Nature vs Nurture

[Milkyway!]

Where do you lie?

Last year I took AP Psychology, in a nut shell the ENTIRE class all came down to one thing. Nature, as in you were born this way vs Nurture as in were all products of our environments. It went as far as Religion, personality, motivation, etc. As far as the class, I remember we had SEVERAL debates between one another of nature vs nurture. My teacher never got involved (In an influencial manner), thus I don't really know where she stood on the topic. So where do you stand on 3 of the topics I shall present.

Religion - Nurture - Personally, I believe religion on belief in it is someone who is a product of their environment. You can see that for yourself in today's society people believe in what they're taught. I was born and raised Baptist, and still to this day I'm Baptist.

Homosexuality - Nurture - Well seeing as how Natural Selection would take care of ANY idea of Nature on this one. I'm forced to believe in nurture.

Maturity - I never understood this debate. But I'm pretty damn sure we had it about 10 times. I just kept my mouth shut. Its probably why I got a C in the class.

Feel free to add your own. Go on. Discuss.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

It's my belief that, at most, people are born with certain psychological predispositions. For example, given my genes and neural machinery, I may be susceptible to depression, but whether or not I actually become depressed depends almost wholly on my environment. Furthermore, I believe that one's intelligence depends mostly on one's environment (I'd say it's about 75% environment and 25% genetics).

This is an interesting topic, and I hope other people will respond.

 

[Razor]

Homosexuality - Nurture - Well seeing as how Natural Selection would take care of ANY idea of Nature on this one. I'm forced to believe in nurture.

Wrong. Altruism, my friend. Look it up. A gay person can be just as evolutionarily viable through various acts of altruism, as defined by evolutionary law. Biology class taught you this, right?

At any rate, I fail to see how a parent could raise their child gay. They could raise them to believe that liking either sex is okay, but further than that the child has to make their own choice in the matter.

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I go with nature all the way. It's part of my Deistic values, what can I say? God imparted into us a basic sense of right and wrong so that he can go and have his vacation in Heaven. If we go against this basic sense, we go to Hell. If we don't, we go to Heaven.

Homosexuality isn't nurtured in anyway, it's a natural inclination. Just like a dude who likes Asians more, or a guy who really, really likes feet. It's just the way you're wired.

Religion is nothing if not the product of nuture. Religion wouldn't survive if parents weren't indoctrinating (I don't know if that's the right word or not...I need Xfear on this one.) their children into their religion of choice.

For me, nature only applies to the basic sense of right and wrong. After that it's a mixture of nurture and choices.