The connection between fertility and religiosity should be mentioned. If the religious start having children sooner, or have more children, or have fewer individuals who never have children, then that could partially explain the claim that the irreligious are “not doing the job of passing on our memes”.
How big an impact do genes have on the potential of an individual to become a rationalist?
Too big. If rationality was reliably taught, it wouldn’t require more-than-normal fluid intelligence to have a nontrivial probability of turning into a systematic rationalist.
On the one hand, there’s some evidence that religiosity is partly heritable. On the other hand, this correlation between genes and religiosity is without manipulating the educational environment.
There’s an apocryphal quote associated with the Jesuits: “Give me a child up to the age of seven and I will give you the man.” Intense education would overwhelm the genetic factors.
The connection between fertility and religiosity should be mentioned. If the religious start having children sooner, or have more children, or have fewer individuals who never have children, then that could partially explain the claim that the irreligious are “not doing the job of passing on our memes”.
In that case, it’s not just about memes but about genes.
How big an impact do genes have on the potential of an individual to become a rationalist?
Too big. If rationality was reliably taught, it wouldn’t require more-than-normal fluid intelligence to have a nontrivial probability of turning into a systematic rationalist.
On the one hand, there’s some evidence that religiosity is partly heritable. On the other hand, this correlation between genes and religiosity is without manipulating the educational environment.
There’s an apocryphal quote associated with the Jesuits: “Give me a child up to the age of seven and I will give you the man.” Intense education would overwhelm the genetic factors.
One hopes. I don’t know if it’s possible to generalize on this point though. With some education takes, with some, it doesn’t.