You guys seem to be on the extreme end of the spectrum and not allow
anything for genetics.
If I did not allow anything for genetics why would I do exercises to
avoid my father's fate?
It occurs to me that we are being simplistic. We are assuming that
each of us has a similar definition of genetics. Consider what
genetics is, where it comes from, how it acts. Not Mendelian
genetics, which btw were with plants, but commonsense knowledge about
how people live and how their children tend to be subject to the same
environmental conditions and the same nutrition and exercise habits.
What we call genetics may well be related in cause and effect to what
we call instinct. When a pattern is repeated for generations it has
reason to be replicated again. The simplest example I can think of is
diet. Who among us has not been influenced by how our parents
supplied family diet? And where did they get their ideas on the
subject? How far back might go the habit of eating a particular diet
or preparation style? But yesterday's diet fed active people. Today?
In all ways we are the product of all that has been before. Today we
have different environmental, dietary, transportation conditions than
did our ancestors. Today we have vast information, we have
substantial free will, we have choice. We make decisions daily and we
live or die with the results.
My effort here has been to offer what I have found so far that works
for me so I think it has value. I'm glad to have riled a few people
up. Thinking is good. Apathy is deadly.