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.
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