I just saw a show with this topic and I'm wondering what your thoughts are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_gene

p.s. sry i just saw this so ill add some more links later

Also, an article from a medical news site:

http://tinyurl.com/ydd93d

That explains....a fucking lot...

I see how that that gene could spread with natural selection.

Ex. Rapidly reproducing catholics and muslims.

I hate how the "religious" people think that this is some blow against religion. Well, actually it IS a blow against religion, but not true spirituality. If anything, this bolsters my convictions and fits perfectly into my beliefs. I guess this is somewhat proof of the Gnostic idea of the three classes of humans: pnuematics (spiritual humans), psychics (mind/ego intelligence), and hyletics (materialists). It's like the difference between Jesus, a scientist, and a crack head.

quote:Originally posted by Q777:

I see how that that gene could spread with natural selection.

Ex. Rapidly reproducing catholics and muslims.

Except for the part that catholics and Muslims are not rapidly reproducing and that atheism (or secularism) is currently growing world wide.

i dont believe it. i reckon that mohammad and jesus were just people who were a bit mentally retarded, but they were the lucky 1 in several thousand to have just the right circumstances to be believed. look at abraham, moses and mohammad. their revelations came when they were alone.

the other people who thought that way were probably stabbed, but if several thousands do it, eventually one of them is gonna be believed to be suernatural and not just possessed

cool.

quote:Originally posted by Lamabot:

That explains....a fucking lot...

Actually it explains nothing. All human behavior is to some extent influenced by genetics, thus, posulating a gene that influences some particular behavior is meaningless. What makes a lot more sense (and has meaning) is that people tend to aquire the beliefs of the culture in which they grow up. So if your parents are religious you will likely be religious. A god gene doesnt exactly explain why people in different regions have DRASTIC differences in levels of religiousity.

quote:Originally posted by Lamabot:

Except for the part that catholics and Muslims are not rapidly reproducing and that atheism (or secularism) is currently growing world wide.

I mean to say that devote Catholics and Muslims have sex a lot and don't use protection and have lots of babies. Atheist are not known for rapidly reproducing in fact they reproduce the lower that the average. While atheism might be spreading but it is not because they are having lots of babies.

Dene Hamer wrote a whole book about it, aptly titled "The God Gene".

The title is not in a literal sense ... and if you know a thing or two about a thing or two concerning memetics, the theory really does make perfect sense.

A good follow-up read to that would be "Breaking the Spell - Religion as a Natural Phenomena" by Dan Dennett.

quote:Originally posted by Q777:

I mean to say that devote Catholics and Muslims have sex a lot and don't use protection and have lots of babies. Atheist are not known for rapidly reproducing in fact they reproduce the lower that the average. While atheism might be spreading but it is not because they are having lots of babies.

I'd have to agree with you. But keep in mind that catholecism is declining, but yes islam is rising

quote:Originally posted by Real.PUA:

people tend to aquire the beliefs of the culture in which they grow up. So if your parents are religious you will likely be religious. Yes, that's important.



quote:A god gene doesnt exactly explain why people in different regions have DRASTIC differences in levels of religiousity.

I might be reading this wrong but do you mean as in, how religious a person is?

Maybe I just wasn't paying close attention while reading the article but I thought it was saying a god gene might be why people have what they themselves term, 'a spiritual experience.' But maybe the importance or interaction of the gene (if it exists) is slightly different in everyone and might account for different levels of religiosity or spirituality.

Just as love is no less a powerful thing with the discovery of neurochemicals, spirituality and religion are no less powerful or valid with this god gene.

In fact, I believe it makes the argument far more interesting.

Why is life perpetrating the gene for spirituality, for connectedness with the universe?

Where is evolution going, and why?

Very interesting. http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

That's very interesting. I'll take two.

Cheers,

Lost

quote:Originally posted by Real.PUA:

Actually it explains nothing. All human behavior is to some extent influenced by genetics, thus, posulating a gene that influences some particular behavior is meaningless. What makes a lot more sense (and has meaning) is that people tend to aquire the beliefs of the culture in which they grow up. So if your parents are religious you will likely be religious. A god gene doesnt exactly explain why people in different regions have DRASTIC differences in levels of religiousity.

I concur

anyone have the episode of 20/20 or something where they were interviewing scientists and religious(sp?) people

Probably the descendants of the Sons of the Serpents.

quote:Originally posted by Seriously:

I might be reading this wrong but do you mean as in, how religious a person is?

Maybe I just wasn't paying close attention while reading the article but I thought it was saying a god gene might be why people have what they themselves term, 'a spiritual experience.' But maybe the importance or interaction of the gene (if it exists) is slightly different in everyone and might account for different levels of religiosity or spirituality.

What I meant was that genetics does not explain why the swedish are like 50% atheist.

quote:Originally posted by Jo0:

anyone have the episode of 20/20 or something where they were interviewing scientists and religious(sp?) people

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/