Are You Good or Evil.
"As we don't choose our genes, are we really free to choose at all?"
This is a question that ended the BBC's Horizon programme, Are You Good or Evil (UK).
The description of the programme: Horizon meets researchers trying to determine what makes people good or evil, by studying psychopathic killers. Also featuring the man who believes he has found the moral molecule.
It featured a study that indicated scans of brain patterns:
The Scan on the left was normal, while the scan on the right, with the larger black area at the base was said to influence tendencies towards making someone a serial killer. I also remember a programme about feral children who were raised by animals. They scanned the brains of these children and they also showed large dark areas when compared to a normal brain scan. There's also the claims that homosexuals are made that way.
It got me wondering if the brain is physically shaped by what we put into it in, or, is it does the brain suffer defects first then our behaviour follows.
It reminds me of the verse:1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; ...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ralph Thurlow on -
Of course our perception that we have free will is as real and as clear as any perception we have.
Evolutionists or materialists would have at least two vested interests in propogating the claim that we have no free will:-
1. It creates horrendous problems for a materialistic or evolutionary worldview
2. Convincing people that they have no free will disempowers them (makes them easier for governments to control)
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Permalink Reply by Adam J. Benton on -
To place the "blame" for behaviour entirely at the foot of genetics is to oversimplify the issue. Whilst there are certain traits that may beentirely genetic or entirely environmentally derived, for the most part it is a mix of the two - neither our environment or our genes are inconsiquential. Particularly in the case of this example. The program featured someone who had the traits associated with being a psychopath yet was part of a loving family. Whilst his friends did note he had a darkstreak to him, they also noted he hadn't killed anyone.
So the area investigated the program can be a bias towards a behaviour, not a guarantee.
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Permalink Reply by Ralph Thurlow on
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If there was a link between brain scans and behaviour, I would suspect that choices by the individual actually materially affected the brain development, rather than a causal relationship along the lines of "....the brain made me do it....".
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Permalink Reply by Adam J. Benton on
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Given that, as I said, we have psychopaths and the researcher engaging in different activities (murder and not murder respectively) yet the relevant bits of their brain are the same and they have the same genes; I'd be more inclined to place genes as the cause. But, as we've both said, this doesn't guarantee violent behaviour. Rather its a predisposition than a drive.
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