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The God Gene
12-Aug-2009
Throughout the history of humankind no phenomenon has been more enduring, appealing, alluring, misrepresented, and misused than religion. Archeological discoveries show that religion, albeit in its primitive form, has been with us even prior to recorded history. Religion has continued to exist despite flourishing scientific discoveries and the increasing popularity of secular governments around the globe. However, its mystical power has diminished in recent centuries as the mysteries of the universe have been unlocked one after another by science. Nonetheless, there is no way that we can divest ourselves of something that has dominated every aspect of our lives for thousands of years, and doing so is neither feasible nor desirable. Religion has remained, and will continue to remain, a sanctuary of hope for the masses, especially the poor and marginalized, because of its opposition to oppressive power structures and the promises it makes.
Religions are like differentiated products. While they are basically meant to accomplish the same thing for believers (i.e., eternal salvation), the many varieties of religions reflect our cultural diversity. People usually do not choose a religion for themselves. They become associated with a particular religion because of family, friends, and/or the environmental circumstance under which they are raised. Religion is instilled, passed on to a person, and is nurtured by cultural settings. Human spirituality, which is the seed of religiosity, is genetic. This is the main theme of a popular though controversial book by Dean Hamer, a prominent microbiologist/researcher in the U. S., entitled The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes.
Dr. Hamer tackles an important, albeit contentious topic, and tries to investigate “whether or not there is a biological basis for spirituality” and religious belief. His main goal is to establish that there is indeed a particular gene that is linked to spirituality which, among other things, draws us into religion as the outward manifestation of spirituality. His working hypothesis: “We (human beings) have a genetic predisposition for spiritual belief that is expressed in response to, and shaped by, personal experience and cultural environments.” In other words, the instinctual tendency is there, however, the expression of spirituality (religion) is mainly influenced by environmental and cultural factors. Because spirituality is not objective and thus cannot be quantified easily, Dr. Hamer resorts to an elaborate survey scheme to measure what he calls “self transcendence” as a proxy for spirituality. If spirituality is indeed hereditary, what is the extent of its heritability? He presents and discusses the results of many previous scholarly studies on this subject. His aspiration is to discover what gene is responsible for spirituality and hence religious devotion and how spirituality manifests itself in the human brain. His theory can be summarized as follows: there exists a particular gene, a God gene, and it is the stimulation of this gene that can alter chemicals in the human brain which in turn alter the extent of consciousness and hence spirituality.
Hamer rightfully emphasizes throughout the book that spirituality is not the same as religion. “Religion, unlike spirituality, is transmitted primarily not by genes but by memes: self-replicating units of cultures, ideas that are passed on from one individual to another through writing, speech, ritual, and imitation.” He also makes it clear from the beginning that he is not trying to prove or disprove the existence of God which is beyond the realm of science. However, he states that the question of why we believe in God can be addressed by science. Likewise, the issue of whether one’s beliefs are right or wrong is normative and hence cannot be validated or rejected via scientific research. Basically, your beliefs are yours and yours alone. Science can only examine the issue of how such spiritual feelings are formed and proliferated. “This book is about whether a God gene exists, not about whether there is God.” Science can tell us whether our genetic make-up leads us to God, but cannot tell us whether God exits.
According to the author, while spirituality is mainly the product of our genetic make-up, religion is the product of environmental and cultural factors. A comprehensive research conducted by microbiologists on twins separated at birth seems to confirm that “genes were responsible for roughly half of the variation in religiousness from one twin to the next. In other words, the study seemed to suggest that at least part of the reason people believe that religion can help to answer life’s questions is their DNA.”
Since the twins (the subjects of the investigational study conducted by biologists prior to Hamer’s study) were separated at birth and lived in different households with different environments, the nearly 50% similarity in their religious beliefs proved the influence of their DNA on their religious beliefs. “Something in their genes helped to push them toward religion” says Dr. Hamer. Further study revealed that the self-transcendence scores (a measure of spirituality) for identical twins were very similar owning to the resemblance of their DNA proving that spirituality does not depend totally on external factors but rather is based on the genetic makeup of the individual. “Contrary to what many people might believe, children do not learn to be spiritual from their parents, teachers, priests, imams, ministers, or rabbis, nor from their culture or society. Spirituality comes from within. The kernel must be there from the start. It must be part of their gene.” This is the persistent theme of this book.
