The following from a book called the Blank Slate by Steven Pinker...(some paraphrase)
There is a debate going on between genetic pre-existing so-called programs and the ghost in the machine(a mysterious unexplained Force some would call Spirit), the noble savage (the innocence of man that needs to be inculcated), and the blank slate (totally created by education and environment)
""Nature is a hanging judge," goes an old saying. Many tragedies come from our physical and cognitive makeup. Our bodies are extraordinar ily improbable arrangements of mat ter, with many ways for things to go wrong and only a few ways for things to go right. We are certain to die, and smart enough to know it. Our minds are adapted to a world that no longer exists, prone to misunderstandings correctable only by arduous educa tion, and condemned to perplexity about the deepest questions we can entertain."