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Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Science and the possibility of living (almost) forever

Posted in aging, artist, longevity, tagged , , , , , , on July 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Hindus believe in reincarnation, the process w...
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The concept of “immortality” lies deep in the core of Indian spirituality and the religious traditions of many other cultures.  Its probably not a coincidence that one of the first and, still, most influential books on the history of yoga is entitled, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom by Mircea Eliade (you can read the book online here)

Most of the time, this refers to some part of a person – the soul, spirit or otherwise – that lives on forever after the physical body decays.  That we are able to recognize and ponder our mortality and the suffering of the physical body, is an integral part of why, in the first place, we seek to practice religion  (covered here).

I mean, no one ever took the concept of immortality LITERALLY, did they?  Perhaps not.  Until now.  Check out the trailer for a new movie that opens tonight in New York City on the science of Aging:  To Age or Not To Age – a film by Robert Kane Pappas. At the center of this film is likely the so-called longevity gene known as SIRT1 (covered earlier here).

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My genes tell me that smokin’ and drinkin’ are sins

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Church Steeple
Image by muffintoptn via Flickr

Humans are spiritual creatures – there’s no denyin’.  How & why we got this way is one of THE BIG questions of all time.  Since our genome shapes the development of our brain and its interaction with our culture, its not a surprise to see that, from time to time, folks will look for and find genetic links to various forms of spiritual and religious behavior.  Here’s a recent paper from Kenneth Kendler’s research team at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine entitled, “A Developmental Twin Study of Church Attendance and Alcohol and Nicotine Consumption: A Model for Analyzing the Changing Impact of Genes and Environment” [link to abstract].  An analysis of more than 700 pairs of twins found that the correlation between alcohol and nicotine consumption and church attendance (more church predicts less smokin’ and drinkin’) is more than 50% influenced by genetic factors – in adults.  In children and teens, the genetic contribution to the correlation is much less and the strength of the correlation stems more from shared environmental factors (parents, school etc.).  Is there a gene for going to church? Nope.  Are there genes that shape a person’s inclination toward novelty or conscientiousness? More likely so.  Are they distributed across all races and cultures? Yep.  Lots to ponder next Sunday morning.

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