I saw and read the recent Time Magazine cover story about “The God Gene”. Boy, what a let down! The whole thing should have been just a small article in the science section or a back-page piece regarding “potential philosophic issues that may arise eventually from genetic research ”.

The article centers around a book that a genetic researcher named Dean H. Hamer recently published. Need I tell you what the book’s title is? The book and the Time Magazine article focus on a recent study by Hamer that attempts to link the scores that a group of people got on a “transcendence survey” with a feature of one of their genes. The transcendence survey is just a group of questions that tries to measure just how spacey and mystic you are. Hamer found a feature of a specific gene that statistically correlates with the scores that people in his study group got on the transcendence survey. In other words, if you were in the group and your VMAT2 gene had a certain feature, you were likely to do a little better than if you didn’t have this genetic feature.

Hamer’s study still hasn’t passed the standard scientific peer review process or been replicated by other scientists. Thus, in the science world, his study means just about nothing at present. And even if it does eventually pass muster, it wouldn’t come close to establishing that belief in God is affected by a genetically determined brain process. Hamer’s study, if it is accepted, would just be one of many different studies that would be needed to confirm such a proposition. There are all kinds of unanswered questions yet unresolved; on the one hand, it’s unclear that a person’s transcendence test score correlates with their belief or disbelief in a God (or a “higher power”, to be more generic). On the other, it’s totally up in the air how the VMAT2 gene variation would affect the brain as to encourage the mind to favor the idea of God.

Hamer has some guesses about that, but all they are right now are guesses. They could turn out to be totally false (or more likely, partly false and partly true). And even if the VMAT2 gene is a part of a process that encourages some minds to have a strong feeling about God, there would almost certainly be other genes involved in the process; even the simplest human behavior that is found to have genetic influences is linked to a whole host of different genes doing different things. There’s a whole lot more to be researched before any conclusions can be made.

So, don’t waste your money on Hamer’s book. The title (yes, the book is called “The God Gene”) promises very much and delivers almost nothing. As to the Time Mag article, well, it may be worth a walk down to the library, but not much more than that. The fact that scientists are interested in linking the historical and cross-cultural tendency of humans to believe in a transcendent power to genetics and brain chemical processes does make you stop and think — even if it’s way to early to conclude that there is such a connection. The Time article did bring up some important “what if” points that should interest philosophers and theologians, even the amateur ones like me. Does the existence of a physical process that points our minds in the direction of God count as evidence of God’s design in the world? Or is that physical process a Darwinian survival thing, with no logical need to posit the existence of the delusion that it causes?

One interesting side point that does come out of this discussion is the indication that the brain does have physical processes that can produce good moods, “oceanic feelings”, and inner peace. Studies on the brains of people who are able to deeply meditate (which I was once able to do but lately have lost the touch) have illuminated the chemical and electrical processes that lead up to the meditative sense that all is well. So maybe mystical meditation experiences aren’t really a sign of God’s existence, as John of the Cross and other great mystics thought. But hey, if you can find a way to use it to make your life better, then why not? Good old American pragmatism at work! But the mystic might respond to the American pragmatic that the only way to get your mind to release the chemicals that cause inner peace is to believe in God in the first place. Hmmmm, the problem of faith goes on, with or without DNA.