Posted on 04/05/2005 4:26:14 PM PDT by Brilliant
A study published in the current issue of Journal of Personality studied adult male monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins to find that difference in religiousness are influenced by both genes and environment. But during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, genetic factors increase in importance while shared environmental factors decrease. Environmental factors (i.e. parenting and family life) influence a child's religiousness, but their effects decline with the transition into adulthood. An analysis of self-reported religiousness showed that MZ twins maintained their religious similarity over time, while the DZ twins became more dissimilar. "These correlations suggest low genetic and high environmental influences when the twins were young but a larger genetic influence as the twins age" the authors state.
Participants for this study were 169 MZ and 104 DZ male twin pairs from Minnesota. Religiousness was tested using self-report of nine items that measured the centrality of religion in their lives. The twins graded the frequency in which they partook in religious activities such as reading scripture or other religious material and the importance of religious faith in daily life. They also reported on their mother's, their father's, and their own religiousness when they were growing up. They were also asked to report on the current and past religiousness of their brother. The factors were divided into subscales-- external aspects of religion, like observing religious holidays, that might be the most susceptible to environmental influence and internal aspects, like seeking help through prayer, that might be the most susceptible to heritable influence. The external items were found to be more environmentally and less genetically influenced during childhood, but more genetically influenced in adulthood. The internal scale showed a similar pattern, but the genetic influences seemed to be slightly larger in childhood compared to the external scale and so more consistent across the two ages. "Like other personality traits, adult religiousness is heritable, and though changes in religiousness occur during development, it is fairly stable," the authors conclude.
This is going to be fun!
What passes for science these days.....
This is true for nearly all psychological characteristics.
From time immemorial the basis of Christian persecution has been couched in terms of trying to eliminate the Davidic line of Christ...this unfortunately would appear to fuel the aspirations of those invested in that opinion.
HELLOOOO... Any ten tribe people out there?
I'm going to have to save this article for the next crevo thread. ;-)
Duh! I believe a number of evolutionary theorists have made this prediction. This should give them more credibility, as one of the keys to good science is the ability to make a prediction that we do not yet have data for, and then having it confirmed.
They will just find our genes to be undesirable ones and abort us or starve us to death. Don't get too excited the gene issue may not be a positive theory.
Looks like scientific support for the doctrine of predestination and election. No surprise. Its biblical.
Thanks for the ping, but I donno what to do about this thread. The science is dubious, at least at this point. The topic seems sure to be a flame-fest. I'm inclined not to ping the list, but I'll deploy the list if there's a general demand.
My vote?
Sit back and see what happens!
Thus it appears I got Mom's religiosity genes. She's not very religious and neither am I. Then again, none of four kids were.
My father was a creationist. Shows you what genetics can do in such matters.
INTREP - junkscience alert!
Reach a little deeper and pull out a lung...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.