Nature Vs Nurture

I've been house sitting for the last two weeks and for the first time in a very long time (years and years) I've allowed myself to watch too much TV. I've been filling my head up with detective nonsense, all that lovely scientific CSI stuff. Problem is, you can't watch the science without seeing the evil the science is supposed to catch.

Now it's midnight, my body is buzzing from tiredness and I'm afraid to go to sleep because I know I'm going to have nightmares. Why didn't I think about consequences before I watched 6 hours straight of murder detective type programs??? It's not like I didn't know ... That's why I stopped watching them in the first place. When you start dreaming you're the CSI person and there is a psychotic killer killing people just so they can leave you messages in blood ... Well when you start dreaming that every night, it's time to stop putting rubbish in your head. Wish I'd remembered that earlier ...

In a bid to stay awake I thought I would blog about the nature vs nurture debate.

The last line of the last detective show I watched spoke to the hopelessness of the fight against our own natures, that we can never change, that in fact it is not even desirable to change and that we should simply accept who we are and live with it, live with both the good and the bad we find in our hearts. Now the show didn't actually say all that, but carried to its logical conclusion that is the message that was given. And it made me think.

Nature vs Nurture, normally this debate is about genetics but I want to take a different slant on this tonight. I'm thinking good and evil. However I think my thoughts apply to both takes on this debate, genetics and morality. Because both deal with the perception of inevitability and free will, determinism or choice.

What is my nature? I know my heart, it is filled with not nice things. All those impulses and desires that I keep a tight leash on because they are just evil. Only sometimes the leash goes limp and the evil slips out in words and actions. Is that my nature? Is it possible to change?

Some people will tell me that indeed that is my nature, the desire to do evil is who i am, and that even those desires i have to do good come from selfish motives. Those people say that my nature is sin. I was born in sin, so I am a sinner, and a sinner I will remain until the second coming of Christ when I am to be miraculously remade as a saint. If I follow that view then it is a hopeless battle for me to try to change. In this argument nurture has no place, all I can do is say in the words of Popeye, "I yam what I yam." Who am I to think I can overcome the sin in my life? All I can do is hope I am strong enough to control it, and that I won't do too much damage to myself or others in the process.

In genetics this is the same as blaming my hereditary for all my problems; "I have the fat gene, I can never be slim so why bother? Just accept it and enjoy the food." Or for someone else; "I have the alcoholic gene so I might as well drink myself to death now and make it on easier on everyone." People are looking for genes for everything because then they can blame their DNA for their problems and sit back in a kind of self satisfied pride and say 'It is my genes, I can't change my nature, I'm sorry it's hurting you but I can't change, so I'm going to accept and enjoy it - whatever 'it' might be."

This is an incredibly soul destroying philosophy on life, and it is one that many people have chosen so that they can give up the struggle with themselves, "It's my nature, I can't change, stop making me feel guilty."

On the other hand there are people who say, 'No, your nature is not evil, your nature is your tendency to love self and your desire for evil activities because they make you feel good." I love food, it tastes good and it calms and suppresses a part of me that makes me feel bad. Food is my drug of choice to escape from the realities of life. Is it evil? Yes, when my eating choices are destroying me then those choices are evil. Is it my nature? Well yes, my love of and desire for food, especially sweet, salty and fattening food, is definitely my nature. Can it be changed?

Now I happen to know that my desires are rather fickle, much of what I want changes depending on what I have put into my mind and body most recently.

This second view leans heavily towards nurture. It says, you were born with a love for evil but you can change. This view gives place to choice, to freewill and to hope. It tells me that with appropriate nurture I can change my nature.

I believe it is the second of these views which is correct. I'm not going to go into all the reasons why I believe that right now, but I will give the most important one; in the Bible it is very clear that God expects us to overcome the sin in our lives and to be sinless before Jesus returns. If God expects it then it must be possible.

In genetics there is an exciting field of study called epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of how the environment effects our DNA and turns genes on and off. It is possible to have a gene and never have it expressed. To have a cancer gene but not get the cancer because your environment has turned off that gene. It is possible to have the fat gene and not be fat because I have trained my body to desire only healthy food and hate the unhealthy food. It is possibly to rise above my genetics and be more than my DNA.

In the same way it is possible to rise above my evil, selfish, pleasure seeking nature. So why do so many people struggle with this? Why do we not see more people winning victories and overcoming their own personal battles with the evil and destructive things they love?

The answer is that we are trying to do it ourselves by gritted teeth and determination. But, gritted teeth and determination only go so far, they change the outer behavior. They do not change the heart, they do not change the nature, they do not take away our love for our destroyers.

Consider, it is impossible for our genes to turn themselves on and off, it is also impossible for us to change our own natures. Our genes are turned on and off by a power outside of the DNA, by the power of the environmental choices we make. What we choose to put into our bodies. In the same way, changing our natures, our destructive loves and desires, must be done for us by a power outside of us. Just like a plant that can't cultivate itself we can not nurture ourselves, we need a gardener to cultivate and nurture us.

So how do we change? The answer is Jesus. By looking at Him we are changed to be like Him. Sinless and glorious, and helpful to ourselves and others, rather than destructive.

