God is a concept ( Archived) (58)

Well, that "god gene" doesn't actually have anything directly to do with believing in god, only with the mental capacity to achieve a so-called ’self-transcendence’.

In the physicalist view, the entire human life is explained by genes, chemicals, natural selection, and the environment. Dean Hamer, a geneticist of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, claims to have found the genetic explanation for leaning towards a belief in a supernatural deity, the "god gene" known as VMAT2, which allows for an evolutionary explanation of faith.

In his book ‘The God Gene’, Dean Hamer attempts to explain religion and spirituality in purely physical terms. He begins his book with an illustration drawn from Buddhist spirituality, and redefines faith as ‘self-transcendence’ which provides a numerical measure of people's capacity to reach out beyond themselves - to see everything in the world as part of one great totality. If one were to describe it in a single word, it might be 'at-one-ness'.

Hamer distinguishes ‘spirituality’ from ‘religion’. Spirituality is tied to his notion of self-transcendence while religion is far more concrete, rational, and particular. The ‘self-transcendence scale’ tries to separate one's spirituality from one's particular religious beliefs by eschewing questions about belief in a particular god, frequency of prayer, or orthodox religious doctrines or practices. Even individuals who dislike all forms of organised religion may have a strong spiritual capacity and score high on the ‘self-transcendent scale’.

It seems to me that more research is needed before all this can be called a viable theory, nevertheless it represents an interesting view.

Anyhow, one thing is for sure: god is nothing but a man-made concept !