Am I just hopelessly "behind the times" or is there something that should be unsettling about the publication of this matter-of-fact NYT Sunday book review? [Warning: disturbing descriptive images] Next up, "Why Hell is Good for You." Our cultural elites have no culture. Indeed, the reason that Bloom writes about the seamier sides of pleasure "without judgment," is because he has no judgment. You see, it's all just objective evolutionary science: "Sh*t happens." Porn, too. So enjoy. I think we need to return to a robust notion of obscenity--out of sight, please, and out of mind.
"... a professor of psychology at Yale."
That phrase in the article pretty much explains the whole trip into the sewer for me. Both the school and the profession offer broad avenues to hell.
Posted by: Susan | June 25, 2010 at 02:06 PM
The problem is not evolution nor evolutionary psychology. We may well have acquired our taste for such things via that mechanism. The problem lies in the genetic fallacy, which assumes that "is" is "ought". Man's study of nature is revealing, but can only reveal nature as fallen; thus to infer moral imperatives through these things is wrong. Paul recognized this when he said that man knows God through nature, but only enough of God to condemn himself. Therefore Christians ought not refute evolution, which is sound, but should rather answer the fool according to his folly: "so, sure... bonobos and chimpanzees behave that way... and so does man, since they are related. But why exactly should you behave that way to your wife and kids right now?"
Posted by: Mairnéalach | June 28, 2010 at 12:43 AM
Interesting that the page spawned a pop-up ad for another review called, "Give Greed a Chance." Leave no sin undone, I guess.
Posted by: Doug Taylor-Weiss | June 28, 2010 at 03:59 PM