Gay Gene?

On my CBC news app, I saw an article this evening about a large study that failed to find a “gay gene”, but when I wanted to find the article at the CBC website and used Google to do so, the Google link is:

'gay gene' contributes to same-sex behaviour, study finds - CBC.ca

Google’s description of the CBC article, that plainly states that the study failed to find a gene that predisposes a person to being gay, starts with “The largest study of its kind found new evidence that genes contribute to same-sex sexual behaviour…” as though Google is determined to verify the antiquated opinion that people inherit homosexuality.

I’m not a biologist, but I know how to read, and I think we will eventually find that Yes, people are born with a predisposition to being gay, but that the trait is triggered into behavior by social influences and experiences. Someone without that predisposition, but with the same external influences, will not be gay. Further, I think we will find out, and in fact, I think we already have found out from studies involving identical twins, that predisposition is not genetic but is related to the hormonal environment of the womb.

Pros and Cons of Multi-National Business

I just finished reading a blog at https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2019/08/is-god-ready-to-punish-globalists.html. It is a discussion of one man’s view of what some call Globalists.  I am not a fan of much of what international businesses and their political supporters and protectors (such as the USA military) have done around the world, but I have to admit that international trade and co-operation has surely improved the lot in life of huge numbers of people. Only about 10% of the world’s people live in extreme poverty compared to about 35% thirty years ago. Basically, famine only happens for political and military reasons now.  Infectious diseases seem on the wane, and life expectancy has gone up almost radically in many countries. A lot less people are dying in wars than in the last century, and education has opened doors to the masses. The world is, in many ways, getting to be a much better place to live than it used to be.

Nonetheless, I do think that the unbridled power associated with the advent of multi-national business protected by the enforcement tactics of the military has occasioned a lot of needless pain. I think at the heart of it is the adherence to the concept of limited liability for owners of corporations. If we did not have corporate shields for individual’s assets, power would not concentrate so readily and dangerously as it does now.  

Life is Fleeting

You don’t have to be a religious person to enjoy and benefit from reading the Psalms. Even agnostics and atheists have found comfort in that classy collection of contemplative literature. The crises of life are addressed each in its own place there. Suffered betrayal?  Psalm 55. Dealing with anxiety issues?  Psalm 91. Struggling to understand why evil seems to prosper? Psalm 73.

I was this weekend considering Psalm 39. It’s a meditation on mortality. In the past few years I have lost several good friends from when I was a young man. My generation seems to be on the way out. The latest (last month) was Murray Polushin. Aside from having a special humor, he was one of the more articulate people I have known, well read and able to hold his own in a discussion with most anyone. He was able to dissect ideas and examine them critically.

I recall the time when Murray, who had just returned to Edmonton from college in the USA, was staying a few days with my then roommates and me in our apartment at Riverside Towers. We had another guest at the same time --- a super enthusiastic fellow named Tony Albert. Tony was a closer and did not like accepting No. Early one evening Murray and Tony started debating why it was that Americans seemed more prone to violent crime than did Canadians. They discussed this all evening and were at it when I went to bed around 11. I got up the next morning to get ready for work, and discovered they had been up all night and were still debating that same topic. When I got home at day's end, they were still going....I won't say strong.....they were flagging a bit....but they were still at it.

There is a continual stream of replacement humans coming along as babies are born and enter our lives or as adults wander in as strangers. They don’t really take the place of the ones we have long known because we do not have a history with them. I am not saying don’t build anything with them. Of course we should, but we should also treasure our old friends and also our families. We are social beings and need each other.