The jackass formula turns sinister

Research by a team of scientists at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill has reportedly unveiled three genes that "appear to affect the probability of a life of crime" (Charlotte Observer, July 28, 2008). Researchers studied about 1,100 male students, ages 12-18, in middle school and high school. The study spanned a period between 1996 and 2002.

Professor of sociology, Guang Guo, who headed the UNC study and was the lead author, did not compare the three-gene "discovery" with genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington's disease, but did say that the results "clearly showed a genetic basis for aggressive behavior."

According to the Observer article, Gua was "careful not to overstate the potential for applying this knowledge because of the ethical and legal implications."

In today's societal approach of refusing to accept responsibility for one's own actions, the implications are enormous. Gua said criminals could take the position that they were not responsible because they "were driven by genes" to commit crimes.

So what is this all about? It is modern society looking for a way to explain its failures by finding the smoking gun – the culprit. While hedging all around the issue, they simply imply it's really all the male's fault. The male is just haplessly inferior, a jackass, rather than being created male in all his maleness by God.

It's all linked back to evolution. The study report, to be published in the August edition of American Sociological Review, hints that "boys who tend to be more aggressive could have advantages when it comes to getting a mate, protecting their families and getting enough food." The researchers compared this to violent behavior among wild chimpanzees: "human violence is rooted in pre-human history."

While hinting at the possibility that one's environment is a factor in bad behavior, Gua says: "If you have the genotype you're not necessarily going to be a delinquent." Well "duh"! If someone isn't raised properly in any kind of neighborhood, one would expect a negative result. Reverse the situation by properly raising the child in any kind of neighborhood and one would expect a positive result. Do we really need a genetic study here?

Being a male is different than being a female. God created men to be men and women to be women and all the appurtenances thereof (Genesis 1:26-28), instructing them in His way of life (Genesis 2:16-17; cf. Exodus 20:1-17).

Man is made in God's image, in His likeness, to be human – different from animals. To compare him to wild chimpanzees with violence "rooted in pre-human history" is absurd. (Evolution: Fact or Fiction? May-June, 2005 TW)

Men are not "genetically flawed" any more than are women. It is interesting to note that the study obviously did not look at female delinquency and why there is a growing trend of violence among teenage girls. The problem is not genetic; it is social – society breaking down because it is breaking God's laws.

What we have is a further, sinister twist of the "jackass formula" scenario that should provide more fuel for the suppression of young males, through governmental drug school programs or psychological profiling, branding them as "testosterone mad" throwbacks to the caveman days.

There is a real Creator God who has allowed rebellious mankind to go its own way for the past nearly 6,000 years. That God is soon to return and "'He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3). No repairing defective genes here, just a change in heart.

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