Being left-handed has always been something of a mixed blessing. With it came the stigmas of age old beliefs that it indicated a tendency to evil and criminal behavior, while at the same time, left-handed people have been some of the greatest creative and scientific minds in various fields. So what does one have to do with the other?
Left-handed geniuses and notable figures that have appeared over time include Joan of Arc, Pharoah Ramses II, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Queen Victoria of England, author Lewis Caroll, novelist Mark Twain, sculptor Michaelangelo, and artistLeonardo Da Vinci. It did not seem that any of them came from notably creative or unusually intelligent parents. Nor was there a hereditary history of being left-handed.
A 1976 Canadian study, updated in 1992, confirmed the results of many other testings done in the 20th century: that the chances of being left-handed had little to do with genetics. When the father was left-handed, the chance of like offspring was one in ten. For mothers who were left-handed, the chances increased to two in ten. And if both parents were left-handed, the likelihood of left-handed children was only four in ten, which meant that right-handedness would still be dominant.
What has emerged through scientific study over the years, is a theory that those who are left-handed, are utilizing more of the right side of their brain, the hemisphere that is also responsible for thought and perception. The enhanced activity here, may in fact promote a person’s ability to perceive things differently, and to incorporate more information when making a decision.
A 2004 study out of Vanguard University in Southern California, is one of the more recent scientific papers to support this theory. In it, they determined that those who have a strong “mindedness”, in other words, whose thinking and actions were dominated almost totally by one side of the brain, were more likely to have rigid and strong beliefs in the Biblical creation of humans.
Theoretically then, most Biblical creationist believers should be right-handed, since left-handed people are often “double sided” to some degree, using both the left and right hemispheres of their brains. That two-sided thinking allows for more pathways of thought, information gathering, and analysis of the results.
Sadly, even after we were out of the Dark Ages, people who were left-handed continued to be punished for what nature had thrust upon them. In the 20th century, children were still getting their knuckles rapped by teachers for not using the right hand, and even in China, if a woman was discovered to be left-handed, it was grounds for divorce.