If Dr. Hamer’s theory is valid, it puts forward the proposition that the kernel of spirituality is innate but its manifestation is not. It is different in different societies. Christians go to churches; Jews attend synagogues; Muslims go to Mosques. People may adhere to the same religion but not have the same level of spirituality. An Ayatollah may be a devout Muslim but be low on the spirituality scale. Conversely, a non-religious person may be very spiritual. According to his study, women, for example, score higher on spirituality regardless of the extent of their religious beliefs. Many Muslims attend mosques every day, pray, and fulfill religious requirements faithfully; however, they may exhibit an absence of spirituality as demonstrated by their lack of tolerance, selfishness, narrow-mindedness, rejection of universal salvation, lack of a sense of belonging, etc. On the other hand, spiritual people may not be religious. Religiosity and spirituality are basically different and originate from distinctly different sources.
The central point of Dr. Hamer’s study is that a person cannot become spiritual if the predisposition is not there. He argues that “Of 35,000 genes present in the human genome, we know the function of only about one-third of them,” and so chances are that one of the genes whose function is yet to be explored might be responsible for spirituality. He has undertaken the adventurous task of identifying that gene by conducting extensive painstaking research. His goal is to identify which gene can be considered as the candidate for shaping the self transcendence, a measure of spirituality. After meticulous research and a few trials, he thought he “hit pay dirt.” He claims that his research confirms a significant correlation between a particular type of gene, VMAT2, and spirituality and that this gene is the one that determines whether or not a person will turn out to be spiritual. It “affects every facet of self-transcendence, from loving nature to loving God, from feeling at one with the universe to being willing to sacrifice for its improvement.” “While this gene might not make one a saint, a prophet, or a seer, it was enough to tip the spiritual scales and predispose one toward spirituality.” He argues that only one gene is the key source of human spirituality and not the non-biological factors. He also cautioned that spirituality is too complex to be explained entirely by a single gene and concludes that about “40 to 50 percent of self-transcendence is inheritable.
Spirituality can be enhanced through meditation, drugs [such as psilocybin], and episode of revelation. Such occurrences can change the states of consciousness and their relationship to spirituality. According to the author, people under these influences exhibited immense changes in mood, behaviors, sense of reality, paradoxicality, ineffability, transiency, etc. so intense that often they felt that their hallucinatory experiences were real. The spiritual personal encounters, such as revelation, are highly individualistic and universal and are not related to any particular religion. These encounters separate spirituality from religion; they also lend support to the idea that spirituality is connected to a state of consciousness (awareness of our surroundings and ourselves). “Episodes of altered consciousness are by no means limited to people taking drugs, of course. Virtually every great religious figure has reported one sort of mystical experience or another [revelation].”
Modern technologies combined with spirituality-enhancing drugs have allowed biologists to alter the brain’s chemistry and to influence the focusing power of a sample of individual meditators. They have tried successfully to reorient the brain’s activity thus enabling the subjects to come into contact with “heightened spirituality and mystical experiences,” by shifting the balance between primary and secondary consciousness, the sole property of human beings. Hamer uses an analogy. “It was like simultaneously turning on all the air conditioning in the house; the flow of power to other appliances will decrease,” thereby losing the usual sense of self. The author argues that when Muslims go to Mecca or Jews face the Western Wall their brains may go through a similar transformation temporarily. Understandably, not every ordinary person is able to attain the transformation that is a necessary step for keen spirituality. For instance, masses of people in Iran have performed the rituals of Haj, but many of them remain unspiritual, albeit highly religious. There is a worldly impetus behind religiosity that does not apply to spirituality.
Dr. Hamer explains that ordinary people occasionally encounter an experience that cause them the “loss of normal self identity,” or separation from one’s own self, and feeling a sense of unity with the world. The natural tendency is there in the brain but it takes a gentle push to activate it. That gentle push may come from: relaxing rhythmic music, rhythmic movement of the body - dancing, experiencing a dreadful phenomenon like the death of a close friend or relative, seclusion and isolation from the outside world in holy places. Such nudges (emotional spanking if you will) are needed to activate the brain and shift the balance of our consciousness from a primary to a higher level.
