[ExI] The Catholic Impact (was Re: Origin of ethics and morals)

[Kelly Anderson]

I agree that the evolution of morality is partially genetic and
partially memetic... The bigger part would have to be memetic though,
just because memes reproduce faster than genes in human populations.
I'm improvising on this post, so don't take anything I'm saying here
too seriously, it's just to start a conversation. And if anything here
sounds racist, or anti-anyone, please I ask your forgiveness up front.

One thing that I haven't heard anyone think about out loud is the
effect of a thousand+ years of Catholicism on our genes (we all know
more or less what it did to our memes)... The Catholic faith was
pretty efficient at a few things that might have had a genetic
impact...

1) Heretics, Muslims and Jews were occasionally slaughtered, though
probably not in great enough numbers to have a huge genetic effect.

2) Religious orders (monks, priests and nuns) tended to attract those
who were interested in an intellectual life. Obviously, their
reproduction was sharply curtailed being in these religious orders.
Would that imply that Catholicism decreased intellectualism in those
areas where it was practiced for many centuries?

3) Catholic beliefs about food (fish Friday, wine, dirty water) might
have had some impact, as did their support of kings and the political
orders under kings.

4) Catholicism and feudalism meant very limited travel for most
people. This could have led to prejudice, insofar as that is genetic,
but probably more importantly, it created islands where specific genes
that would otherwise have been bred out of a larger population became
more prevalent. This may be more especially the case for recessives.

5) Might there have been a breeding advantage to those who truly
believed leading to more true believers? Might there have been other
breeding advantages related to Catholic beliefs?

6) Did feudal beliefs about bathing increase the capacity of the
overall immune system of those who survived? Same with the black
death...

7) Could there have been effects on rates of promiscuity in the gene
pool from Catholic punishments of adultery and fornication, as well as
the negative effects of being a bastard?

8) Insofar as ethics are genetic, there may be other impacts of our
brush with the papacy.

It's an interesting topic, at least to me. These are just starting
points for discussion. I actually think that number 2 is probably one
of the more plausible scenarios... but I don't know how you would go
about testing such a hypothesis without the standard accusations of
racism coming up immediately.

-Kelly