Could some be genetically prone to be religions?

by JH 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  JH

  At our hall, so many entire families were JW's. An elder told me that all the other members of his family were of another religion.

  This made me wonder if some families could be genetically prone to be religious?
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  stillajwexelder

  HS has a similar thread at the moment - I think yes
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  JH

  HS has a similar thread at the moment - I think yes

  If so, I didn't know, and I must be psychic
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  Maddie

  Dr Dean Hamer, 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.

  This experiment has been criticised for its reductionist approach. Maddie
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  BurnTheShips

  I think genetics could possibly have something to do with it, yes. But I am not decided either way.

  "The God Gene"

  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101041025-725072,00.html

  Burn
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  lonelysheep

  I think our brains are what cause us think, question, and resolve.
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  Gopher

  I don't think the science is there to support the "God gene" idea. The idea has been repeatedly brought into serious doubt since the idea was first run up a flagpole in 2004.

  Religiousness is more about society, tradition, and personal character and psychology. You can't reduce it down to a gene, that is too simplistic. Who says there has to be a gene for everything?

  Here's a link that breaks it down from a speaker I have listened to -- P.Z. Myers. He breaks down VMAT2, the supposed God gene, at the molecular level, and there's no God or religion in there. http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/no_god_and_no_god_gene_either/

  And here's some counter-arguments from the Wikipedia article on the God gene, including one from an Anglican priest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_gene

  John Polkinghorne, an Anglican priest of the Royal Society and a CanonTheologian at Liverpool Cathedral, was asked for a comment on Hamer's theory by the British national daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. He replied: "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."
  

  Walter Houston, the chaplain of Mansfield College, Oxford, and a fellow in theology, told the Telegraph: "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."
  

  The DVD commentary for "

  The God Who Wasn't There" provides a counter-argument -- followers of non-Judeo-Christian religions experience similar emotions to Christians after their meditative and other religious exercises, too. Humans may simply be adept at undergoing psychological changes if they engage in activities that require extended attention.
  

  Carl Zimmer claimed that, given the low explanatory power of VMAT2, it would have been more accurate for Hamer to call his book A Gene That Accounts for Less Than One Percent of the Variance Found in Scores on Psychological Questionnaires Designed to Measure a Factor Called Self-Transcendence, Which Can Signify Everything from Belonging to the Green Party to Believing in ESP, According to One Unpublished, Unreplicated Study.[1]
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  WTWizard

  It is not genetic. It does run in families, however, much the way tradition does. Say, the father has a strong religion. He is likely to inculcate the children in that religion from an early age, and they are likely to adopt it since that is all they readily know. And they will pass that religion down their families in the same fashion.

  However, if the children are separated at birth, this will not happen. You take a very religious father that dies as soon as a child is born. That child is now placed in the home of an atheist with zero tolerance for religion from birth. The child is not likely to learn religion, and by the time he is old enough to pick one up, there is a good chance that he is not going to accept it. That is even more so if the new parents are fully integrated in their stand against religion.
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  Tyrone van leyen

  Religion itself may not be in the blood, but a timid nature and weak dispostion may be. Such traits may leave one more easily disposed to suggestions and affilaitions with such group thought, stemming from insecurity. These traits become reinforced as family tradition. Repitition and family heritage, leaves the structure unassailable.

  Groups such as the Amish (known for common blood lines) have these traits. They shut out society and live in their own world. The Amish have an expression, " Sis em blot". It is in the blood. I beleive anything you do for a long enough time, will become you.
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  PEC

  Those that have a propensity to become addicted, many times, more from one addiction to another. Religion can be an one of their addictions, as can sex, along with drugs, alcohol and gambling. I believe that there is an addiction gene, one that leads some people, to join cults.

  Philip