Memories

Somewhere in our discussions in class, we stumbled upon memory. Though the discussion was brief, it got me thinking. How does memory work? What about human instincts? So I looked into some interesting theories, and one caught my eye: Genetic memory.

In psychological terms (according to Wikipedia)"genetic memory" is based on an idea that a species' common experiences become incorporated into its genetic code. Some other theories, however, believe that humans have the ability to tap into the memories of their ancestors. Some believe we could also see into past lives. It also tries to explain human instincts, such as infants knowing they have to suck on a bottle or their mother's nipple to get nourishment. While others argue this is simply a built in response to a stimulus, advocates of genetic memory say that we know what to do because our ancestors passed on the knowledge, whether we know it or not.
I think that the idea of having genetic memory is very interesting, though I do not agree with part of it. I don't think we could see into our ancestor's memory. I don't think memories can become written into genetic code. However, when it comes to past lives, I think we could (with much training) learn how to see those. I believe our soul stays the same from life to life, so perhaps it retains some memory from each life before this one. However, that is simply my opinion and belief, and is straying from the main point: Ancestral genetic memory.

What's your opinion on genetic memory? Do you think we are subconsciously able to learn from our ancestors, or even "see" their memories?

-Megan

"There is no normal life, Wyatt, there's just life." -Tombstone

What Feels Good

The question from Alex: "If feeling good makes what you are doing good, than are the people we see as evil just taking pleasure by doing bad?"

I would say yes. I do not know why anyone would want to do something that makes them feel bad, so I suppose someone doing something that we perceive as "bad" feels good about what they are doing. I think that the person does the evil act because they have convinced themselves that it is a good deed, and therefore do not feel bad in doing it. What we perceive as a "bad thing" is probably very different from their perception.

However, when you take into account the people who do bad things BECAUSE they are bad, this theory is thrown off. So my question for this blog is: Why do people do things that are evil when they know that it is evil and it makes them feel evil?

-Megan

"There is no normal life, Wyatt, there's just life." -Tombstone

Listening to Ourselves

This is a response to Nicole's question: Should we listen to our conscience all the time? Well, I believe that a conscience is a reliable way of determining whether or not a situation is positive or negative. I know that if I suddenly feel very uneasy about doing something or going somewhere, I don't. However, should it be listened to all the time? No. In my opinion, your conscience fluctuates with your emotions, and when under stress or clouded by anger, your conscience can tell you to do things that you would not normally dream about doing. My friend had a story that proved this. She had seen a verbally violent fight between two people that were close to her. Well, "fight" isn't really the right term, because only one of the two people was yelling while the other listened. My friend felt threatened by the person yelling, and became upset that the person would dare to yell in the first place. She wanted to protect her friend, and the first thing that came to mind was to kill the person yelling. That way, she would not have to hear the yells or curses, and she and her friend would no longer feel threatened.

Obviously, she did not kill the person. But when under enough worry, anger, and stress, that was the first option that was logical to her self-conscious: Remove the threat. So no, I do not think relying on your conscience all the time is a good idea.

Is there a situation where relying on conscience when under stress may be a good thing? Or should logic always take over?