An article of the BBC Online Magazine asks whether science can explain why some people see “the glass as half empty” while others see it as “half full”.
The answer offered by medical journalist, Michael Mosley, explains additional research on genetic discoveries that we alluded to in a recent post, “God only Knows.”
According to Mosely, recent research suggests not only that genetic predispositions can be formed by life experiences—but that those inclinations can be altered even late in life. The science is based on the discovery that “throughout our lives, in response to environmental factors, our genes are constantly being dialed up and down as with a dimmer switch.” He adds that according to researchers while we used to say “that we can’t change our genes. We now know there are these mini mechanisms that can switch them (genes) on and off.”
Seems to me that this kind of information can be weighed when it comes to the conclusions we form about ourselves and one another. On one hand it seems to give us reason to suspect that there may be natural reasons for our tendency to be either optimistic or pessimistic in our approach to life. For instance, according to Mosely, there is even reason to think that differences in mental attitude may reflect “how well mothered [persons] were at a young age – reflecting how anxious and stressed their mothers were, and how this impacted on the amount of affection they received in their early years. ”In other words, our optimism or pessimism may not be as much of a measure of spirituality as we might think.
On the other hand, if the research is true that we might be able to alter our genetic condition “even late in life”, then maybe we are not as enslaved to our “inherited nature” as we assume.
In either case, seems like all of this gives us reason to realize that it’s really true that— God ony knows the real balance between mind-spirit-and-body— and that the extent to which we are enabled to trust what he thinks of us (rather than what we are naturally inclined to think or feel) may end up affecting not only our attitude—but our “bodies” as well.
What do you think? Could that be significant, or not?
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