Do you have a believers' gene that predisposes you to be interested in Buddhism?
The findings of a Cambridge University study on the inheritability of religiosity are somewhat dubious when it comes to Buddhism.
As this writeup in the Denver Post explains,
[British Economics professor emeritus Robert] Rowthorn contended that scientists widely agree that religion has biological foundations. Belief in the supernatural, obedience to authority, and affinity for ceremony and ritual depend on genetically based features of the human brain, he wrote, citing several influential studies.
It's interesting that relogiosity is assumed to be characterized by these three things:
1. Belief in the supernatural
2. Obedience to authority
3. Affintiy for ceremony and ritual
I know several Buddhists who have embraced Buddhism because they profess to disdain all three things. Many claim that Buddhism, therefore, isn't a religion. What do you think? Can you be a proper Buddhist without having these three so-called religious traits?
4 comments
Personally I don't like to chant in jeans. Sitting in seiza or performing raihais work much better when wearing pants made of thinner material.....
Ow, Engyo. That joke hurt. I sentence you to two minutes in the penalty box. ;-)No, I'm not an evolutionary biologist, so take my comments with a grain of salt.Yes, I believe in evolution, and I believe that we can engage in a kind of conscious spiritual evolution through the life state we cultivate (a la karma, as explained best by the Tibetans and their explications of the bardo, or between-life-and-death).....But I find it hugely dubious and even annoying when people try to explain via evolution our modern predispositions of thought. What next? The Catholic celebration of the eucharist arises from leftover genes of our cannibalistic ancestors?This type of study is interesting but ultimately not at all illuminating.Many people have an intuition that there's more to life than the material world that we can see and touch. For some people, this intuition is strong in youth but is dismissed in older age, or vice-versa. If you want to call that "belief in the supernatural," fine.Ritual and obedience to authority might be ways that people respond to this intuition of the supernatural -- while others respond by making art or writing poetry or baking awesome cookies.Is that genetic? Does it matter?
Dubious indeed. The Cambridge study speaks more to the reproductive system than it speaks to the belief system.Similarly, I've found Nichiren Buddhism speaks more to the practice of chanting than it speaks to the actual practice of Buddhism.If you spend 10 hours chanting, then 10 minutes later you find yourself cussing at someone in traffic - what do you really believe?Wonder did Cambridge do a study on the "hypocrite gene"?
"Similarly, I've found Nichiren Buddhism speaks more to the practice of chanting than it speaks to the actual practice of Buddhism."Doesn't that all depend on how the individual is practicing Nichiren Buddhism? I have had experiences like you describe in the past. Now that I practice in a different manner, that doesn't have anywhere near the likelihood it used to have.