The God Gene

11/12/2004 Dr Wingnut Spiritual Comments Off on The God Gene

The following are excerpts that I found interesting from the Time article, “Is God in Our Genes?”, 25 October 2004:

Hamer also stresses that while he may have located a genetic root for spirituality, that is not the same as a genetic root for religion.  Spirituality is a feeling or a state of mind; religion is the way that state gets codified into law.  Our genes don’t get directly involved in writing legislation.  As Hamer puts it, perhaps understating a bit the emotional connection many have to their religions, “Spirituality is intensely personal; religion is institutional.”

Molecular biologist Dean Hamer, Chief of gene structure at the National Cancer Institute, and author of “The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes”

“God is an artifact of the brain.”

Michael Persinger, professor of behavioral neuroscience at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario

Simply understanding the optics and wiring of the eyes, after all, doesn’t mean there’s no inherent magnificence in the Rembrandts they allow us to see.  If human beings were indeed divinely assembled, why wouldn’t our list of parts include a genetic chip that would enable us to contemplate our maker?

Jeffrey Kluger, article author

The simple answer might be that just because we’re given a gift, we don’t necessarily always use it wisely.  Fire can either light your village or burn down the one next door, depending on your inclination.  “Religions represent an attempt to harness innate spirituality for organizational purposes—not always good,” says Macquarie University’s Davies. And while spiritual contemplation is intuitive, says Washington University’s Cloninger, religion is dogmatic; dogma in the wrong hands has always been a risky thing.

Paul Davies, professor of natural philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia; and, Robert Cloninger, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the designer of the self-transcendence portion of the standardized, 240-question personality test called the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) TCI Excerpt: How Spiritual Are You?

“I have never had a Big Bang conversion experience.  My sense is that slowly and gradually, out of a rich experience of the world, one builds a faith.”

Neil Gillman, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City