For Gene’s Sake

“With your nose and my teeth, we’re sure to be good together.”

It may not be the most inviting of chat-up lines, and it is perhaps unlikely to sweep a young lady off her feet, but that’s the underlying nature of the mating game. This is the reality of the relationships we choose.

In selecting a suitable partner, we are looking for somebody who will complement our own genetic characteristics. It may be to bring a new quality to our genetic makeup, or it may be just to enhance an existing feature, making it stronger and therefore more appealing.

Either way, the ultimate aim is to improve our position in the reproductive race.

Find the right partner, the one that brings some genetic advance, and our future will be assured. It is classic Darwinism, leading to the survival and progress of the species.

But how do we know what will work? How do we know what is good for us? Is it just by chance that we make our choices – random couplings, some of which will go on to be successful, whilst others fall by the wayside?

Surely, it can’t be that random. After all, as individuals, we seem to know what we like in the opposite sex. We know what we’re attracted to. Something or somebody seems to be telling us what we should be looking for.

Is that just an instinct, or is there a guiding voice? The answer lies within us. It is our genes that guide us; our genes that tell us what to do.

And it’s a complex match-making business. Certainly, our genes work in mysterious ways. We don’t always understand their machinations. Sometimes we’ll see it, “those two are made for each other”, but for other partnerships, there may be no apparent bond – chalk and cheese.

With our limited, non-genetic vision, we just don’t get the full picture. It’s like looking at the night sky; we only see a few stars rather than everything that’s out there. And without knowing, we cannot fully understand.

But one thing is very clear: the way our genes seek to communicate with us.

Our genes plant ideas in our minds about the partner we should be striving to find. This is what we should be attracted to – our Mr Right or the Lady of our Dreams. Attraction, sex appeal and even, arguably, love are the binding forces that can exist between individuals, advising them that they have hit on a suitable genetic partner. They’re the green light to procreation.

As a species, we must escape from the rather smug notion that life is about us; that we are at the centre of things. This is just not the case. It is our genes that are the real makers and shakers of life.

And our genes exist for their self-preservation and ongoing proliferation. We are tools for their needs, vessels for their procreation and advancement.

As to whether or not there is any almighty force, God does exist, but he is not out there in the heavens; he’s much closer to home than we realise. God exists within each and every one of us, within each and every living thing. That God, our true God, the force that commands our lives, is our genes.

We live life according to the dictates of a Genetic God. Not one single almighty God but a multitude of multi-faceted Gods – our genes combining to make a unique God for each individual. And that God shapes our destinies.

It is our genes that control our existence. We are at their – our God’s – command; we live or die by the rule of God.

We like to think that we are the masters of life, after all, we’re bigger than them, but no, the truth is far different. It is our genes that have the power, the control and the sense of direction. They’re the ones that manage and drive our lives, hoping to secure genetic betterment.

As individuals, our God will never forsake us, as God is an intrinsic part of us. The relationship is more likely to break down as we stray from his path. It is our duty to keep to his commandments. Trust in him, follow our genetic instincts, and our future will be assured.

This genetic understanding gives meaning and understanding to our lives. It puts things into perspective. It should enable us to identify what is important in life.

The pursuit of our Genetic Priority – doing what our genes command of us to the best of our ability – is our route to salvation. It is the means by which we will further our genes and ensure both their and our continued survival. If we shun our genetic responsibility, if we are non-believers, if we are non-followers, then our demise is inevitable. Our genes become lost or weakened under competitive pressure, and we begin the slippery decline into genetic damnation.

There are three fundamental laws laid down by our Genetic Gods:

• Firstly, we ensure our procreation, passing on our genes to the next generation and thereby securing our genetic survival.
• Secondly, we select the best available partner for procreation in order to ensure that, in the next generation, we strengthen our personal genetic makeup.
• Thirdly, we ensure our offspring have the best opportunity to maximise their genetic potential.

Genetic disciples are those who live by their Genetic Priority, those who live by these core rules.

Throughout Nature, we see species living by these rules, yet, when observing the human species, it is apparent that we have started to lose our genetic focus.

With human advancement and societal development, these rules are increasingly infringed upon or overlooked. We are attaching less significance to them; other interests, diversions and preoccupations are assuming more importance.

So, what are some ways we break the genetic code?

Infringements of Rule One (Ensuring our procreation):

Some people do not have children. This may or may not be a matter of their own choosing.

• Gay people are less likely to procreate and thereby fail to pass on their genes.
• Given that fertility declines with age, the later age at which we are choosing to have children means we are more likely to fail to procreate.
• Wars – a creation of society – mean that many young men are killed before they are able to reproduce, thereby losing their genetic future.

Infringements of Rule Two (Selection of the best available partner for procreation):

• Casual sex, often driven by alcohol, drugs or the desire for sexual pleasure, means we are less selective in our choice of partners. There is also the consideration that this casualness may make us more relaxed about contraception and thereby make pregnancy more likely, further exacerbating the risks of genetically non-matched sexual activity.
• Medical advances and fertility treatment mean that, in some cases, couples who could not have children are now able to do so. Perhaps Nature, for some genetic reason, had specifically and deliberately earmarked them, either individually or as a couple, to be non-reproductive.

Infringements of Rule Three (Ensuring our offspring have the best opportunity to maximise their potential):

• We put our careers before our family.
• We attach more importance to having a nice house, a car, and a holiday than to giving our offspring our full attention.
• The high divorce and separation rates weaken the family unit and thereby undermine, arguably, the best organisational structure for raising children.
• We send our children to nurseries from an early age to be raised by others.
• The rise of the step-parent who will obviously be less committed to any children who are not of their genetic makeup.

Our priorities, it seems, have drifted. We are ceasing to live by the Genetic code. It is not right; it is not in our best interests. All we can do is ask for forgiveness – we know not what we do – and revert back to fulfilling our genetic responsibilities.

We should be well aware that our Genetic Gods do not have it all their own way. There is a devil out there that seeks to undermine God’s work, tempting us away from our Genetic Priority. That undermining influence is built around society. Too often, society distracts us from our Genetic Priority. And that means our genetic prospects may not necessarily be as bright as they should be.

We should also reflect on the fact that our Genetic Gods will always do their best to save their world, but that they have no special affinity to the human condition. There is no divine right to human existence. If we didn’t exist, then our genes would just live somewhere else, in a different vessel.

So, next time we’re in a bar, and somebody approaches us with a chat-up line that suggests they’ve been doing some serious survey work, valuing our assets and trying to establish what sort of genetic investment opportunity we represent, then we should listen to those genetic voices inside us.

After all, we must think of our Genetic Priority and follow the word of God.

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