Project July
An exercise in creative thinking
Archives
Nature
Picture, if you will, a set of identical twins.
These two twins were separated at birth, and adopted by families of a similar financial status on either side of the continental United States. Thirty-six years after they'd been separated, the two brothers found one another.
Both were named Jim. They both worked in law enforcement. One named his son James Alan, while the other named his son James Allan. They each had been married twice, and were in the habit of leaving notes to their wives on the kitchen table each morning before they went to work. Their dogs had the same names, they lived in similarly-styled houses, slept on the same side of the bed.
Sure, similarities are seen when we go looking for them, but to that degree? It simply couldn't be possible without some sort of genetic connections.
You are who you are because of nature.
In addition to twin studies, adoption studies help to answer the nature-nurture question. If nurture was the real answer, would adopted children consistently share personality traits with their biological parents, as opposed to their adopted ones? Certainly not.
Studies show that genetic predisposition and prenatal environment--that is, the chemicals that are present while genes are developing--have a 40-50% odds of changing a child.
Parental influence has a 10% effect on a child.
Nature is even in the numbers.
These two twins were separated at birth, and adopted by families of a similar financial status on either side of the continental United States. Thirty-six years after they'd been separated, the two brothers found one another.
Both were named Jim. They both worked in law enforcement. One named his son James Alan, while the other named his son James Allan. They each had been married twice, and were in the habit of leaving notes to their wives on the kitchen table each morning before they went to work. Their dogs had the same names, they lived in similarly-styled houses, slept on the same side of the bed.
Sure, similarities are seen when we go looking for them, but to that degree? It simply couldn't be possible without some sort of genetic connections.
You are who you are because of nature.
In addition to twin studies, adoption studies help to answer the nature-nurture question. If nurture was the real answer, would adopted children consistently share personality traits with their biological parents, as opposed to their adopted ones? Certainly not.
Studies show that genetic predisposition and prenatal environment--that is, the chemicals that are present while genes are developing--have a 40-50% odds of changing a child.
Parental influence has a 10% effect on a child.
Nature is even in the numbers.
Nurture
You live with your mother. Your brother lives with your dad. At your house, spicy food is the staple of the menu--and you love it! Slather on that Tabasco sauce! Your brother, on the other hand, that boy who comes from precisely the same gene pool as you do, tears up at the first flake of pepper.
Nurture.
It's what you've learned that matters.
We are all born a tabula rasa, a blank slate. It is up to your surroundings, your environment, to write on this slate. Think back to the 20th-century psychologist John Watson who said, if you gave him "a dozen healthy infants of different backgrounds and races, I can make them into a doctor, lawyer, chief--yes, even beggarman or thief." And Watson today remains a prominent name in psychology.
It's the influences placed upon us by our parents, by society, that shape us into what we are. After all, Japanese children are more likely to be emotionally close to their families than American children, who are more likely to be independent. These are the values and mores taught by their cultures, and they grew up considering them important.
It is our natures that make us into what we are.
Atheism
Do you suffer from delusions that you are being watched by an all-knowing overlord? Do you puzzle over unfounded concepts such as "heaven" and "hell"?
If so, atheism is just the ticket!
Really, let's be rational here: some big guy up in the sky calling all the shots? Preposterous.
The rational thinker can see that this simply doesn't make sense. Let's think back to good old Darwin. There's a guy who had his ducks (or, rather, finches) in a row. We can see that traits are passed down from parent to child. Evolution is just one more logical leap.
If so, atheism is just the ticket!
Really, let's be rational here: some big guy up in the sky calling all the shots? Preposterous.
The rational thinker can see that this simply doesn't make sense. Let's think back to good old Darwin. There's a guy who had his ducks (or, rather, finches) in a row. We can see that traits are passed down from parent to child. Evolution is just one more logical leap.
Intelligent Design
Do you sometimes wonder things like "how did I get here?" and "what is the purpose of life?" and other enigmas that puzzle your brain? Do you worry about who the stork delivered that first baby to, with no parents to care for it? Well worry no more!
Think Intelligent Design.
Even though your science teachers have surely puzzled you with this evolution nonsense for years, surely they're wrong. Even old Charles Darwin himself couldn't have believed that. Ignore those crazy radicals who would argue that the bones of dinosaurs blows our theory to pieces. Nonsense. They belong there. They were put there by our intelligent creator. The Earth on which we live isn't something that just happened. We were created, created by a brilliant being--one may go so far as to call him intelligent. Hence, intelligent design.
Think Intelligent Design.
Even though your science teachers have surely puzzled you with this evolution nonsense for years, surely they're wrong. Even old Charles Darwin himself couldn't have believed that. Ignore those crazy radicals who would argue that the bones of dinosaurs blows our theory to pieces. Nonsense. They belong there. They were put there by our intelligent creator. The Earth on which we live isn't something that just happened. We were created, created by a brilliant being--one may go so far as to call him intelligent. Hence, intelligent design.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
RSS Feed. This blog is proudly powered by Blogger and uses Modern Clix, a theme by Rodrigo Galindez. Modern Clix blogger template by Introblogger.