The source of all human behaviour lies in our genes.

It is our genetic material that induces us to laugh, cry, sing, love, hate and fight. Here too, is the birthplace of belief—in witchcraft, astrology, economics and aliens; in Tarot cards and tea-leaves; in gods, angels and devils; in luck, voodoo, and things that go ‘bump’ in the night. Here is the factory floor of faith, the mother-lode of morality, and the very seed of civilisation.

“The degree of disillusionment we feel in response to any particular human behavior is the precise measure of our ignorance of its evolutionary and genetic origins.”  (The Spirit in the Gene,  Cornell University Press, 1999)

 

Download the full article