Could some be genetically prone to be religions? (page 2)

Those that have a propensity to become addicted, many times, more from one addiction to another. Religion can be an one of their addictions, as can sex, along with drugs, alcohol and gambling. I believe that thereis an addiction gene, one that leads some people, to join cults.

PEC - I agree there may be something in what you say to a degree. I have an addivtive nature thats for sure

Maddie

Mickey mouse

If true the rest of my family have it and I don't.

wildfell

self-forgetfulness, or the ability to get entirely lost in an experience; transpersonal identification, or a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe; and mysticism, or an openness to things not literally provable. Put them all together, and you come as close as science can to measuring what it feels like to be spiritual.
"This allows us to have the kind of experience described as religious ecstasy," says Robert Cloninger, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and the designer of the self-transcendence portion of the TCI.
To narrow the field, Hamer confined his work to nine specific genes known to play major roles in the production of monoamines—brain chemicals, including serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, that regulate such fundamental functions as mood and motor control. It's monoamines that are carefully manipulated by Prozac and other antidepressants. It's also monoamines that are not so carefully scrambled by ecstasy, LSD, peyote and other mind-altering drugs—some of which have long been used in religious rituals.

Re monoamines discussed in the article quoted above. (page 3 of article in BurnTheShips post, if anyone is interested)

I recall discussing the "ability to get entirely lost in an experience" and "a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe" with an acquaintance many years ago. He said that he needed drugs to help him attain those feelings. In fact, he took drugs because he sought those very feelings. He was not at all religious either. Goinging by that article, he must not have had a natural abundance of monoamines.

I have also wondered whether some people are predisposed to being religious - for example, consider middle eastern people. They have religion so deeply steeped in their history (ie, Ancient Egyptians) and they tend to be deeply religious to this day.

I also have friends who were raised as aetheists, but as adults turn to a belief in a higher power and nurture a sense of spirituality.

tula

Viruses and bacterias have the ability to alter genetic material.

I am sorry I do not have time to document a source for you right now.

But here are a couple of interesting links that should lead you into exploration.

Surely, some may alter areas of the brain and affect reasoning skills.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2002/032802/feature4.html

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/museum/exhibit99/a_2.html

Tula

Layla33

I think that there are different personality types, those that lead, those that follow, those that want a large group of people to think for them. Some of us are individualists and some of us are not. I think it is also cultural and societal.

Could some be genetically prone to be religions?

reneeisorym

JH