Is EVIL a gene thing??

by Crystal 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  Crystal

  (CBS) A weekly commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney:

  Do you buy this...evil is a gene thing?

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  Last week, I read where scientists think the human ability to use language comes from a gene we have that animals don't have.

  I don't care whether they put genes in dogs that enable them to speak or not, but with all the engineering work they're doing on the human genome, I wish they'd find a way to make humans without the genes that make some people evil or dishonest.

  If evil were eliminated, there wouldn't be any terrorists. We wouldn't be bombing the Taliban. We wouldn't need metal detectors at airports.

  It would be great if they could eliminate the dishonest gene.
  If everyone were honest, we wouldn't have to lock the doors every time we leave home.

  We wouldn't have those dumb little locks on our windows.

  Everyone who comes into this CBS building has to pass through security.

  I unlock the outside door of my office..then the inside door.

  Some people keep their desk drawers locked.

  There are stores that sell nothing but locks. There are more locks than there are thieves.

  Store owners pull down iron gates when they close up.

  There are iron bars on windows.

  One of the problems with having a bicycle in the city is finding something to chain it to.

  If we were all honest, we wouldn't spend so much time looking for the keys to our cars because cars wouldn't have keys for the doors or the ignition.

  A million and a half cars were stolen last year. So we spend billions on car theft insurance.

  Banks spend millions building vaults where they pretend our money is safe. If they're going to steal it, bankers don't take it out of here.

  If science could make human beings better by tinkering with our genes, we would have saved $40 billion dollars last year not having 1,578 prisons.

  We pay an average of $60,000 a year to keep each one of the two million criminals locked inside our prisons.

  Every community has its own police force. They cost us $50 billion. New York City alone has 72,000 cops. That's more cops than some cities have people.

  Stores hire their own police force to cut down on shoplifting.

  The amount white collar thieves steal makes the cost of stolen cars look like peanuts. No one knows how much that is.

  If science learns how to control our genes, they could make us so nice that no one would ever steal or commit an act of terrorism again. Everyone would tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth about everything.

  Or do you think that's going too far?

  MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved
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  SixofNine

  Is evil a gene thing? I think so, to a large extent. The truly horrible ones probably are just programed wrong.

  But the larger burdent to humanity and this earth comes from the average Joe, you and me, when we are (were) infected with mind virus' beliefs that are evil and cause pain to our fellow man. Usually, those beliefs have a veneer of goodness, at least in the eyes of a large group of people.
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  zenpunk

  I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. A being genetics and B being environment. There may be a certain bad trait below the surface but a right set of circumstances can bring it out. Take the X Y Y theory and serial killers for example. Not all males with X Y Y chromosones become serial killers but almost all who have been examined after the fact noticed a combination of these genetics and a bad sequence of life experiences.
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  JanH

  I think the article is very simplistic and naive. It seems to treat evil as a trait like eye colour. It isn't so.

  There is little intrinsic about actions that makes them evil or good. It mostly depends on social context. Almost all people are driven by a large part of self-interest and some altruism. Very few people consider their own actions to be evil; many atrocities are based on what people at the time perceive to be good for themselves and others. Thus, the problem may well be their world view; their sense of reality.

  An example: everybody who has been to Germany knows that most Germans are neither better nor worse than other people. I am sure the same applied to the Germans in the 1930s and 40s. Yet, they bought into a world view that made a large proportion of them perceive a large number of fellow humans as sub-humans and mortal enemies -- communist, jews and various ethnic groups. Thus, based on this view of reality they committed acts that almost everybody today will say were horribly evil. Shortly after the war their perceptions changed, and the majority of Germans were indeed zealously persecuting those who had committed the crimes. In post-war democratic elections in West Germany, they elected to power those people that were considered mortal enemies of the state during the Nazi era.

  Had the genes changed? Were Germans now more or less evil? No. Their perception of reality had changed.

  Countless such examples could be put forth.

  More 'common criminals' can rationalize their actions in similar ways. They may feel the society is corrupt, and that it is unfair that they are born with little while others through no positive actions of their own have tremendous wealth. Thus, they say, the laws are made by the rich and powerful, and violating them may simply adjust a wrong.

  I am not saying such reasoning is correct, and neither that this is anything but justification of unethical behaviour in extreme self interest. I just point out that people who do "evil" things base it on their perception of reality, and their own sense of ethics.

  There are surely some people who are total sociopaths, lacking the sense of community responsibility necessary for humans as a whole can thrive. They are freeloaders; depending on the fact that others are mostly ethical while they are not, and preying on them. But, as criminals go, they are surely a minority. For this group, I don't doubt that genes play a part, and that gene therapy could -- in theory -- have an effect.

  Also, of course, a "normal" person's makeup -- all the small things that contribute to the choices we make later in life, is partly based on genes. It would, however, be extremely naive to think that any genetic screening can prevent all, or even most, of evil acts. I hold much more hope for education, especially of the young, and a significant effort to eradicate poverty and give people as equal opportunity in life as practically possible.

  Evil is not a property with humans. Evil is as evil does.

  - Jan
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  Carmel

  aaaaaaa I don't think so!

  gene