How do we look at Jesus?

1. Pray and ask God to show us Jesus in all His goodness and love.

2. Read about Him in the Bible.

3. Contemplate, what does this story show me about Jesus and His character? His goodness? His Love?

4. Ask God to change you to be like Him.

5. Don't look at your own evilness, instead continue to contemplate Christ's goodness.

6. When the impulse comes to do something good surrender to the impulse and do it, no matter the cost. And when the impulse comes to resist doing something bad, surrender to that impulse too, no matter the cost, turn away and find something else to do instead.

7. When you fail, and this is a learning process, so at times there will be failure. When you fail, turn back to Jesus, tell Him where you went wrong. Ask for forgiveness and start again.

8. Never give up. It doesn't matter how many times you have to start again, as long as you keep trying, you are coming closer to your victory. Each time you win you become a little more like Jesus, and each time you fail you learn one more thing to help you win next time.

As long as you keep looking to Jesus He will keep changing you. And one day you will run out of things that need changing, there will be no more loves for sinful, evil, destructive things in you - or me. This is the process of nurture that Jesus, the gardener, uses to change our natures and one day we will be perfect.

It is possible to rise above our genetics and it is possible to rise above our natures. All you have to do is ask.

Thinking About Zombies ...

So currently I have all this time on my hands and I have been thinking about getting back to writing my book.

Now those in the know, know that my book is my attempt to tell the story of the universe through the eyes of an angel called Carelle she is trying to determine who is truly good, God or Lucifer? 

That line of thinking caused me to start thinking about death, which lead in due course to Zombies.

The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 3 that God told Eve that she would die the same day she ate the fruit. Only she didn't die that day, she died around 900 years later, assuming she lived about the same length of time as Adam.

God doesn't lie. It's impossible for Him to lie, when He speaks what He says is created, so He can't lie. Just saying, it makes it true. Even if it wasn't true for eternity before He spoke.

So we have a problem, God who can't lie said Eve would die the same day she ate the Fruit. Contradiction! She died a long long time later - say 328,500 days later if she lived to be exactly 900 years old.

How to resolve the contradiction??

So I was thinking, God has a different definition to death than we do. For Him it is not biological death. Jesus described the little girl who died as being asleep, Matthew 9:24, while everybody else laughed at him and said no she is dead! For God death is defined as a separation between God and creature, God and man. What we call death, God calls sleep.

So from God's point of view Eve died the instant she disobeyed God and ate the fruit, resulting in her being separated from Him. The rest of her 'life' was simply the continuation of biological life until her body wore out and she slipped into the death of sleep.

Now consider Zombies, they are horrific creatures who have lost the spark of life and still walk around and attack other humans until their bodies are so destroyed that they cease to function.

From Heaven's point of view Eve became a Zombie. In fact we are all Zombies. We have lost our connection with God, so we have lost our spark of life, and yet we still walk around attacking each other, until our bodies are so destroyed we cease to function. 

Zombies in the movies don't know/think there is anything wrong with them. They don't know they're Zombies. We think we are all fine and dandy too.

Now think about Jesus. On the cross he cried out "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" That is the true moment when he died. He became separated from God and he became a Zombie, for us, willingly. One of the living dead, hanging on the cross.

Unlike us, Jesus knew what it was like to be truly alive, He had had that vital connection to the Father that we  are lacking, so He knew what had happened to Him, He knew what He had lost and He lived with that  knowledge for a few hours, until He gave up His biological life too. And even knowing in advance what would happen He decided to go through with the crucifixion anyway, He could have escaped any time He wanted, but He choose to stay, for me, for you.

Now here is the awesome part, the God who became a man, who became a Zombie, who died the biological death, was perfect. His whole entire human life He never did a single thing that could allow Lucifer to have a claim on Him. So when He went to His final sleep, it could not hold him in His perfection and He awoke again. He came forth from the grave with His connection with the Father re-established, with His biological body renewed and reanimated, with only His scars to prove His torment.Truly alive once more.

Why is this awesome? I hear you ask? It is awesome for this reason; what He has, I can have too!!

I also can be truly alive! No longer a Zombie!! I can re-establish my connection with God and become truly alive again, Right here, right now, this instant. All I have to do is ask.

Dear Father, God, please accept me as I am, and forgive me of the heinous deeds I have done in my zombie state. Please make me alive again because of Jesus.

Now thank Him, because the moment you ask, He does exactly that, He accepts you, He forgives you and He makes you alive again.

And then He says:

"You are no longer a Zombie, you are alive, you are my Son/Daughter. Stop living like a Zombie, stop attacking others, instead tell them that they too can be free, tell them of love, my love, for them."

And the awesomeness continues, because everyday we have the privilege of walking with God, talking with Him, growing and learning, and as we grow and learn He changes us. He makes us like Jesus and eventually we also will be beings who are perfect - not in body but in character, and Satan will have no hold on us either. And we will do it in the same way that Jesus did by asking the Father for grace. Grace to resist the devil, grace to defeat him and grace to live as Jesus did, here and now, no matter what.