The God gene.

VMAT2. Is this some secret formula akin to the secrets of The DaVinci Code? Might this be the latest vanity license plate? Or is this a new entry ramp to the information highway? Perhaps it is someone's access code to one of the many anonymous Swiss bank accounts.

Or it's none of the above.

VMAT2, according to geneticist Dean Hamer, is the gene that influences people's propensity toward spirituality. It is just one of humanity's 35,000 genes. He baptized VMAT2 with a provocative phrase: the God gene. Hamer's book by the same name (Doubleday) delves into this discovery.

Catholic old-time religion used to talk a lot about "the gift of faith." Some had it; others did not. Nonetheless, the strong emphasis on conversion, starting with St. Paul and continuing through millennia of missionary activity as the world grew ever larger, at times manifested a forceful giving of this "gift." Should we now be speaking about the gift of a gene rather than the gift of faith?

"I was attempting to understand whether or not there is a biological basis of spirituality," writes Hamer in his book. His research led him to affirm a biological basis for one's spiritual orientation. "I argue that the answer is, at least in part, hardwired into our genes. Spirituality is one of our basic human inheritances. It is, in fact, an instinct."

Research involving twins separated at birth, research based on Robert Cloninger's self-transcendence scale, and the latest research in DNA are but some of the data that Hamer relied upon to isolate and identify the God gene. He relates in clear and approachable language the scientific story of his search and eventual discovery of VMAT2 in The God Gene.

The spirituality instinct operates quite differently from other human instincts, such as blinking or nursing. Hamer thinks the biological mechanism of spirituality must be intertwined with the social, cultural, and historical influences in our lives in order for the spirituality gene to be made manifest in some sort of religious expression. Spirituality is transmitted genetically and is the basis for religion that is transmitted culturally.

Do popes and priests, preachers and prophets, monks and mendicants possess the VMAT2 gene? Not that simple, according to Hamer. "While this one gene might not make one a saint, a prophet, or a seer, it is enough to tip the spiritual scales and predispose one toward spirituality."

Might we be able to be tested for VMAT2 much the same way we are tested for blood types and cholesterol levels? Would insurance ever cover such a test? Are people missing this gene excused from Sunday church attendance? Can this gene be transplanted like a heart or liver?

Scientists still don't know what approximately one third of our genes do. Nor does Hamer believe VMAT2 is the complete explanation for people's spiritualities. "Spirituality is too multifaceted to be captured in its entirety by a single measure," he confesses in his book.

Is the genetic gift of VMAT2 akin to the pre-scientific concept of "the gift of faith"? Scientists and theologians need to pray over this together.

PETER GILMOUR ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.