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Nature Helps Create Religious Adults
ScienceDaily ^ | 2005-04-05 | Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Posted on 05/11/2005 9:03:13 PM PDT by beavus

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: cary; evolution; genetics; heretability; nature; religion
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1 posted on 05/11/2005 9:03:14 PM PDT by beavus
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To: beavus


Just a modern regurgitation of the Eugenics movement.


2 posted on 05/11/2005 9:03:54 PM PDT by LauraleeBraswell ( We must stand behind TOM DELAY!)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
The Left will no doubt feverishly work to identify a "conservative" gene so all those hateful troglodytes can be aborted before they can question people's faith in progress.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
3 posted on 05/11/2005 9:05:53 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: beavus

If your child is genetically predisposed, then perhaps it would be prudent to give him something safe while young, lest he finds something during adolescence that gets him into trouble. On the other hand, if he is not predisposed, then he will shed whatever you gave him anyway.

Sounds like a scientific argument to raise kids with religious behaviors.


4 posted on 05/11/2005 9:07:51 PM PDT by beavus
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To: beavus

kind of throws the 'free will' thing into question....
if you're predisposed to question it ...

I guess.. :o)


5 posted on 05/11/2005 9:09:59 PM PDT by Tungenchek
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To: beavus

That explains my webbed toes. Thanks!


6 posted on 05/11/2005 9:10:43 PM PDT by Wormwood (Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
Just a modern regurgitation of the Eugenics movement.

How so? Sounds like a reasonable conclusion from a simple observation to me.

7 posted on 05/11/2005 9:11:35 PM PDT by beavus
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To: Tungenchek
kind of throws the 'free will' thing into question....

Free will is the ability to act counter to your predispositions. However, if you don't recognize those predispositions, you are unlikely to consider acting against them.

So knowledge saves free will.

8 posted on 05/11/2005 9:13:48 PM PDT by beavus
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To: beavus

This is a bunch of reaction to finding a new attack to support the homosexuals "born that way" propaganda.

This is pure poop.

What would the left do if the found a religious gene? manatory abortions for the religious gene?

Perhaps they are trying to justify the fact that leftist wackos dominate the universities, perhaps they will tie genius to NOT having this gene.

Seriously, I think this is just a new attack on the homosexual movement because of the devastating success on the marriage amendmens.


9 posted on 05/11/2005 9:14:35 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: beavus
What I see here is just a measurement of monozygotic (hereinafter called by their common name, identical) twins propensity to mimic their twin, versus the lower propensity of dizygotic (commonly called fraternal) twins. As we all know, male fraternal twins are just the same, genetically, as two brothers born during different pregnancies to the same two parents. They are more likely to look somewhat different.

Identical twins are extremely likely to look the same, and everyone in their environment treats them a bit differently because of this. There's a greater expectation among friends and family that they are going to do the same things, make the same choices, etc. They internalize these expectations, and it affects their choices, at least enough to show a statistically significant difference from twins that are "allowed" to be individuals, because people know they're fraternal.

This study hasn't proved to me that there is any genetic basis for religiousity.

10 posted on 05/11/2005 9:17:29 PM PDT by hunter112 (Total victory at home and in the Middle East!)
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To: beavus

now I'm confused...

But I am predisposed to that... :o)


11 posted on 05/11/2005 9:17:39 PM PDT by Tungenchek
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To: beavus

most of these twins studies are garbage with methodology flaws.

This is using the same flawed BS that was used by the left for the homo twin studies.

garbage in garbage out.


12 posted on 05/11/2005 9:18:29 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: longtermmemmory

1) Monozygotic adult twins have similar religiosity.
2) Dizygotic adult twins lack similar religiosity.

How would you explain this finding?


13 posted on 05/11/2005 9:18:35 PM PDT by beavus
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To: goldstategop; Carry_Okie

Great reaction! You've got it!! It's pure poppycock!!!


14 posted on 05/11/2005 9:20:26 PM PDT by SierraWasp (The "Heritage Oaks" in the Sierra-Nevada Conservancy are full of parasitic GovernMental mistletoe!!!)
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To: hunter112

Its the homosexuals-are-born-that-way studies with religion substituted for homosexuals.


15 posted on 05/11/2005 9:22:18 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: beavus

The next thing the gays will say " you just have a religion gene and we have a stick our fist up another guys..... gene"


16 posted on 05/11/2005 9:22:35 PM PDT by Walkingfeather (q)
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To: hunter112
What you are forgetting is that the famous Minnesota twin database is useful precisely because it contains data on twins separated at birth, sometimes even raised in different countries. Otherwise there would be the confounding factor you speak of.

It would be impossible to examine the "nature versus nurture" issue if all the study subjects shared both.

17 posted on 05/11/2005 9:24:00 PM PDT by beavus
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To: beavus

n


18 posted on 05/11/2005 9:24:04 PM PDT by Quixotical
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To: beavus

the minesota twin studies is one of the most discredited studies because it did not take into account that the twins were often placed in similar environments by design. There were mack truck size holes in the methodology.


19 posted on 05/11/2005 9:25:58 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: longtermmemmory

I'm always wary of anything that ties behavior, or behavior propensities to genetics. We're just at the beginning of understanding genetics, sort of like where Louis Pasteur was at the time he finished medical school, in understanding disease.


20 posted on 05/11/2005 9:26:27 PM PDT by hunter112 (Total victory at home and in the Middle East!)
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