is why so many people, some who are obviously intelligent individuals can believe in religious nonsense.

I guess this kind of answers my question.

 

[Wooz]

Hehe. I kinda like this theory. I have no doubt whatsoever that this so-called god-gene is situated somewhere between the gay-gene and the moron-gene.

I'm just waiting for those people to 'discover' a gene that determines your artistic and musical tastes.

 

[Sander]

One thing I have always wondered is why so many people, some who are obviously intelligent individuals can believe in religious nonsense.

I guess this kind of answers my question.

One thing I have always wondered is why so many people, who are obviously intelligent individuals, can dismiss someone's own experiences and beliefs with the remark "it's nonsense". There's no way you can ever prove or even make likely that there is no god, or that any religion is false.
*sigh*

 

[alec]

There's no way you can ever prove or even make likely that there is no god, or that any religion is false.

Nor is there a way to prove or even make likely that there is indeed a god.

To solve the riddles of reality does not require the existence of a god whatsoever. Nothingness, a singularity, the big bang, evolution, prehistory, history, the present... it can all be explained without having to rely on the skillfull hands of some divine maker.

It's chemsitry and physics, pepper and salt, bread and butter.

The thing that should wake religious zealots up is this: if some god created everything, then who created that god? Or, for the dumber people on this lonesome planet: what was first, the chicken or the egg?

As for religious experiences and such: I seriously advise people who have had "religious experiences" to go see a doctor. It's probably a tumor or a lingering trauma messing up their brainwaves.

-- alec, always glad to help where help is needed

 

[Dapper Dan Man]

I heard the same gene controlling religious experiences etc deal with spatial concepts, a sort of "connection" to the rest of the universe, out of body experiences, and the like. The feeling I am told has been simulated and measured in certain monks and the like from Buddhist temples.


I dont think any of this DENIES the existence of God, but it certainly sheds new light on things.

 

[November]

Hey, I can't believe in God because I don't have that gene...not because of my theories about universe & stuff, these are crap. All these years...wasted.

 

[Wooz]

Ah, well, it all depends on what you call God.

If you determine it's Santa Claus mk.II sitting on a cloud somewhere with a big beard, or any kind of physical entity, there might be a problem with the whole "who was first" thing.

Until someone proves that space and time aren't a straight line, and that said entity could have distorted timespace and created the universe after it was created, beforehand, and brought existence to life for Christmas.

Or not.
Damn. I got to lay off the stuff for a while.

 

[November]

Until someone proves that space and time aren't a straight line

I thought it has been already proved.
....and it seems you are quite frustrated about Christmas...join the club!

 

[quietfanatic]

There's no way you can ever prove or even make likely that there is no god, or that any religion is false.
*sigh*

But you can prove that they can't all be right, unless you have some sort of Pratchett, 'choose your own reality' system. What I hate about religion, is that spirituality is exploited as a means of control, or reason for conflict.

I don't usually like fence sitting, but being agnostic seems to be the only position for me. There is no conclusive evidence for or against, but I don't think it would change things much even if there was. The premise of blind faith is powerful, even if it sounds like ignorance and superstition to me.

 

[Jabbapop]

you're so overly zealous about agnosticism... maybe you have the god gene! or the agnostic gene!

i want god's jeans!