Cambridge English B - 1.1.2 Reading

What Twins Reveal¹ About The Science Of Faith

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Most people can accept diseases or height and even weight being genetically heritable to some extent², but when it comes to our personal beliefs we tend to be more sceptical.

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For many, the idea that there is a genetic component to our faith (or lack of it), is a stretch too far and damages the concept of self-determination that we hold so dear³.

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Twin studies conducted around the world in the U.S., the Netherlands and Australia as well as ours in the U.K. show a 40 to 50 percent genetic component⁴ to belief in God.

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The opposite scenario⁵ of non-belief is also true: only a tiny 3 percent of the U.S. population report being firmly atheist compared with 18 percent in the U.K. As well as belief, participation follows separate trends in the two countries.

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The conclusion is unavoidable⁶: faith is definitely influenced by genes.

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To uncover in more detail exactly what part of belief or religion was genetic, an unlikely research partnership was formed between two academic twin experts: Nick Martin, an extrovert⁷ atheist Australian and Lindon Eaves, a British lay preacher originally from Birmingham.

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. These studies demonstrate our variable but innate⁸ inherited sense of spirituality, which affects how we perceive the world, ourselves and the universe. This is independent of our formal religious beliefs and practices and, strangely, largely independent of family influence.

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They defined this as ‘the capacity⁹ to reach out beyond oneself and discover or make meaning of experience through broadened perspectives and behavior.’

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One individual during prayer or meditation may feel a rush of immense joy and fulfillment¹⁰ from the reward centers of the brain (in the hypothalamus), and someone else may feel only the uncomfortable chair and be worrying about the shopping list.

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