RE: The God gene
November 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm
(This post was last modified: November 27, 2011 at 2:14 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
With regards to the claims of spirituality (that the god concept literally comes from this gene), yeah, over-reaching. That there is correlation (some imply causation, and that's the over-reaching bit) in some studies between those who self identify as spiritual or religious and the expression of this gene is another matter. What can be said with certainty is that this gene has something to do with doling out the feel goods, the prevalence of which in those who claim to be experiencing the "spiritual" being well understood and documented. Dopamine ftw! Speculating way too much is an understatement. His study is "statistically insignificant". The hypothesis is plausible, we do know that this gene has a part to play in producing chemicals which our brains are "addicted" to. Since we know that those warm fuzzy feelings experienced and described are part of the effect of dopamine (among other things) then it could easily be said that for the subset of people who react to religion or spirituality by producing dopamine this gene is a contributing factor to their level of "religiosity" or spirituality. Calling it a cause ignores a great body of knowledge on the subject in favor of a laser like focus on the proponents own field (surprise surprise). On the other hand, theres the troubling bit about religion and spirituality not giving me (and many others) the fuzzies, just as one small example. Does that mean that my gene is malfunctioning? lol.
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