I never thought we’d be using Uncyclopedia for educational reasons. But if you look past the jokes and sarcasm this article does have a bit of education in it. It’s a lot of stuff that anyone who’s studied European history is aware of. Calvin was a protestant who believed in Predestination and Hobbes was a philosopher who wrote about the idea of the social contract.
The idea of Predestination is complicated to me. I don’t think there is a group of human beings that were “chosen” by god, but it does raise the question of the existence of fate. I’m very unsure about fate. I think it is possible to change your fate and manipulate your future by making certain decisions. But I also believe that human beings’ personalities are mostly products of their genetic makeup. How much success you have has a lot to do with who you are as a person starting at birth. Your personality is mostly shaped by your DNA, which makes sense if you analyze your parents personalities.
There are extreme cases when someone’s environment can change their personality, on the other hand. For example: a child could be born perfectly healthy, with an active and intelligent brain, but due to neglect as an infant, they can become autistic. Then there are less extreme cases where bright children grow up in poverty and remain unsuccessful throughout their lives because they are trapped. So in some instances genetics does not affect someone as much as their environment.
I think for the most part, people are “predestined” by the personality they are born with. It will force them to be a certain person, although they may be able to change their personalities slightly. Perhaps I’m only taking this side of the argument because genetics is a very concrete and static thing. A person’s environment is complicated with many different factors, so it’s harder to analyze.