Dr. Hamer also discusses the temporal lobe epilepsy as a psychological disorder from which many people suffer – 2.5 million in the U. S. alone. An individual who suffers from such a disorder experiences hallucinatory seizures, or becomes excessively dreamy, or obsessive. The author states that “there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that each of them [highly religious leaders] had temporal lobe epilepsy.” People who suffer from this disorder become zealots who may devote their entire lives to religion. The author mentions the example of Saint Paul who converted to Christianity in about 33 AD. His conversion occurred while he was on the road to Damascus and was triggered by a psychological experience – a vision of the resurrected Jesus, a revelation – after which it was said he was temporarily blinded. Paul's influence on Christian thinking has been perhaps more significant than that of any other New Testament author.
Might experiences such as St. Paul’s be God’s own way of creating God gene triggers for exceptional individuals who can then guide others to the straight path of religion?
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Comment by Dr. Hamer
by varjavand on Wed Aug 19, 2009 02:00 PM PDTI have received the following commens from Dr. Dean Hamer the author of the God Gene.
Dear Reza,
That is a wonderful review - and a very good essay on its own. You should really write more on this topic. You have a good way of explaining things.
I wish you well in your writing career,
Dean
Ari Siltez;
by varjavand on Wed Aug 19, 2009 08:27 AM PDTHere is my answer to the second part of your question to the best of my understanding.
God genes like other genes will be passed on to the next generation, from parents to their children. Dr. Hamer believes that we can study the evolution of God genes by examining the traits that involve these genes. Here is my understanding of his argument; the selective advantages conferred upon us by the God genes allow them to survive and evolve, such advantages include; healing power, healthier life style, power of miracles, and hope and optimism. “people who believe they will be healthy have better chance of surviving than those who expect to die early. Genes that promote such believes are more likely to be replicated and handed down to the next generation” in other words, the VMAT2 gene, the God gene will contribute to human reproduction by increasing the “feel-good chemicals” in our brain.
So, just as the transporter of religious believes, memes, survive and mutate, so do the God genes
Thanks Mr. Varjavand
by Anahid Hojjati on Mon Aug 17, 2009 09:49 AM PDTDear Varjavand, thanks for comment about my poems. You also keep up writing informative articles.
varjavand
by Ari Siletz on Sun Aug 16, 2009 09:43 PM PDTAssuming that the "God" gene developed (mutated) from an earlier "Godless" gene, I wonder what edge it may have given the carrier in the competition for reproduction.
Dear Anahid,
by varjavand on Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:14 PM PDTI checked them out, they are soul-enriching. I haven’t seen them before because they are on blog s section.
Keep up the good work,
Varjavand
Dear Mr. Varjavand, my poems are posted on this site..
by Anahid Hojjati on Sun Aug 16, 2009 08:33 AM PDTDear Mr. Varjavand, my poems are posted on this site under my blog.
//iranian.com/main/user/3699
Once again thanks for your enlightening article.
Dear Ms. Hojjati; It
by varjavand on Sun Aug 16, 2009 08:06 AM PDTDear Ms. Hojjati;
It is so relaxing to be able to enjoy from such a God-given gift. Almost all great religious leaders often experienced such a heightened state of emotional transformation that they reported extraordinary mystical experience according to Dr. Hamer who offers the following examples: Budha reached Nirvana under the budha tree. Saul was blinded by the light on the road to Damascus. Jesus struggled with the devil in the desert. Muhammad ascended through seven layers of heaven on a winged steed in Jerusalem [mi’raj] Regardless of what one believes actually occurred during their experiences, they involved altered perceptions of self and surroundings” and, that particular gene(s), Dr. Hamer claims to have discovered is/are responsible for all such wonderful mystical experiences and the ensuing spirituality according to Dr. Hammer.
Please post some of your poems on this site; I am sure they are enlightening.
Poetry writing as result of experiencing emotional spanking
by Anahid Hojjati on Sun Aug 16, 2009 06:49 AM PDTDear Varjavand, in part of your article, you note that Dr. Hamer says that ordinary people sometimes under conditions of emotional spanking, experience a sense of unity with the world. I wanted to let you know that sometimes this happens to me and I end up writing some of my better poetry under thse conditions.
