A Generosity Hormone?

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As a young man, I traveled to Europe on a ship. Since a friend and I were seminary students, talk at the table where about a dozen of us second-class passengers were seated for meals was often about religion and belief in God.

I recall vividly the comment of a physics professor from a Texas university, a self-described atheist, when the subject turned to human love. “It’s a function of the liver,” he said. My scientific knowledge was limited but I knew that remark was bogus, even ridiculous.

Some scientists pursue research that attempts to physicalize traditional moral values. Among the latest, reported in USA Today, was research that purported to find that “the spirit of giving” is really the “hormone of giving.”

Social Glue
This may result from overly ambitious reporting (or lack of editing), but the gist of the article was that the hormone oxytocin “is a social glue that holds us all together and makes us care about other people,” according to the lead researcher, Paul Zak.

I Googled the research and researcher and found that Zak had made a presentation on this research at a TED (Technology, Education and Design) talk. In a note on its web site, the people who run TED appeared to challenge Zak’s research on scientific grounds, noting that even at the time of his talk, “research challenging the role of oxytocin in human morality and behavior was already well known."

Although some research has shown the hormone to affect human and animal behavior to increase trust, “other studies have found that the molecule can boost envy, tribalism, and even diminish cooperation.”

Almost all research benefits humanity, in my view, but there is value in recognizing generosity, and other positive human attributes, as virtues that need to be nurtured. Religion, for all its irritating components for atheists, agnostics and some believers, promotes these virtues, making the world a better place.

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And it’s well-known that generosity and kindness are contagious, the theme of the movie “Pay It Forward,” which came out in the year 2,000.

Troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, a student is intrigued by an assignment from his social studies teacher. Students were to think of something that would change the world, and act on it. The student decides to “pay a favor forward, not back” with good deeds to three new people.

His efforts change his life, that of his mother and his teacher and those in an ever-widening circle of people unknown to him.

Generosity, especially, is important in the search for God. If we’re serious about the search, we try to be God-like, and there’s no better description of God than that of a generous and loving Father.

One of the favorite sayings of my deceased brother, Father Richard Carney, was that “you can’t outdo the generosity of God.”

Self-preservation?
Part of our human nature – perhaps as part of the instinct toward self-preservation – is stinginess. We want to hold on to what we have and acquire more. Like many human tendencies, however, the teachings of Jesus upend those values.

According to a gospel story, Jesus one day watched as people gave money to the temple treasury.

“He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins (the equivalent of about 1 cent). And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.”

In other words, we shouldn’t appraise a gift by its value but by its degree of generosity. And people searching for God will be generous, whether they have a lot of oxytocin or not.