The Materialistic Trap in Modern Biology

In the academic world, I have often observed a bias toward materialism. Researchers find it much easier to publish studies on single, unquantified components than on the holistic effects of natural substances. This is largely due to the influence of genetic determinism—the idea that our DNA is the sole commander of our fate. This concept was famously popularized by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, creating a cultural belief that we are “born this way.”

However, I have found that this view is increasingly outdated. While preparing for my lectures, I realized that the “cause” of most diseases is almost never a single gene. Instead, it is the interaction between the genome and the environment. The genome may set a threshold—a clinical range of potential—but the environment determines where we land within that range.

The shift from genetic determinism to the Biology of Belief.

Genes as an Encyclopedia, Environment as the Reader

To understand the Biology of Belief and Genes, I often use the analogy of a “Survival Encyclopedia.” Imagine your DNA as a massive library of every survival strategy humanity has accumulated over millions of years. This library contains thousands of books, but you are not reading all of them at once.

What determines which “book” is opened? My analysis points to two factors:

• The External Environment: The physical world, nutrition, and toxins surrounding us.
• The Internal Belief System: Our attitude, stress levels, and emotional responses to that environment.

This means that even if two people have similar genetic profiles, their health outcomes can be vastly different based on how they perceive and interact with their world. The formula for genetic expression is not $DNA = Fate$, but rather:


Expression = Genes \times (Environment + Belief)

Comparison: Determinism vs. Belief