What Makes a Liberal?

I dispute both parts of the meme here.

Many people have said that reading the bible tends to turn people into liberal atheists, as rational people reject the idea of a cruel and vindictive God, and conclude that acceptance of His word requires us to suspend our capacity to think.

Further, though I admit that learned people tend to be liberals, there are plenty of folks across the educational spectrum who honestly care about the well-being of those around them.

The science surrounding this subject suggests that the liberal/conservative dichotomy lies in the way our brains are “wired,” and this does appear to explain at least in part why most people do not make radical changes to their political philosophies as they make their way through their lives.

But even if we accept this assertion that our brains are, in fact, wired a certain way, the question remains: how did they become so?  What part of this is genetics? Heredity?  Some notion of “basic personality” that transcends both genetics and heredity?