God gene

The God gene hypothesis states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a prediposition to episodes interpreted by some as religious revelation.

According to this theory, the God gene is not an encoding for the belief in God itself but a physiological arrangement that produces the sensations associated with the presence of God or other mystic experiences. What evolutionary advantage this may convey, or what advantageous effect it is a side effect of, are questions that are yet to be fully explored.

The idea has been promoted by Dean Hamer, the director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Contrary views

John Polkinghorne, a fellow of the Royal Society and a Canon Theologian 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."

Hamer responded that the existence of such a gene would not be incompatible with the existence of a personal God: "Religious believers can point to the existence of god genes as one more sign of the creator's ingenuity—a clever way to help humans acknowledge and embrace a divine presence." A verse in the Christian New Testament (Luke 12:48) could be interpreted as not inconsistent with the concept of a genetic predisposition regarding faith: "To whom much is given, much shall be required."

References

• The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes by Dean Hamer. Published by Doubleday, ISBN: 0-385-50058-0.

See also

• VMAT2

External links

• Dean Hamer's website
• Daily Telegraph report