We Are What We Know

In psychology today they told us that who we were and how we saw the world was shaped about 25%-50% by genetics, and the rest of it was what we had learned...

I by no means have the perfect combination of knowledge, but it strikes me that my knowledge base is indeed very important to me, and I do feel that it sort of defines me. It's fairly well rounded, with a few quirky areas of more depth. And I'm grateful for it. :D

Today I had a big argument with Peter about gay marriage. I admit he beats me as far as knowledge of history and government go, but in this case that was less important, and I was a step ahead of him on knowledge of science in this instance and knowledge of the Bible, and I knew the fundamentals of a logical debate A LOT better than he did.

And it struck me how strange and random the sources of these knowledge bases are.

What I know of science in this case... and by that I mean the scientific evidence of homosexual activity among animals... I can attribute to wandering around Trondheim and into the University Museum there, which happened to have a special and immensely interesting exhibit on the subject. So I can prater on at some length about the homosexual practices of dolphins and giraffes and seabirds, and the way that the scientists researching some things were pressured to ignore their findings, in such cases that they themselves admitted to what they were seeing. For example, in one study of giraffes, researchers tagged every instance of a male sniffing a female as sexual interest, but categorized all intercourse between males including ejaculation as 'fighting'. :S But I digress.

What I know from the Bible comes mainly from being Catholic. I was bored to tears in mass, and was allowed only one entertainment - reading the Bible. For some reason I was fascinated by Deuteronomy, so I know that section better than almost anyone I've ever spoken to about it. On the other sections - well, I know all my cutesy 'bible stories' because I have a very good memory for such things, and I did do a Bible Study once through my church that was quite useful. I'm quick to note my limitations in this area - I would be completely hopeless at interpreting the Bible, for example, as that's really hard and requires training. XD But if you want to throw random quotes or facts around in a discussion or morals or something, I'm your girl. I'm also a master of Bible Trivia. Seriously. I won my church's competition two years in a row.

What I know about the fundamentals of logical debate comes from the month or so we spent studying it in middle school gifted education. I'll never forget Mrs. Reenstjerna and I's debate about what the statement "either a tiger is in this room or a lady is in the other room" signifies when false. :D And I always loved that sort of puzzle when I was little, too. The most important source of my knowledge on this subject, however, is the fact that we are currently studying 30 tools of critical thinking in Psychology right now, and every point I made against Peter came almost directly from these.

And all of these things, for better or for worse, make me who I am.

Walking home I realized I could identify the leaves falling at my feet. Pin Oak, Gingko, Crabapple... Why? Because my father always did love trees, and sometimes on our hikes or even our walks around the block he would point out their names...