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.
Just a modern regurgitation of the Eugenics movement.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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.
kind of throws the 'free will' thing into question....
if you're predisposed to question it ...
I guess.. :o)
That explains my webbed toes. Thanks!
How so? Sounds like a reasonable conclusion from a simple observation to me.
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.
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.
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.
now I'm confused...
But I am predisposed to that... :o)
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.
1) Monozygotic adult twins have similar religiosity.
2) Dizygotic adult twins lack similar religiosity.
How would you explain this finding?
Great reaction! You've got it!! It's pure poppycock!!!
Its the homosexuals-are-born-that-way studies with religion substituted for homosexuals.
The next thing the gays will say " you just have a religion gene and we have a stick our fist up another guys..... gene"
It would be impossible to examine the "nature versus nurture" issue if all the study subjects shared both.
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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.
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.
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