Posted: 12/21/2004 9:47:23 PM EDT
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I'm starting to believe faith, as discussed here, is a matter of genetics. There must be a faith gene. Some believe without proof (it is the definition of faith, after all) and all I can think of is that it must be genetic, built in. Some people are just built to follow a religious leader and believe in these things, no scientific proof required. LIstening to believers describe it, it sounds like a 'feeling' which is what leads me to believe it is genetic. Some people don't have the faith gene and can't understand how people with the gene can believe what they do. Of course, people with the gene can't understand how people without it can exist. |
| Hmmm..... Interesting.... Then how do all my grandparents, both my parents and all my brothers and sisters(I have six) believe in God when poor WI_Rifleman is cursed with rational thought and rejects the idea of a supreme being? If it was a recessive allele most likely it would show up in one of my siblings too. |
As with all things genetic, there is no real black and white, diversity falls on the bell shaped curve. Most people have a passing, non-compulsive belief system while some have none and some are fundamentalist. Thinking about it a bit more, I believe its not a 'faith' gene but one that leads some people to compulsively ' follow the leader'. Humans are tribal and tribes must have leaders. Therefore it must be in all of us to 'follow the leader' to one degree or another. I suspect that's why for so many fundamentalists, Bush can do no wrong. God can do no wrong. The leaders they invest in become infallible. |
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You can believe in a faith gene all you want. But when that story came out, you should have seen the biologist I know ranting and raving about it. There is no faith gene. There is no biological predisposition to religion. Psychological conditioning would be a more legitimate arguement. |
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Naw, it couldn't be that, for some who had Faith early in life, come to lose that Faith. And those who had no Faith whatsoever in their youth, suddenly find Faith when they are older. Wouldn't a gene produce predictive behaviour? Nope. You decide to follow Christ based upon your own heart. Eric The(Believing)Hun 
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That is silly. I support President Bush, but clearly understand that he is completely fallible, and fails all the time. No mere man is beyond failure. Jesus, however, was, and is, no mere man. He is God, and completely without fault. We fundementalists are, as usual, something you don't understand at all. Just as you don't understand our God. |
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May I say that genetics in themselves is a pretty complex and amazing thing? Their existence and intense developmental nature is astounding. Then when you consider that kind of building block at a molecular level all working in harmony to build all the things around us - everywhere you look - is simply overload for the human to concieve. But then to think that it's all something that happend by some chance natural phenomenon. Then to think from that point on it all developed progessively in every direction and aspect, one building on another. Until, the genious design before us today come to be. There's simply no direction you can look on this planet and not see something working by design. Even if you believe humans (and everything else) developed by evolving from goo, no rational person could dismiss the incalculable effect that would have had to take place for us to be here, pecking away on computers. PLEASE!!! I humbly submit that if you believe this design exists by chance, you have FAR more faith than I. I can understand why people choose not to believe, and especially in a particular religion. But to deny a creator is pure nonsense! Genetics - yup I got em.... |
Some people would say that this 'evidence' of design is only the inevitable outcome of a particular set of circumstances. The physics of our universe and the physical properties of this planet allow for only one outcome. When the outcome actually happens it is not necessarily proof of intelligent design. |
You have a faith that out of a believed chaos came intelligent design ? |