Is atheism a genetic oddity?

[Qlip]

Let me get this right from your point of view... God created people with aberrant genetics that make them not believe in him? Oh the implications, he truly works in mysterious ways.

 

[Population: 1]

I have a mutant husband and two children. None of them are atheists or autistic.

How bizarre!

Seriously that’s cool because the percentages are pretty low for having left hand dominant children even for two lefty parents. Having two is even lower. I thank you for continuing to promote lefty mutations within the human race.

 

[Lark]

Let me get this right from your point of view... God created people with aberrant genetics that make them not believe in him? Oh the implications, he truly works in mysterious ways.

To be honest I think you should just work on the basis that there's certain posters on this forum who believe in the literal truth of what they've read in the fluff and gamebooks of 40K and they've bee searching for sources which will confirm this ever since.

 

[deathwarmedup]

What about people who change beliefs?

I'm a right hander who was born a left footer. And then changed my beliefs.

 

[Forever]

...I like to switch my hands every now and then.

 

[LucieCat]

I really have always assumed that beliefs are a product of our environment to some extent. I cat really fathom them being genetic. Granted, this doesn't mean that they are not genetic. I just can't comprehend it.

I do have a friend who is both left-handed and an atheist. But I also have friends on the autism spectrum who are religious. There are also plenty of right-handed atheists.
Genetics is a confusing field.

 

[Andy]

Given the number of atheists in certain parts of world, this can't possibly be more than a minor affect. I read that in the UK, the number of atheists passed 50% for the first time. Certainly, amongst the young, the figures are very high. I don't think the percentage of left handed or autistic individuals has reached the same levels.

 

[Lark]

I'm a right hander who was born a left footer. And then changed my beliefs.

Were did you hear that turn of phrase?

 

[Lark]

Given the number of atheists in certain parts of world, this can't possibly be more than a minor affect. I read that in the UK, the number of atheists passed 50% for the first time. Certainly, amongst the young, the figures are very high. I don't think the percentage of left handed or autistic individuals has reached the same levels.

Yeah, I heard the same, its something the government is scrutinising because they had always hoped that private charities and churches could completely replace the welfare state in time, its what all of Cameron's ramblings about a "big society" where about, and the thing about a census indicating a greater number of atheists or humanists or any other sort of secularists is that it could well be an indication that there will be less money circulating informally, less people relating to one another routinely with a structured calender of events and a upsurge in loneliness that sports or some other sort of clubs or societies wont be sufficient to provide.

 

[The Cat]

So left handedness is a genetic oddity? How sinister... On the other hand... to deny the philosophical possibility seems a bit strong armed, so do the ambidextrous run the air conditioning with the windows open? I'm not certain the two things are related... But what is life without a little mystery...

 

[Justin of Flavia Neapolis]

Lefty writing hand. Righty punching hand.

Started out semi-Satanic as well.

Lefty AND estranged Father?

Fedora-city

 

[Population: 1]

So left handedness is a genetic oddity? How sinister... On the other hand... to deny the philosophical possibility seems a bit strong armed, so do the ambidextrous run the air conditioning with the windows open? I'm not certain the two things are related... But what is life without a little mystery...

Oh clever sir! Very clever.

 

[Typh0n]

Lots of connections in this thread being made between left-handedness and the left-hand path.

 

[Justin of Flavia Neapolis]

It seems logical though, that those who are deemed abnormal are more likely to question societal norms.

It could be as simple as that: Left-handedness leads to questioning what is "normal." So, in a theistic society left-handedness leads to atheism, whereas in an atheistic society left-handedness leads to theism.

I don't think it necessarily travels in one direction (atheism).

EDT: my daughter is left-handed.

 

[Population: 1]

 

[Ace_]

"By contrast, atheists and believers in the paranormal would, disproportionately, never have reached adulthood or never have been born, because these beliefs, though very different, are partly an expression of the breakdown of selection and thus of rising mutational load," the study says.

Or because religious people would have killed them?

 

[deathwarmedup]

Were did you hear that turn of phrase?

scotland

 

[Red Memories]

I am right handed and religious...

but my grandfather is left handed and religious...

I feel this is a weird correlation to make, and we should remember correlation is not equal to causation.

 

[Yara the Corpse]

Let me get this right from your point of view... God created people with aberrant genetics that make them not believe in him? Oh the implications, he truly works in mysterious ways.

this is amazing

 

[Lark]

I'm just wondering the who and why of how this research got funded.