Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» An Answermug friend sez "we choose who we become/are". I disagree. I don't think it's a choice at all. It's a template based on DNA. True?.
How can there be? How can a template control the future or the Now? Just because a person has personality defects, does not make the person act in any certain way.
It depends on his environment. It depends on his circumstances. And it depends on his genes. Nothing is TEMPLATED. That is just silly.
You can have a proclivity to steal. That was not templated. You were someone who thought it was a good idea. Now if you are unable to make sane decisions, that may be in your chemistry, but there is no template saying you are going to steal.
Its complicated. If you are a "very good person" genetically and you are raised with demons, you are going to have a really tough time being a nice person. It has nothing to do with any template.
If you are a person whose mom was a crack whore, you are going to have brain damage. It doesn't mean that you are going to kill someone. It may just mean you have reading issues. No template.
I view DNA predispositions (aka "templates") similar to a connect-the-dots puzzle. We can choose to follow the instructions and wind up with a pre-designed picture ... or we can totally ignore them and make our own drawing.
It is said that 3% if us come out broken at birth---sociopaths, et alia. The rest of us probably have the ability to choose and change to at least some degree, but that whole process takes varying amounts or work and sometimes a lot of support.
We learn what we are and what we are capable of from our parents first---by default. Whatever mistruths and errors we are taught we must first somehow find out they are wrong, decide is better, and then implement the correction---frequently while dealing with the emotions that arise in us when we "violate" the erroneous principles that we are trying to replace.
Growing up is not for sissies any more than old age is.
I think it's a bit of both. Our DNA makes up our body, not our soul. As I've said before, the body is a machine and the soul is the operator.
DNA gave a person 5 fingers. However, they choose whether or not to display one of them prominently at another driver. DNA gave a person a voice. However, they choose what words that voice speaks. DNA gave a person feet. However, they choose where those feet will take them. DNA gave a person eyes and fingers. Does that they must use them to look down a gunsite and pull the trigger ... or it that their choice? DNA gave a person "equipment". Does that mean they will rape others with it ... or do they choose to do that? DNA may give a person teh aptitude towards something (drawing, cooking, singing, etc.). Do they have to use that ability or can they choose not to use it?
We all have a body. While each body has its own limitations (eye issues, skin issues, blood issues, muscle issues, etc.), the soul inside still makes the choices on what it does with that body - the words it uses , the gestures it makes, and so forth. Each choice we make helps make us who and what we are. One might say that the choices we make show what our soul looks like.
It would be too easy to blame our outcomes exclusively on DNA. That's only one factor in the equation. Man is a free moral agent that in many cases wants to place the blame for the consequences of bad decisions on anything but themselves. There's no predestination involved in the process at all.
