Heritability of attitudes: Twin research in religious p...( an values engage and criticize one anot...)

2. Ted Peters, Ph.D., Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union, 2380 Ellsworth Street, Berkeley CA 94704. Tel: 510 665 8141; Fax. 510 665 1589. Email: tpeters@ctns.org

"Careful scientific study that cautiously puts forth tentative hypotheses for judicious consideration is always welcome. Olson et al. report their research and then hypothesize that a genetic predisposition toward success in athletic competition, mediated by experiences of success in sports, leads toward a positive social attitude toward athletics. This claim for genetic determinism is modest yet still courageous when presented before an audience of social scientists with investments in environmental determinism. "Theologians watch the ping pong match between genetic determinists and environmental determinists with yawning interest; because theologians have a stake in free will, something reductionists on both sides of the determinism debate exclude from their studies. Free will, something each of us experiences every day and even every hour of every day, is exercised by the human self or person, also something missing from such scientific study.

"One of the startling and puzzling results of the now ending Human Genome Project is the surprising low number of genes in the human DNA, only 30,000 when the original estimate had been 100,000. This raises the question: what in the cell's activity leads to particular physical traits? Maybe it's not genes alone; maybe its multiple protein configurations in gene expression. The jury of molecular biologists is still out on this one. What this could mean is that studies such as that of Olson et al. tell us almost nothing about genetic determinism, even if interesting things about heritability come out of it.

"When we wake up to find ours
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Contact: Brent Waters
srns@science-spirit.org
412-585-0842
Science and Religion Information Service
17-Jun-2001