Observation that religious faith communities are primarily populated by people born into the faith prompted me to consider the role of embryonic cortical primordium tissue development in those person’s tendencies to remain agglutinated to the familial faith. Recent findings describing the genes responsible for cortical growth and area-map establishment are characterized by recognition of interactions between a variety of signaling molecules and transcription factors.
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.neuro.26.041002.131137?cookieSet=1&journalCode=neuro
http://www.genes.uchicago.edu/lahn.html
http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/abstract/165/4/2063
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/040429/brainsize.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12872126?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Human neocortex tissues are largely responsible for our ability to envision alternative states of affairs and to imagine fantasy. Tempting as it seems, it may yet be premature to postulate that, it is intuitively obvious that growth factors affecting expression of the genes responsible for embryonic cortical primordium affect how those expressions obtain. Further suggestive is the notion that neural area mappings along defined axises are dependant upon molecular interactions occurring between adjacent embryonic structures. Significantly, if recent findings can be so interpreted, growth factor molecules from the mother’s own neural-emotion systems, the amygdalae and prefrontal system components, would influence embryonic cortical primordium tissue development. Could concentrations of neurotransmitter molecules in the mother’s blood serum resultant from her religious experience influence gestation of her fetus so that the child’s brain is more likely to be patterned for conformity within the religious faith community?
If so, then such an explanation for the observation at issue would be an extra tool used in the endeavor to relieve the mental anguish of our religious friends. By confronting feelings underpinning their faith with the knowledge that they were born with a predisposition to acceptance of that faith, the believer might be more willing to actually consider reasoned arguments against their religion rather than simply dismissing any criticism as Satanic.
(An example of such a reasoned argument that is usually summarily rejected by Christians is John Loftus’ Outsider Test. See his book “Why I Rejected Christianity: A Former Apologist Explains.”)
