Hi OMW,

It's been a while.

I haven't read the book, just some reviews--it sounds interesting.

It reminds me of a study I once thought of doing about the hormonal basis of religious faith. 🙂

So what's happening with you these days?

Hi OMW,

Well we have had a lot of God-related controversy here lately. And I say one good controversy deserves another.

So...now that they've discovered a genetic basis for religious faith, I suppose it's only a matter of time before they discover a cure...maybe even a vaccine. 🙂

Of course, there is a contrairwise approach to that same issue.

The God gene might also be crucial factor contributing to social behaviors like Maternal Nurturing and what is that morew general behavior, what is it, that annoying thing called...ph, yes...ALTRUISM!

Cleverness in the service of selfishness only goes so far in increasing the darwinian fitness of an animal. Higher animals, from shrews on up (yes, dogs and prarie dogs and mice and rats and dolphins too) to Human Beings have gotten to their current comfortable status not by being incredibly clever with our selfishness, buy also by having a sense of self-trancendence, an ability to visualize and value systems OUTSIDE of our individual brains, bodies and lives.

A socialized animal is most often more fit (as far as natural selection is concerned) than an equally clever asocial or antisocial animal. (Exceptins discussed later.)

Therefore, the discovery of the "God Gene" might also pave the way towards psychiatric, psychopharmicological, and genetic treatments that *enhance* the functioning of that gene.

What I am getting at is that the "God Gene" might be and probably is a key gene in that complex of genes that might be summarized as a trait called : the "Don't beat your wife and children and rape and steal and murder as fast as you can because why the hell not" gene complex.

Now that we have discovered the gene, we might be able to work on therapies, vaccines, maybe even a cure for the illnesses that are a result of weak or inadequate functioning of the "God Gene."

Jeez, think of it: We might be able to develop a simple vaccine that prevents Eternal Damnation.

I mean, if there is a such a thing as eternal damnation, I think we ought to develop a vaccine against it.

🙂

Yours, in eternity,

WD