Salam Mehdi
by varjavand on Sun Aug 16, 2009 05:46 AM PDTSalam Mehdi,
While there is no doubt about the positive strengths resulting from faith, there are drawbacks too, mostly the off springs of religion, the manifestation of spirituality: First, religions try to create distinctiveness for their followers hence they are exclusionary. Jewish people for example believe that they are the “chosen people”, Muslims claim that their religion came to complete all the others and Muslims are the ones who will enjoy eternal salvation, non-believers are condemned, etc. Second, almost all religions urge its followers to marry only a person of the same faith. The gloomy consequence is that such marriages perpetuate ancient outdated memes, closed-mindedness, and backwardness. Islam does not even allow its female followers to marry a non-Muslim man. Dr. Hamer argues that “Most of the genetic patterns observed in the contemporary Jewish communities could be traced back to a common source population several thousand years ago” So, while the God Genes confer benefits they have their vulgarities too.
Ari,
by varjavand on Sun Aug 16, 2009 04:55 AM PDTAri,
Spirituality and its gene are the sole attribute of human beings. The activation of the God gene through gene triggers takes us to an elevated level of consciousness from primary level, hence spirituality. Only human beings can experience such a transformation into higher level of consciousness. Dr. Hamer explains that both human beings and animals share the core conscious - the need to do the same basic things. However, the higher level of consciousness belongs only to human beings. The difference between us and the animals is that we both do the same instinctual things, however, we also think about the consequence of our actions too. “Not only we see and smell and taste tings, we know want they are and what they represent for us” Animals “lack our sophisticated brand of consciousness – and our spirituality”
I cannot answer the first part of your question because I am not sure if my understanding is accurate. What do you mean by evolutionary advantages- I may be able too if you explain it a billte bit more.
Salam Varjavand
by Ahmed from Bahrain on Sat Aug 15, 2009 07:52 PM PDTI am not certain if science can conclusively solve this issue, yet I believe in the progress of mankind/collective (un)conscious. The jury is still out on the function of much of the genes.
Similar questions also exist currently in physics, where the old discovery of atom as the smallest indivisible matter has given way to further discovery within the atom of proton and neutron; then hadron and quarks; then baryons and mesons; then more quarks and anti-quarks within each matter; then more mesons, pions, lepton, muons, tauons, and neutrinos and seemingly mst of these particles have their corresponding ani-particles. This is all baffling also to scientists that in Higgs field there seem to be a phantom boson which some have called the "God particle". (see page 390 of The Story of God by Prof Robert Winston.
Few years ago Icame across a book on ppower of prayer in healing the sick; written by Larry Dossey, M.D. Its called Healing Words. Perhaps worth getting it from your local library. This Larry being a doctor and skeptic sets out to study the medical research on the subject and he presents those in his book.
The scientists do what the scientists do and men of faith do what they do. I used to say religion is meant to free us and not chain us.
I have seen individuals within Christian, Muslim and Buddhist communities benefit greatly from their faith especially during difficult times. They seem to draw positive strength from their faith. I think this is great for them, however, there are those within every faith who seem to want to put down and exclude others from their way of thinking. I believe just as the universe is expanding, so too, we are expanding in our consciousness to a point where the idea of Oneness will envelope all of us. Beyond this point very smart things will happen. We are gods of our own destiny.
In the meantime, I continue to promote Oneness of mankind, unity in diversity, love for all individuals and the method of non-violence to promote this idea, which I try to live up to myself.
"So, help me God." oops. it just came out. Having typed it, I thought I should keep it in to prove perhaps that our minds can be influenced by our up-bringing, history, parents, etc.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity for this expression.
Ahmed from Bahrain
Important research
by Ari Siletz on Sat Aug 15, 2009 05:48 PM PDTDear Ahmad,
by varjavand on Sat Aug 15, 2009 06:05 AM PDTDear Ahmed,
Thanks for your informative comments. We human beings have been constantly searching for, and believing in, God even before our recorded history according to evidence. That is not of course new, what is, however, innovative in Dr. Hamer’s book is his bold attempt trying to explore why we are drawn to God, his answer is that we are made, hard wired, to believe in God. But I think the most important point is the consequence one can place on his research. If in fact his findings are true it raises serious reservation about religion and may provide ammunitions to none-believers who would say “that findings of God gene proves there is no God - that religion is nothing more than genetic program for self-deception” What do you think?
God can not
by Ahmed from Bahrain on Sat Aug 15, 2009 03:13 AM PDTnecessarily be associated with religion, since many religious people have hijacked religion throughout history for their own interests.
This where the mind comes in. Unless an individual is not sane of mind, majority can think for themselves. There is a glitch in all religions which gives ammunition to those who profess to be the keepers of religion; and that is fear of God.
