Free Will and Genetics

[Randy_Carson]

Got this inquiry from my son who is a senior in high school.

Two men, who are identical twins, are separated at birth. Years later they are re-united and are surprised to learn that they married women who look similar, have the same number of kids, live in similar neighborhoods, both have circular benches around a tree in their front yards, etc.

Were their decisions genetically encoded? If so where does free will come into play?

 

[icamay]

This is a subject I’ve always been interesting in learning more about. My sister and I are 7 years apart and didn’t meet until she was 16, I was 23, with little to no contact. When we met, we found we share a shocking amount of personality traits, interests, and habits. I spoke to a friend with a PhD in psychology who told me there are several theories that many fundamental traits of the personality are genetic. Also, keep in mind that identical twins are one embryo split into two early on - one person made into two, so to speak. If there is any miracle of life that mystifies me more than conception itself, it would be the mystery of the identical twin.

 

[1ke]

Were their decisions genetically encoded?

No. **Decisions **are always an act of the will. The intellect and will are both properties of our souls. Our souls are not material, they are spiritual.

We do not know how genetics may influence some of our likes and dislikes, but always decisions are acts of free will.

So, my brother and I are both left handed, both have the same favorite meal, both have some exact same likes and dislikes, both have some of the same mannerisms, both have blond hair and blue eyes, and are picky eaters. Genetic? No. We are step-siblings and not raised in the same household. It’s called a coincidence.

If so where does free will come into play?

Every step of the way.

 

[valentino]

Got this inquiry from my son who is a senior in high school.

Two men, who are identical twins, are separated at birth. Years later they are re-united and are surprised to learn that they married women who look similar, have the same number of kids, live in similar neighborhoods, both have circular benches around a tree in their front yards, etc.

Were their decisions genetically encoded? If so where does free will come into play?

ive never met such a couple have you?Still if such a thing happened it would be a coincidence.Twins often have simular tastes and affinities and their genetic makeups are closer than regular siblings but theres a limit to how alike they are.free will is more of a moral issue.No tests have proved that twins reared in two entirely different envirements are more likely to be bank robbers than siblings born into different enviraments,

 

[revert_jen]

It is possible that one’s preferences and traits are (at least partially) genetically enoded.

What does that have to do with free will? I may be genetically predisposed to like men who look a particular way. That has nothing to do with my free will decision about whether to sleep with a particular boyfriend before marriage. I may prefer to live in a particular type of neighborhood, but that has nothing to do with my free will decision about whether to buy a house I can’t afford and hope that declaring bankruptcy will fix it.

Every human being has parts of his life that he did not choose. We don’t choose what century or country we are born in. We don’t choose what kind of health predispositions we have. We don’t choose our economic background, the temperaments of our parents, or whether or not we have siblings. We don’t control our gender, our body type, or the temperament we have (just how we control and/or express it).

Free will is what we do with the circumstances we are given. It does not mean that everyone is free as air. I am not free to be a professional visual artist, because I can’t draw. I am not free to avoid gravity. I am free to kill someone, but not free to avoid the consequences (probably physical, certainly spiritual).

Genetic predisposition is basically unrelated to free will, except that a genetic predisposition to a particular sin (e.g. overindulgence in alcohol) may lessen the guilt of a particular instance of that sin.

–Jen

 

[wfr]

Hi,
Similarity does not imply a relationship. If I meet my long lost twin, I will look for the similarities and not the differences. Our wives may look similar, but we don’t notice that their personalities are completely different. We have the same number of children, but we don’t notice that many of our friends and neighbors around our age do also. We both have circular benches around our tree in our front yard, we do not notice that half the people in town do too. Genetics give us our physical characteristics, and we may be pre-dispositioned to certain things like alcoholism, cancer and heart disease. But there is nothing to suggest that genetics control our free will.
Psychics work off our tendency to see positive relationships and not negative ones. If they make ten predictions and one of them is correct, then we tend to only remember (often with the psychic’s help) to correct one and not the ten wrong ones.

PAX CHRISTI
Bill

 

[mellestad]

Got this inquiry from my son who is a senior in high school.

Two men, who are identical twins, are separated at birth. Years later they are re-united and are surprised to learn that they married women who look similar, have the same number of kids, live in similar neighborhoods, both have circular benches around a tree in their front yards, etc.

Were their decisions genetically encoded? If so where does free will come into play?

Well, outside of a specific anecdote there is considerable evidence that points to genetic influence on personality traits. I’m not sure what you are asking, are you asking about the viability of twin studies, or the implications to the theological concept of free will?

As for the viability, twin studies are pretty fascinating. They take survey data from adoption cases and separate into three classes: Identical twins split at birth, fraternal twins split at birth, non-twins going to non-related households. Then they adjust for socio-economic factors and compare results.

The fascinating thing they find is that identical twins have a high correlation for sharing personality traits even when raises separately. Fraternal twins have higher rates of correlation than non-related adopted siblings. And in all cases (identical, fraternal, non-twin adoptee) the adopted children share more personality traits with their biological parents than they do with their adopted parents or siblings.

Now that is personality traits, not beliefs. Research seems to show that beliefs are mostly caused by your social groups (family, friends, community), but general attitudes and personality traits are heavily influenced by genetics.

So, for example, the adopted kids aren’t any more likely to follow the religion/political ideology of their biological parents than a random sample, but they are more likely to be alcoholics (or not), be calm (or angry) people in general, be obese (or skinny), have problems like schizophrenia (schizophrenia specifically is very much shared between identical twins, but only when the placenta is shared), depression, levels of libido, etc.

So for the specific example your son brought up, well, I don’t think it means much. Genetics likely don’t influence whether or not a circular bench is aesthetically pleasing, and most identical twins separated at birth do not share identical life-styles. However, due to the genetic influence on attitudes and personalities they are more likely to end up in similar life-styles than a random control group.​

As far as the theological implications, well, I don’t know. That depends on your view of choice. If you can divorce choice and emotions from attitudes in your conceptual model of behavior then free will is fine. If you think choice is influenced by attitudes, I’m not sure how you reconcile that. I’m sure someone who shares your religion can help you out.

No matter what you think about the theology though, Google, “twin studies” for some fascinating reading. Twin studies are some of the best information we have when we’re trying to sort through the nature vs. nurture discussion!

 

[mcrow]

I agree with those that say making decisions are always free will.

We always have the free will to make one desicion or another as far as God goes.

It’s we do not make decisions on our hair color, height, skin shade, and any other things of the flesh, God makes those for us. God gives us a free mind and free will of that mind.

Often many things that people think are attributed to genetics are in fact more affected by environment. If one twin grows up in a Chinese family and the other in an Italian family, it’s to be expected that they won’t have the same tastes in food. If they both had grown up in Italian families it would be no surprise that they both like Italian food. God decides which family he blesses us with. So, largely the environment we are put in is not our will either.

This is not to say the twin growing up in the Chinese family couldn’t visit Italy and sample some great local food and decide, through free will, that he now likes Italian food.

Environment is many times much more of an influence on people than genetics.You take an American kid who hates Chinese food, rewind the tape to infancy and put him in a Chinese home with Chinese parents and I bet he turns out to like Chinese food.

Free will and genetics have little cross over beyond the physical issues that some with a genetic disorder may have and your physical makeup.