Quote Originally Posted by Zombiphobe View Post
As a point of clarification. A person's DNA/genes/genetic code is essentially fixed from conception; it is NOT an open book waiting to be formed from some environmental stimilus. What I think you are bringing up is the whole debate over Nature vs. Nurture. Are someone's actions and behaviour the result of some genetic predisposition from birth or are they a result of their upbringing and environment? Following your dog analogy, could a dog be overly agressive because they belong to a certain breed with a genetic predisposition toward agresssion or was it raised in such a way that resulted in this agressive behavior? Both factors can influence who we are and how we behave, but they are not the same thing.

While I agree that the environment that Scratch grew up in and the events in her past most definitely had a hand in the person she has become, her environment growing up did not alter her on a genetic level.
I am not referring to Nature versus Nurture as it's been proven it's not one or the other but both. A child that is born with perfectly working eyes that is shut in total darkness for the first few years of it's life is said to be blind thereafter. Scientists claim this is because the during the first crucial years of a new borns development the genes are trying to figure out which genes are useful in this world and which ones are not. If there is nothing to see, the genes that help with eye development will not form, or not form fully. If you compare another mammal such as a horse that walks and eats on it's first day of birth versus a human child, you can tell that the horse is born with most of it's functionality fully formed whereas a human being can't really do anything until it's about 3 or 4. So the horse is being programmed during Utero and is mostly genetically developed at birth. A human being is genetically programmed during Utero and post Utero. So I'm not saying you can discount Nature or Nurture, but you have to take both into account. PM me if you'd like some links to check out.