Nature vs. nurture

Most people tend to believe that God or nature has made us the way we are, at least in the ways we consider most central to our personhood. There is obviously a degree of truth to that: I have no control over how tall I am, the color of my hair, my receding hairline, and countless other physical traits, and there may be many more important emotional and personality traits that similarly depend on our genetics - or are at least greatly influenced thereby.

Yet we also recognize that there are other aspects of ourselves that our experiences and decisions have played a critical role in.  A world-class athlete has a high amount of natural talent, but none become world-class without developing that talent into the skills of competition.  In addition to their accumulated experiences, or perhaps a result of them, there also seem to be factors involved such as a drive to excel and an ability to perform under pressure which also contribute to the final results.  Alternately, a person may have a natural tendency to be overweight, yet undertake diet and exercise practices that help them maintain good health.  A gifted scholar must still study to gain expertise, though they may not have to do so as strenuously as one to whom learning does not come so easily.  Where do these and countless other examples fall in the nature vs. nurture debate?


We also have other experiences from the mundane to the traumatic that play critical roles in forming us throughout our lives.  Both the positive and the negative ones reinforce or influence certain of our likes and preferences.  Physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional joys, comforts, sadnesses and traumas form our being in ways we do not fully understand.  


So questions arise: what of our tendencies, even those which feel like a central part of our unchangeable identity, are the result of our experiences?  Which are ours by nature?  Do the different sources of our selves carry different weight in defining who we are?  Are some preferences more important than others?


These questions are so deeply philosophical and theoretical, yet touch on the central question of what makes each of us a unique person. Together they form the keystone issue in our discussions as society grapples with this one: how do we identify the things that are truly universal human rights, and balance justly between them, when conflicts arise?  The central tenet of our nation has always been that one person's rights end when they infringe on another's equal or more fundamental rights.  But our evaluation of that hierarchy of rights is becoming very different in our society from what it has been in the past, and we are reengineering entire societal institutions around our changed perception of that balance and its implications.  

All of this, though, is a long diversion on a reflection that started out being about what makes me the person I am.  When there are elements of my person that I think it best not to nurture or pursue, how do I draw the line so that I'm not denying a fundamental part of myself, to my own detriment as well as ultimately that of those around me?  Whether some aspect of myself is inbred, nurtured, or some combination thereof, does its source affect its fundamentality to my personhood?  Does that change if there are so many examples to examine going back so far in my memory that it is impossible to ascertain the source?  In the context of my spirituality:

• God is the source of both my nature and my experiences
• we are clearly not to embrace every impulse that comes upon us
• we are also clearly not to remain as we are; we are to grow in our holiness in the Spirit by shedding that which detracts from it and embracing that which nurtures it.  

So, can part of myself be less central to me than the same (or similar) part of someone else is to them?  Is denying even what may seem a fundamental part of myself part of what it means to lay down my life for those I love?

Did not the Son do the same to an infinitely greater degree, both as God in leaving the throne of grace to be incarnate as our savior, and as man in laying down his life for us? (Is that one a question or the Answer?)

There goes that Supertramp snippet again.