God Gene.

Authors.

Hayk S. Arakelyan. Full Professor in Medicine,

Doctor of Medical Sciences, Ph.D , Grand Ph.D .

Senior Expert of Interactive Clinical Pharmacology , Drug Safety,

Treatment Tactics, General Medicine and Clinical Research.

Armenia, Yerevan State Medical University

Johnner Tan

Managing Director of Map My Gene LLC

Singapore

Hsiu-Hsien Tsai
Medical school, Taipei Medical University
Changhua County, Taiwan

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” 

“Buddha”

Introduction.

The God gene hypothesis proposes that human spirituality is influenced by

heredity and that a specific gene, called vesicular monoamine transporter
2 (VMAT2), predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences.
“Provided the fertility of religious people remains on average higher than that of
secular people, the genes that predispose people towards religion will spread,”
Rowthorn told PhysOrg.com. “The bigger the fertility differential
between religious and secular people, the faster this genetic transformation will
occur.
God Gene and Religion.
The idea has been proposed by geneticist Dean Hamer in the 2004 book
called The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes. The God gene
hypothesis is based on a combination of behavioral genetic, neurobiological
and psychological studies. According to the God Gene hypothesis, spirituality has
a genetic component, of which (VMAT2) comprises one component by
contributing to sensations associated with mystic experiences, including
the presence of God and feelings of connection to a larger universe.The research
uses the self-transcendence scale developed by psychologist Robert Cloninger to
quantify spirituality using three sub-scales: "self-forgetfulness" (as in the tendency
to become totally absorbed in some activity, such as reading); "transpersonal
identification" (a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe); and "mysticism"
(an openness to believe things that remain unproven, such as ESP). Cloninger
suggests that taken together, these measurements are a reasonable way
to quantify (make measurable) an individual's propensity to spiritual. The self-
transcendence measure was shown to be heritable by classical twin
studies conducted by Lindon Eaves and Nicholas Martin. Their work
demonstrated that approximately 40% of the variation in self-transcendence
was due to genes. By contrast, specific religious beliefs (such as belief in a
particular deity) were found to have no genetic basis and are instead cultural units
or memes. Similar conclusions were drawn from studies of identical twins reared
apart. Ask true believers of any faith to describe the most important thing that
drives their devotion, and they'll tell you it's not a thing at all but a sense—a
feeling of a higher power far beyond us. Western religions can get a bit more
doctrinaire: God has handed us laws and lore, and it's for us to learn and practice
what they teach. For a hell-raising species like ours, however—with too much
intelligence for our own good and too little discipline to know what to do with it—
there have always been other, more utilitarian reasons to get religion. Chief among
them is survival. Across the eons, the structure that religion provides our lives
helps preserve both mind and body. But that, in turn, has raised a provocative
question, one that's increasingly debated in the worlds of science and religion:
Which came first, God or the need for God? In other words, did humans create
religion from cues sent from above, or did evolution instill in us a sense of the
divine so that we would gather into the communities essential to keeping the
species going. Societies in which this potential is actualized in a sizeable
proportion of its members will tend to function more harmoniously and more
efficiently, so that natural selection will tend to favour the presence in human
societies of genes of this type. Different religious cultures use different
experiences, and different ideas, in pursuit of their common ends. Some , for
example, take divinity as a central theme (experimentally as well as intellectually)
while others (Buddhism for example) focus instead on qualities such as
compassion and wisdom, and on seeing reality clearly. In time, religious cultures
may lose sight of their original vision, and develop in malignant ways. The
diversity of religion, and the possibility of its development in malignant forms,
no more unconditionally discredits religion than do the diversity of languages,
and the possible abuse of language, in the case of language.

If you have any questions concerning ’ God Gene ’,interactive clinical

pharmacology , or any other questions, please inform us.                                 
  Hayk S. Arakelyan.

Johnner Tan.

Managing Director of Map My Gene LLC

Hsiu-Hsien Tsai.
Medical school, Taipei Medical University
Changhua County, Taiwan