Abaddon,
I do accept that nurture has a big part to play in the development of a child. I do not accept the Christian viewpoint of evil either. However, from your comments you seem to feel that because of their upbringing, they had no choice....correct me if i'm wrong. What you haven't commented on is that we all have free will. Yes i accept that we make choices within the confines of our upbringing...but at the end of the day we still have to make choices that we should be held responsible for.
The problem with coming to the conclusion that we would all do the same if we were brought up the same, is that you are turning us all into something like robots. When certain buttons are pressed in our life....we will give a certain reaction, seems to be what you are saying. Life is not like that, we all have a free will to make choices...limited choices maybe, but still choices.
Psychology in my opinion is different to the other sciences. Many psychologists view it as a science...but for me to accept that means that we are nothing more than automatons.
Thank you for correcting me when i said, 'anyone who takes another life should be locked up for life'. You are correct in that i meant anyone who commits something comparable to Americans 1st degree murder, should be locked away.
Many of us would have watched our child bleed to death when we were JW's.
To illustrate my point, within the confines of the way we grew up, we still have choices, i'd like to tell you about when my second son was born.
Common problem amongst some pregnant women...my x-wife's blood was rheasus negative(think i've spelt it right), babies was positive. Some of my x's blood had mixed with our child's when he was born...it was touch and go whether he needed a blood transfusion. I was still in the 'truth'...albeit weak, and the rest of her and my family were. They asked us if we would agree to a transfusion...my wife said no...although she knew that the doctors would overide the decision anyway, she really took an easy route. I felt though that it should be me taking responsibility for my sons life and not sherking that responsibility....so i said that it would be okay (the decision was heart rendering...going against all the beliefs that i was brought up with). The nurses were understanding and said that they wouldn't put me through that and would get the doctors signature anyway. I felt though that finally i had made a decision and somehow felt a relief in pressure of those beliefs. In the end my son didn't need one anyway and fully recovered.
My point is, is that just because we grew a certain way doesn't mean that we do not have the responsibility of making choices. Free will does play a major part in the decisions we make and although nurture also plays a major role....it is not the be all and end all of life.