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Epigenetics research may solve some scientific mysteries, such as why only one
member of an identical twin pair may develop a genetically influenced mental disor-
der (Spector, 2012). Epigenetics can also help explain why identical twins may look CONNECT 1.1-4
slightly different. Researchers studying mice have found that in utero exposure to certain
chemicals can cause genetically identical twins to have different-colored fur (Dolinoy Although the text is very clear about
et al., 2007). the interaction of nature and nurture,
So, if Beyoncé and JAY-Z’s eldest daughter, Blue Ivy, grows up to be a popular recording
artist, should we attribute her musical talent to her “superstar genes”? To her childhood in a this belief has only emerged in the last
musically rich environment? To high expectations? The best answer seems to be “All of the few decades. For many years, people
above.” From conception onward, we are the product of a cascade of interactions between our battled from one extreme to the other,
genetic predispositions and our surrounding environments (McGue, 2010). Our genes affect
how people react to and influence us. Forget nature versus nurture; think nature via nurture. in both science and philosophy. Share
the following information with your
* * *
students:
We know from our correspondence and from surveys that some readers are troubled by
the naturalism and evolutionism of contemporary science. “The idea that human minds • Plato and Aristotle argued about
are the product of evolution is . . . unassailable fact,” declared a 2007 editorial in Nature, a
leading science journal. In The Language of God, Human Genome Project director Francis whether people already know the
Collins (2006, pp. 141, 146), a self-described evangelical Christian, compiled the “utterly great truths of life (idealism) or
compelling” evidence that led him to conclude that Darwin’s big idea is “unquestionably whether great truths are learned
correct.” Yet Gallup pollsters report that 40 percent of U.S. adults believe that humans were
created “pretty much in their present form” within the last 10,000 years (Brenan, 2019). through experience (empiricism).
Many people who dispute the scientific story worry that a science of behavior (and evolu- • John Locke and Jean-Jacques
tionary science in particular) will destroy our sense of the beauty, mystery, and spiritual sig- Rousseau argued over whether
nificance of the human creature. For those concerned, we offer some reassuring thoughts.
When Isaac Newton explained the rainbow in terms of light of differing wavelengths, an individual is born as a tabula
the British poet John Keats feared that Newton had destroyed the rainbow’s mysteri- rasa (blank slate) or with unfulfilled
ous beauty. Yet, as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (1998) noted in Unweaving the
Rainbow, Newton’s analysis led to an even deeper mystery — Einstein’s theory of special potential.
relativity. Nothing about Newton’s optics need diminish our appreciation for the dramatic • Freud and Watson argued over
elegance of a rainbow arching across a brightening sky. Worth Publishers. whether people are born with
When Galileo assembled evidence that Earth revolved around the Sun, not vice versa,
innate, unchecked tendencies (the
he did not offer irrefutable proof for his theory. Rather, he offered a coherent explanation for & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
a variety of observations, such as the changing shadows cast by the Moon’s mountains. His id) or as “balls of putty” ready to be
explanation eventually won the day because it described and explained things in a way that
made sense, that hung together. Darwin’s theory of evolution likewise is a coherent view of shaped by experience.
Bedford, Freeman &
natural history. It offers an organizing principle that unifies various observations.
Many people of faith find the scientific idea of human origins congenial with their spir-
ituality. In the fifth century, St. Augustine (quoted by Wilford, 1999) wrote, “The universe
was brought into being in a less than fully formed state, but was gifted with the capacity
to transform itself from unformed matter into a truly marvelous array of structures and life
forms.” In the fourteenth century, Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun (1377) wrote, “One should
then look at the world of creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an
ingenious, gradual manner to plants and animals.” Some 800 years later, Pope Francis in
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman
2015 welcomed a science–religion dialogue, saying, “Evolution in nature is not inconsistent
with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”
Meanwhile, many people of science are awestruck at the emerging understanding of
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the universe and the human creature. It boggles the mind — the entire universe popping out
of a point some 14 billion years ago, and instantly inflating to cosmological size. Had the
energy of this Big Bang been the tiniest bit less, the universe would have collapsed back on
itself. Had it been the tiniest bit more, the result would have been a soup too thin to support
life. Astronomer Sir Martin Rees has described Just Six Numbers (1999), any one of which, if
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