The Jaina Doctrine of Karma And The Science Of Genetics: Body Weight And Genes

Nothing could be further from the truth. Eating is one of the most ancient and evolutionarily conversed of our behaviours. If we did not eat enough to replenish the calories we burn, we could not survive. So naturally we have inherited genes that make our bodies conserve calories instead of burn them. Unfortunately, even though our genes have not changed in the last several hundred thousand years, our culture has dramatically. Now most people recognize that body weight respond both to the biology and society, to genes and emotions. The most recent experiments show that genes are the single most important contributor to body weight, more than any other factor or combination of things.

The bottom line is that the genes are very important, but still dependent on the environment. A person who might balloon to obscene fatness in one setting could stay relatively thin in another. To understand how genes and behavior work together to control body weight, it is necessary to understand what the genes are doing? The scientists chose ten Pimas suffering from both obesity and diabetes and screened the DNA for the B-30 adrenergic receptor gene. The researchers were astounded to find the five out of the ten had the same gene mutations.^[71]

When you think about genes for your personality, you are asking who am I? The simple answer is "you are who your brain thinks you are". And who your brain thinks, you are the result of an intricate, one of a kind interaction of genes and life experiences. So what about free will? It is alive and well, and probably genetic. Free will means taking control of your life. This is only possible when you understand who you are. As humans, we are born with instrinct to survive, to love to produce. As individual we are born unique, each of us a variation on the human theme. Genes play an essential role in the overall theme and the individual variations: genes make us human and they make us unique. People cannot be mass produced even if we tried. Every individual has too many choices and too many possibilities to ever predict the future. You are born with a pen and paper in hand, but you have to write your own story.^[72]