Implications of a religion gene (ritual, eternity, spiritual, God)

[Albino]

I came across this article and it got me thinking. What would it mean if religious inclination was genetic?

I'm no geneticist or anything, but aren't genes a result of our adaptation to external stimuli?

Couldn't we alter our genes to make ourselves less or more religious? Would a person genetically engineered to be religious have visions or something?

[Scuba Pete]

It's merely speculation at this point. God put eternity on our hearts... maybe he used our genes to do it.

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

Originally Posted by Albino

I came across this article and it got me thinking. What would it mean if religious inclination was genetic?

I'm no geneticist or anything, but aren't genes a result of our adaptation to external stimuli?

Couldn't we alter our genes to make ourselves less or more religious? Would a person genetically engineered to be religious have visions or something?

Dean Hammer makes a case for a gene, the VMAT2, that shows a propensity for spirituality on the self-transcendance scale but he rightly denies it connects to religiousity. Religious practice is wholly a matter of cultural learning

But VMAT2 is not the whole story - it does not correlate to all highly spiritual persons but only about 28% (if I remember correctly). That leaves a lot of room for other generic influences. Newberg, D'Aquili and Rause, in Why God Won't Go Away, show that brain structure and function is a feature of meditation that reaches a spiritual transendance. If the organization of the brain is involved, it is certain that some generic influence exists.