Abel Cohen
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read

Thanks man. But none of these actually says being christian, conservative, and racist is heritable. Which I can anecdotally confirm not to be the case from my own personal heritage. And each source posits a variation of environmental factors, not genetic ones:

“Research shows some attitudes are rooted in genetics, though environment is still key…environmental factors…are consistently stronger in predicting attitudes than genetic ones…it’s highly doubtful there are any specific genes for any given attitudes: Instead, attitude proclivity probably funnels through other mechanisms such as personality that spring from genes that influence a person’s neurochemistry in areas such as impulse control…data suggest an interplay of both genetic and environmental factors in people’s attitudes toward, for example, sex, politics and religion, with environment playing a stronger role.”

Also note that the APA admits at the end that those early 2000s studies are contrary to everything else and likely to be subsequently challenged by future (now) findings. Volks can self-identify as impulsive and genetically prone to rightwing white supremacist christianism; that’s fine. But it sounds a lot like identity politics, intersectionality, and virtue signaling to me!

Popular science has the most interesting take on it. 50% chance my atheism is heritable from fundamentalist parents. That means god — assuming he exists — half-wants me to go to hell. Not to mention their case study shows the exact opposite of their point: nonreligious parents, religious kids.

New scientist says 40% chance of nature rather than nurture. Which also doesn’t mean what you say it means. Then it goes on to dispute the APA piece you sent by stating non-impulsiveness is actually a religious trait, and that none of it matters anyway because the sample was bullshit: “points out that the finding may not be universal because the research focused on a single population of US men.”

NYT makes fun of believers, so not sure what that does for your hypothesis either: “For believers, it may seem threatening to think that the mind has been shaped to believe in gods, since the actual existence of the divine may then seem less likely.”

All but one of these is at least 10 years old. Mostly about religion. And I didn’t read much in any of them about genetic politics or racism. Though ND has a great one-liner at my expense: “even the word “atheism” has God lurking within it.” Ba dum ching.

ND also says: “it is not religious faith that is hardwired into our genes but rather a single personality trait as measured by a standard psychological inventory. Self-transcendent persons may or may not believe in God…It is a slim thread to hang a book on, certainly too slim a thread to support the assertion that faith in God is hardwired into our genes…Some believers will reasonably suppose that if God wanted us to acknowledge his existence, he might logically provide us with an innate predisposition to belief. (Although one might wonder why he would provide the C-version of the VMAT2 gene to some of us and not to others.)”

So I’m unsure what you thought to prove with all that, and I do not think it means what you think it means. But it was interesting reading. And I hope to now integrate both heritable and memetic into my vernacular. Thanks.

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Abel Cohen

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Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comfortable.