aperson wrote:We are all programmed by our genes. Some people are programmed to be good loving people. Others are programmed to be psychopathic. We don't decide how we are programmed, and although you may say we can change ourselves, well, do you think William Bell could physically change himself?
Genes program instinctive behavior by determining how the brain is initially wired and what levels of hormones and other biochemicals are produced in response to particular stimuli. But the brain can learn to override instincts and make decisions based on other factors, because everything we experience makes a change in the way our neurons are connected. Connections can be strengthened and behavior becomes a habit when rewarded by social acceptance (wearing clothes when we are in public). Other circuits can inhibit behavior, such as learned fear of punishment.
We have no control over much of what happens to us, but at least some of us
do have control over
how we respond to it. Others have been programmed (by parents, teachers, peers and experiences) to believe that they have no control - and therefore they effectively don't. Animals can be trained to obey. So can people.
Abused women can be brainwashed into staying in a relationship, even overriding the instinct for self-preservation. But they can also be taught to change the way they think and take control of their lives. So who is really responsible for each decision in the chain: the abuser, the woman, the counselor, or the God whose Will is done by each person following His Plan?
Quote:Some people physically cannot believe in God - many autistic people cannot comprehend the concept of God. Can you, or God, or anyone, judge them?
People may not be judged on their acts when the acts are beyond their control due to mental impairment (age, insanity, drugs, alcohol), unintentional (fatal auto accident due to unexpected patch of ice or fog) or justifiable (killing in self-defense or war).
Judge people based on their acts is senseless, unfair and ridiculous.
"Oh, but people make their own decisions, can't they? It's really down to them to choose between Good and Evil, right?"
Wrong. Acts are based on decisions. Decisions are based on genes.
Some of you may have noticed that this means that there is no free will. No, there is no free will, as I have said numerous times before.
And we should still send people to jail, of course. I'm not suggesting anarchy, because prison protects the rest of us, as well as (maybe) making people change their ways.
Judging people based on their acts is reasonable since we cannot know their minds, and they MUST be judged. The fear of judgment (jail, fines, social stigma, being fired or deprived of something we value, corporal punishment) is one of the best tools we have for modifying behavior in those individuals who were not properly socialized as children and for what ever reason failed to learn to restrain their natural instincts. One of the most ingenious inventions of Christianity was an omniscient God who sees acts we hide from others and judges thoughts as well as behavior.
If God is omniscient, he knows EXACTLY what choices we would make given any specific combination of brain wiring and circumstances. He knows what positive influences in our life would wire our brains to make good choices, and what temptations or traumas would incline us to evil. If he is omnipotent, he can control what happens to us and influence or even compel the choices we make in our lives. The threat of divine retribution is very real to a lot of people.
If we were all created equal by God, why is it that some people have no desire to lie, steal, murder, or cheat, but others have apparently irresistable compulsions to do evil (pedophile priests, moms who drown their kids, genocidal dictators)? The belief in an omniscient God is incompatible with free will, but then no one has ever proven that God is, must, or can be omnsicient.
I don't know if William Bell could have chosen not to kill when he did, but I DO know that if he had been raised in a different environment he might not have felt the desire to do so.
