In Response to J. B. S. Haldane, Possible Worlds Quote

In my opinion the "nature" vs "nurture" debate is proof that we have a spirit or no free will. The nature side says that we are genetically programmed to act a certain way, that we are who we are due to the organization of atoms in our cells, particularly in our DNA. The Nurture side says that we act the way we do as a response or due to influence of our surroundings. Both sides have plenty of evidence to show that one or the other is more influential.

Consider if only one was responsible for our decisions, say "nature" in that case all of our actions, thoughts etc. would be based on genetics. If this were true I think it would be safe to say that we have no free will but are slaves to our genetics.

Now consider "nurture" where all of our actions were in response to the integration of our surroundings, teachings, examples etc. Again no free will, instead slaves to our perception of the world.

Of course the simple solutions is that we are neither all of one or the other, but instead some of one and some of the other. Still, this does not leave room for free will, because the sum of both concepts leaves no room for free will. Therefore, there must be another factor in our decision making that originates with us but is only influenced by the other factors, or at the very least we can be an originating source of influence on which factor is more powerful at any given moment in our lives.

Interestingly, I presented this concept in a power point presentation to my Genetics class at CSUS with the last slide suggesting we must have a spirit. I don't think it went over very well with the professor, but a lot of the students commented on it positively.

journal

Here's an idea for writing in your personal journal, or just something to think about on your way to school, work, or the store. The hymn "More Holiness Give Me" has 3 verses with 8 phrases in each verse. That's 24 phrases in all. One year I tried using one phrase for every 2-week period as a writing prompt. The hymn is a sort of prayer, so it is easy to ponder the phrase and then try to think of ways during the coming 2 weeks to strive to seek what the phrase asks the Lord to give you.

For example: The first phrase is "more holiness give me". For 2 weeks, think about ways that we can be more holy. The next two weeks you can ponder how to have "more strivings within", and then "more patience in suffering", or "more sorrow for sin". It gave me a focus every day as to what I might do to become more holy, patient, hopeful, or meek.

Even if you don't have time to write about it in your journal, each phrase gives you something of real value to ponder and seek the Lord's help to improve.

Let's see, mathematically, that means the song would fill 48 weeks of the coming year with journal or thought prompts. We already missed the first two weeks of 2011, so we would now be pondering "more strivings within" from Jan 16 - Jan 31. The rest of the song will take us through the year until December, when we have just enough time to ponder the Savior's birth and enjoy the stories of Christmas. How fitting that the very last phrase of the song is "more Savior, like thee".

I love you all!
~Mom