>Point taken and I agree completely. My "mental chip" metaphor was never
>meant to be literal or to imply that there were specific genes which
>were responsible for a person being "God meme" receptive or not. I was
>attempting to put a readily understandable metaphor to explain my
>observation that there were no particular attributes displayed by
>atheists but were lacking in theists apart from their difference in the
>belief in a God.
I don't know why we would throw away the idea of a "faith" gene -
lots of our predispositions certainly have genetic components.
Complex behaviors like sexual preference have genetic components -
perhaps being an atheist is like being a homosexual, just some
minority choice we make in how we live our lives (why it may even
cause us to be discriminated against). The choice can
certainly be affected by our environment, but perhaps the strongest
component is genetic... (?)
ken