This month I am going to ask readers to take a deep breath, relax, press the button marked mental concentration and then accompany me as we think about how lawyers are unintentionally turning us into strings of genetic code.
Just before Christmas last, the European Court decided that a 25 stone man had a disability and therefore his Danish employer had to make full provision to accommodate his physical state. This ruling means that weight now joins the ever growing list of anti discrimination factors and applies to every one of us in our dealings with others. The thinking behind such lists is that when an individual cannot influence his condition he needs the protection of the law.
This is certainly true in cases such as colour or disability, and at first glance may seem fair. However the problem with such lists is that they give clever barristers opportunity to argue that everything on the list is determined by a genetic code. But what for example of the employer who claims that he cannot help discriminating against a job applicant because he has himself, a genetic revulsion against the applicant. If genes work one way, surely they equally work another. At what point are we programmed and at what point are we able to make choices?
During early history, some human actions were explained as being caused by the devil or ‘bad’ spirits. Nowadays however these same actions are ascribed to genetics or social factors. Without doubt, some things are a consequence of genes over which the individual has little control, but is this true of everything? Early Greek philosophers and Theologians thought not. They reasoned that most things then popularly left to ‘fate’ could, in fact, be decided by the conscious mind and so they would not be happy when folks today substitute genetics for ‘fate’ and use our genes as an excuse for not making our own decisions.
I expect perceptive readers have already noticed that folks often excuse some actions by claiming to be doing what comes naturally and so they can’t help it and so this then justifies understanding or forgiveness. But how come they then take personal credit and want praise for doing other things? I guess this shows that when it suits us we claim credit, but when it doesn’t we blame nature.
Christians have always believed that humans have free will, and I wonder if this was in the mind of St Francis of Assisi around 1200 AD when he penned the prayer ….
“Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
And talking of wisdom reminds me of my Great Uncle George the Methodist preacher who once commenced a sermon with the words:
“I started out with nothing, and now I’m older I’ve discovered that I’ve still got most of it.”
View from the Pew 