Discussion
The purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that spiritual sensitivity was controlled by gene expression in VMAT2. The testing group was made up entirely of Bethel students. In a Christian learning environment, one would expect to see a higher relevance of spiritual perception. In Dean Hamer’s experiment, the God Gene, base 71 was identified as the main marker for transcendence or having the ‘God Gene’. Having a “c” nucleotide in base 71 pointed to a higher levels of transcendence. Of the three base pairs analyzed, a higher relevance of c’s marked higher levels of transcendence. However, our results were not significantly different than the general population tested by Dean Hamer. The p-value we obtained was 0.15, too high for the statistical significance cutoff of .05. The frequency of the “c” allele in our testing was no more relevant than the relevance of “c” in the general population tested by Hamer. This data supports our hypothesis that the VMAT2 gene has no affect on spiritual perception.
Our work consisted of 39 samples from the Bethel community. Hamer’s research looked at over 1000 individuals. Hamer based his study off the TCI personality test, which consisted of 240 questions including questions relating to spiritual perception. Hamer’s project consisted of a much larger sample and also utilized the TCI test while our work was based off the general idea that we all have a level of spiritual perception because we attend a religious institution. In further research of this project our data could be more thoroughly supported by the use of the TCI test and also having a larger sample size. Other ways of testing this hypothesis would be to compare people from different religious backgrounds such as Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish faiths. Analysis of different institutions could also be done by testing secular schools like the University of Minnesota against Bethel along with other Christian traditions such as Catholic institutions.
Comparing our results to Dean Hamer's we accept our hypothesis that nucleotides on the VMAT2 gene have no affect on the spiritual sensitivity.
Our work consisted of 39 samples from the Bethel community. Hamer’s research looked at over 1000 individuals. Hamer based his study off the TCI personality test, which consisted of 240 questions including questions relating to spiritual perception. Hamer’s project consisted of a much larger sample and also utilized the TCI test while our work was based off the general idea that we all have a level of spiritual perception because we attend a religious institution. In further research of this project our data could be more thoroughly supported by the use of the TCI test and also having a larger sample size. Other ways of testing this hypothesis would be to compare people from different religious backgrounds such as Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish faiths. Analysis of different institutions could also be done by testing secular schools like the University of Minnesota against Bethel along with other Christian traditions such as Catholic institutions.
Comparing our results to Dean Hamer's we accept our hypothesis that nucleotides on the VMAT2 gene have no affect on the spiritual sensitivity.