April 02, 2008
Christian gene isolated:
The satirical Aussie news show CNNN broadcast an hilarious news report on the work of gay scientists who have isolated the 'Christian gene'.
Satire aside, this is not the first time that the idea of a gene for religion, or at least, mystical experiences, has been discussed.
Geneticist Dean Hamer wrote a book called The God Gene where he argued that the VMAT2 gene partly mediated a tendency toward mystical or spiritual experiences, based on a study which was published solely in the book itself.
With much talk of a 'God gene' in the press, science writer Carl Zimmer memorably renamed it "A Gene That Accounts for Less Than One Percent of the Variance Found in Scores on Psychological Questionnaires Designed to Measure a Factor Called Self-Transcendence, Which Can Signify Everything from Belonging to the Green Party to Believing in ESP, According to One Unpublished, Unreplicated Study".
Link to CNNN report 'Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene'.