This concept of fear of God is irreconcilable with having to love this same God for how can we love that which we also fear?
If all this sounds like doing injustice to God then we must redefine God in our own image according to our latest collective experience as humanity and based on sound mind.
With a friend who showed up as my teacher and then we grew up together as friends and seekers of the truth, we wrote a number of articles which appear in his website. I would like anyone who is interested to visit this website and read some of the articles:
www.mikeansari.com
The underlying theme is to treat every person with dignity and respect until love shines through every individual.
Thank you.
Ahmed from Bahrain
Dear Commenters,
by varjavand on Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:15 PM PDTIf Dr. Hamer’s theory is in fact correct - that our desire to believe in religious beliefs has a genetic foundation - then the believers will argue that such God-instilled desire is not inadvertent, it has many purposes. It provides with many consequential advantages: First “It provides us with a sense of purpose beyond ourselves and keeps us from being incapacitated by our dread of mortality. Our faith gives us the optimism to press on regardless of the hardships we face.” When there is no hope, we chase a rainbow as I used to say. Second, faith has the power of healing. “almost all great religious founder was also a healer” Even though there are not many conclusive researches on the healing power of faith, the author maintains that if enough people believe that it works it may warrants scientific inquiry. Believing in healing power of faith is not limited to ancient people; it is well popular among many religious groups even today. I am not aware on any scientific research on the power of faith-healing. It is quite like placebo effects if you believe it works, and then it (may) work. “religious believers did not need experimental evidence; they already accepted the efficacy of prayer” Dr. Hamer asserts that “The ubiquity of placebo effects suggests that an individual’s belief that it can work is enough to make it work on many different types of illness” And, third, empirical evidence suggests that more religious people enjoy better health. The correlation between the level of religiousness and the health status has been established through large-scale surveys and proved to be significant. The findings of a few of them have been reported by Dean Hamer in his book. Such findings suggest that religious people are healthier.
Despite all the positive impacts, this innocent genetic desire has been deplorably exploited by some sly individuals throughout the history even more so for political and domination purposes. Almost all the enduring conflicts that have taken heavy human tolls have been triggered or prolonged by religion. Dreadfully, religion can sanction aggression and killing as religious duty that is rewarded with eternal salvation, martyrdom. This is the dangerous side of religion that even exists today.
I can attest to this
by fozolie on Fri Aug 14, 2009 03:59 PM PDTI have a friend who inspite of his enlightened upbringing has become an Akhoond, not for political or financial gain, but from genuine belief. It is a very sad case.
Hopefully they will find a gene therapy to treat this condition and rid us of religousity, the source of so much misery in the this world.
Mr. Fozolie
What a great article
by Anahid Hojjati on Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:58 PM PDTThanks for writing this very interesting article.
Here is a comment by a
by varjavand on Wed Aug 12, 2009 09:22 PM PDTHere is a comment by a Christian reader who sent it to me privately:
As a Christian I believe that faith is a gift from God that is constantly being extended. One has to listen deeply and see deeply into the events of one's life in order to be able to recognize the ever-present loving action of God in one's life and the world (which is not always easy, especially in negative experiences). Could God have created a God gene within each person that could be activated? God can do anything and everything so it is possible. But the real issues to me are if God created us with this gene, how is this "activated" or "stimulated?" I believe this is where other people (parents, teachers, mentors), education in some faith belief, and associating with other people of faith are extremely important factors no matter what one's socio-economic status. And I believe God is well-served and a religion is well-served by devotees who are ever seeking truth (because God is truth) and can be faithfully critical of institutionalized religion so as to enter into a community search for truth and how to live God-values (faith, hope, love, charity, justice, peace etc.). Institutionalized religions become inauthentic and oppressive when its leaders and followers are inauthentic and oppressive.
I haven't read the book so I don't know about the quality of his research and if his theory has any validity in the scientific community. My guess is that there would be a lot more that would have to be done because spirituality and genetics are both very complex. Common understandings and definitions of spirituality alone are not easy to come by. Authenticating the reality of a God gene would be only a small beginning to another very complex process of discovery that would grow out of that discovery. Just because spirituality may have a genetic base or "enhancer" does not negate one's belief in God nor does it negate other avenues of that have been tried, tested, and proved true over generations of believers. Millions upon millions have found God, spirituality and life-enhancing faith without knowing if they have a God gene or not. If this discovery helps make this a better world in which to live and love, I'm all for it!