I observe a trend in people who appeal to genetics and reject environmental influence, when talking about personal traits and psychological issues. It seems like they are mostly believers in fate who want to appear as rational skeptics, by replacing the word "fate" with "genes". But genetics and fate are two different things, and I don't want to undermine the importance of the former in no way. The genetic code is, indeed, the foundation of all human behavior, and it would be silly to disregard such a fundamental factor. But, as important as they are, the "instructions" of our genes can be overcome - the obvious example, of course, is birth control - therefore, being predisposed to something does not necessarily mean that we are bound to it. Hence, "it's in my genes" does not equal to "it's my destiny".
Surely, everything I am, everything I think, and everything I do, has been made possible by my genes. From this, many people conclude, that my genes are therefore directly responsible for my personal traits, and environment has nothing to do with my character. By this claim, they commit the fallacy of the single cause, where it is assumed that there is a single, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a number of only jointly sufficient causes. It's like saying that the hardware of a computer, alone, is responsible for what kind of software is installed on it.
Genes, indeed, have "programmed" my brain to process new information using various techniques, called heuristics, along with their many flaws. In other words, my genes are responsible for my brain's "Operating System". But would you say that the OS of a computer determines the software that will be installed on it? That's very similar to saying that my genes determine what's in my mind, e.g. my thoughts. Surely, operating systems, as well as genes, set up limitations to what kind of input can be understood and how it may be interpreted, but they don't create the input themselves. My genes do not create my environment.
Would you say that the Operating System is directly responsible for the viruses that have infected it? Some Mac and Linux fans will surely argue from this point, but wrongly so - having a weak immune system does not cause your illness, viruses do. Even if we accept the wrong premise that having a weak immune system causes sickness, this still isn't a fixed issue, and it can be overcome by strengthening the immune system, either by vaccination, or immunization. Vaccination would be analogous to installing an anti-virus software on your Windows; immunization - to finding a way of preventing future infection of the virus after having been infected with it (e.g. not going on suspicious porn websites).
When one has a psychological issue, appealing to genetics is very often, in my opinion, just another way for him to dissociate from the problem. "Hey, it's in my genes, I can't do nothing about it". An alcoholic might say that he was genetically predisposed to alcoholism, and thus avoid considering, for instance, his history of abuse as a child, which might as well be the cause of his addiction. From a practical point, I think genes ought to be the last place to look for a problem's cause, because it's not helping much to the present patient anyway.
In conclusion, genes have nothing to do with destiny, and have little to do with personal traits.
Prove me wrong, maybe?
