m_huber
Muse
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2007
- Messages
- 828
I have been reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins as of late, so his ideas of genetic survival have been going through my head. He includes a list of behaviors that appear altruistic, but can be explained by gene survival, and this includes living in groups. To carry the idea to humanity, this would have to also include morality (I have not yet finished the book, so I don't know if he makes this case in the later chapters), as that is a key part of group living.
Last night, I was approached by a Christian who talked to me for some time about his beliefs. He insisted that he had felt the Holy Spirit touch his life and change him. It made me think: do our genetic instructions for altruism manifest themselves in the form of what we call the "Holy Spirit?" This would seem to explain why different religions all have practices designed to get them closer to the spiritual world. It seems to me that genes for pleasure in spirituality would evolve more rapidly than genes that do not take pleasure in spirituality, because the spiritual people would have better group coherency, better moral, and more incentive for following the sexual practices consistent with good gene continuation would exist.
Is this something that is already understood, or something that I'm way off on, or a good idea, or what?
Last night, I was approached by a Christian who talked to me for some time about his beliefs. He insisted that he had felt the Holy Spirit touch his life and change him. It made me think: do our genetic instructions for altruism manifest themselves in the form of what we call the "Holy Spirit?" This would seem to explain why different religions all have practices designed to get them closer to the spiritual world. It seems to me that genes for pleasure in spirituality would evolve more rapidly than genes that do not take pleasure in spirituality, because the spiritual people would have better group coherency, better moral, and more incentive for following the sexual practices consistent with good gene continuation would exist.
Is this something that is already understood, or something that I'm way off on, or a good idea, or what?