Reddit mentions of The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes

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We usually conceive spirituality as an abstract form of human expression and existence. Spirituality regards our concerns with the human spirit, as opposed to being concerned about the material or physical things. It is probably very hard to define spirituality because it appears among humans in many different forms, and it has been present since the existence of homo sapiens, and since humans developed the capacity for metacognition, morality, etc.
In modern, secular times it is possible to look at spirituality in a way that is free of institutional structures, such as religion. It is a completely subjective and deeply personal experience, as such, it differs from the main goal of science – to be objective. Nevertheless, psychologists have found a way to measure it. One of the leading scientists in the field of personality, Robert Cloninger from Washington University, has come up with a personality test, which among other aspects of personality measures also – spirituality.

This scale is called “self-transcendence”, and the scientist says that it measures “what allows us to have the kind of experience described as religious ecstasy”. He differentiates among personality traits that are related to our temperament – the ones that represent our innate emotional reactions, and the ones that are called “character” – the ones that represent our learned behavioral patterns. Self-transcendence is according to Cloninger, a character trait in humans.
He is not the only one trying to scientifically describe and explain the human need for spiritual experience. There is also a molecular biologist – Dean Hamer, who wrote the book: “The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired in Our Genes”, where he gave us an evolutional perspective on the possibility that humans inherit a set of predispositions that make their brains ready and eager to embrace a higher power. He actually compared DNA samples of his examinees against Cloninger’s spirituality scale and concluded that spirituality is definitely a construct which could be looked at from the perspective of science.

These new scientific revelations will for sure change the way we perceive our connection to ourselves and the universe, as it will probably no longer be seen as love or fear which relates to an abstract concept.