Hello Readers and welcome back! I was posting like crazy there for awhile but realized that I was lacking passion for the posts, and lacking thought inducing content which I strive for in every post. I think this is because I was thinking for a topic instead of a topic searching for me... wait, well close enough. Enjoy!
I was reading the other day about something, I cannot remember title or original subject, but it had to do with our brains already being predisposed in believing in a higher power (i.e. God(s)) through genetics even before we are born. This has been referenced as the God Gene (specifically VMAT2) by it’s founder geneticist Dean Hamer, who has also done groundbreaking work in the areas of biotechnology and AIDS prevention, as well as his research on the genetics of human behavior including sexual orientation and spirituality. He has also wrote numerous books, but the one that is relevant here is The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into our Genes published in 2004.
Obviously Dean’s work regarding this has came under great scrutiny by well... nearly everyone because of this or that depending on who the criticizer is. This gene has been studied thoroughly and according to his hypothesis (which now in 2012 there is much more proof of this being more than just a hypothesis) produces the sensations associated, by some, with mystic experiences, including the presence of God or others, or more specifically spirituality as a state of mind. I am not going to go any deeper into the science behind it but you are more than welcome to check out Wikipedia’s entry about the God Gene , which is where some of this info came from, that and their references.
Hamer mention’s in his book mentioned above that “Just because spirituality is partly genetic doesn't mean it is hardwired” and that is hard to disagree with completely or there would be no Atheists, as well as other religions that do not really focus on a “Creator God”. I am living proof that the above quote is truly absolute, . It took me 23 years (76.667% of my life) to realize that a belief in a “Creator God” was making me toxic, I was doing no good to myself or anyone else following down a path with blind faith and coincidences (or at least not what I thought it was). A “Creator God” is irrelevant to the sole purpose that religion provides, well the only important one in this author’s eyes, that being you should be strive to have all aspects of loving-compassion towards yourself and all others, regardless. Yes, there are special scenarios that would make this difficult, but exclude anything that may be harmful to you (e.g. it might not be a good idea to give a homeless person a place to stay without previously knowing them because they might kill you in your sleep), which is why the above statement says yourself and others... If you are just doing good deeds just because you are scared to go to a “bad place” in the afterlife, or next life depending on the reader’s perspective, then do not do it at all because that is the worst possible reason to try and embody pure loving-compassion. Do it because that is just what we are supposed to do... help others without question... without a reason that is selfish...
I thought it was purely Western Society and upbringing that was the primary reason for not being able to shake “Western” religious thought even though I was going and believing in Eastern and had been for nearly a year and still was trying to shake same of those core ideals off. Even now some of the Western thought has not went away even though my idea of Logical Spiritualism has Buddhism at it’s core. However, this is why I am a Logical Spiritualist, I pick and choose from whatever religion or religious idea to form what is most logical for me and provides the most benefit to myself and others... and would recommend everyone do the same, and who knows yo may already be where you need to be, but that likelihood is low, or at lest appears to be.
Anyway, I do think there is something to the God Gene as everyone in my family was religious, except for my Dad and that was only to a certain extent, he was just not nuts over it and had a broad ideal on sin, per se, and my mother is one of thee most religious people you will find who follows The Bible. So genetically that would be passed down me correct, especially since everyone else in my large family was Christian. Yeah, I think is was more than just upbringing and breaking habitual thought with something that seems a little foreign. I think it is plausible that was the reason I could not let go of some of the Western ideas until long after changing direction to Eastern Thought. In the future I know that question will be possibly answered with an answer that has undoubtably truth behind it...
Keep the gears rotating since 1981...
-automachi
The Logical Spiritualist
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