Thursday, 09 March 2006

We have become a sex-obsessed society

So it has come to this. Our children can no longer visit supermarket toilets without fear of attack by sexual predators (Girl aged 11 raped in supermarket, 07 Mar 06).

The estimated age of the suspect is telling - just 16. If correct this tragedy will be the latest in a string of increasingly violent sex crimes by youngsters that include brazen attacks on teachers in the classroom. But how much have we, adults, contributed to this appalling state of affairs?

We have become a sex-obsessed society with gratuitous images, foul language and innuendo pervading every aspect of life. A pleasurable act bequeathed to us by nature for the purposes of procreation has become the prime definition of our culture. Sex is healthy. Sexual obsession is perverse. My wife and I (hardly religious prudes) once stared in disbelief at a huge billboard along London's North Circular displaying a near-nude female in cowboy boots and hat selling -- wait for it -- office accommodation!

Advertisements during last night's screening of Malcolm X (a Black Muslim icon) on ITV4 were exclusively for sex and singles chat lines with the usual suggestive images. Sex 'sells', hence its cynical commercial over-exploitation in a society that has lost all moral restraint. No wonder some Muslims in Britain and groups like Christian Exodus in the US wish to live in separate areas governed by ecclesiastical law.

It is disingenuous and hypocritical to contend (as apologists do) that our glamourisation of sex has nothing to do with the corruption of our young. Until recently the UK had the highest number of under-age pregnancies per head of population in Europe. No amount of sex education will reverse the trend significantly unless we also adopt more responsible attitudes to sex in public. And that means curbing the urge to indulge in exhibitionist practices like 'dogging' -- having sex in public car parks -- made fashionable by celebrities. Ironically, even as we wallow in eroticism, birth rates are falling in many European states (immigrants excepted). Perhaps the strain of permanent arousal is affecting our production of the necessary gametes!

Historians tell us that sexual depravity contributed to the downfall of ancient Greek and Roman civilisations. If we do not act to return sex to the confines of private relationships where it properly belongs, we may live to see our post-modern, secular societies fall to religious fundamentalists.

Sunday, 05 March 2006

Evolution and ID: The controversy continues

Rupert Cornwell's report in The Independent (Feb 21) on the continuing controversy in the US over Evolution and ID (Intelligent Design) shows how misunderstood and confused the issues have become.

Evolution is accepted as fact within the scientific community for convenience; not because it has been conclusively proven. Investigation continues into the origins of life and macroevolution (emergence of an entirely new species from another). Almost 150 years after Darwin, no fossils in transition between species -- except for notorious forgeries -- have ever been found. But there is plenty of evidence for microevolution (development of new features within species that aid survival).

Christian fundamentalists take the Bible assertion that God created man in his own image literally. They therefore vehemently oppose any teaching that we 'evolved from monkeys' since this by inference reduces God to a bestial concept. Legal battles over evolution in US schools go back to 1925 when John Scopes was fined $100 for violating a Tennessee law that forbade any teaching 'that man has descended from a lower order of animals'. Since then fundamentalists have seized on any scientific proposal that appears to contradict evolution.

Some scientists (hardly crazed fundamentalists) believe the evidence suggests that intelligent causes exist and these can be empirically detected -- hence ID. Supporting pillars other than the irreducible complexity of life forms include the anomalous structure of water (without which no life can exist), anthropic coincidences and the remarkable Fibonacci ratio. The cumulative evidence has persuaded distinguished former sceptics like physicist Freeman Dyson and philosopher Antony Flew.

Contrary to media reports ID is not an 'anti-evolution movement'. It just happens to be the latest tool employed by fundamentalists in their long campaign against the teaching of evolution as a scientific fact. It is worth remembering that when Darwin presented his theory of evolution as the origin of species, many bitter sceptics were scientists while some enthusiastic supporters were Christian theologians and writers that saw evolution as God's plan unfolding over geological time.

As Lehigh University Professor of Biochemistry Michael J. Behe reminds colleagues: "Science is not a game in which arbitrary rules are used to decide what explanations are to be permitted. Rather, it is an effort to make true statements about physical reality."

Rather than the current hysterical reaction that is achieving little more than sensational press reports, the scientific establishment should reclaim ID from religious fundamentalists and support research to determine the origin of the intelligence in nature that is becoming increasingly hard to ignore.

Wednesday, 01 March 2006

Feeding the Mind

At the start of Lent last year I examined the practice of periodic fasting that is encouraged by some religions and the origin of the preceding bacchanalia. I have since learnt that the term 'Carnival' for the excesses over Mardi Gras derives from 'Carne' (meat) and 'Vale' (goodbye). Thus, observers are literally waving goodbye to meat and other things of the flesh immediately before abstinence for 40 days and nights.

It is interesting how many secular people also make an effort at self-denial over Lent. Alison Steed highlights some financial benefits for those willing to give up a few luxuries (Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb 06). Ed Caesar suggests an environment-friendly action plan for self and the public (Independent, 01 March 06). The latter includes giving up 'rushing' and 'working through lunch'. Caesar quotes A.C. Grayling: "A great deal of possibility, of new ideas, is lost by rushing." And "We've forgotten what's meant by 'recreation' . . . It means to reinvigorate [re-create] yourself, to get your powers back up again, and to feed one's mind as well as one's body."

Increasingly the mindless frenzy of modern society is depriving us of the space and ability to think rationally and productively. Our desire for simple, instant explanations and solutions is leaving us open to manipulation by unscrupulous charlatans of all persuasions. Human agenda is in danger of being reduced to knee-jerk reactions to spoon-fed media propaganda (especially on television), spun at the behest of power-hungry politicians, religious extremists and greedy corporatists among others.

As Rene Descartes said, "Corgito ergo sum [I think, therefore I am]". Mental inactivity and a diet of junk ideas lead to degeneration of the mind just as lack of physical exercise and a diet of junk food harm our physical body. It is frightening that we appear to be forgetting the real lesson of Hitler: how easy it is to induce and harness herd mentality for evil pursuits in a society that has lost the capacity for independent thought.

Whether or not one is religious, it is a good idea to indulge in periods of quiet contemplation away from the hubbub of life. Charles and John Wesley (founders of Methodism) recounted this warning by their mother: "Anything that gives the body power over the mind is an evil thing." We need to feed our mind regularly with the right nutrition so it can flourish and control negative physical impulses.