chastity and the art of manliness

The Art of Manliness, a blog I've discovered and come to love more and more through Digg, has recently posted a gutsy article about the idea of chastity in our modern culture. It's actually a great article, in my opinion, because it presents a perspective from a nonreligious slant, and merely puts forward some great reasons men should, at the very least, seek to confine their sexual activity to intimate, meaningful relationships. While I may not agree 100%, I certainly think we can all appreciate and applaud the effort of these blog writers for tackling such an unpopular issue. An excerpt, which basically sums up the meat of the article, is pasted below:

People today approach sex just as they would approach buying a widget. The focus is on YOUR satisfaction and YOUR pleasure. A man thus fantasizes about his next “purchase.” After that hook-up gives him the pleasure he was seeking, he shops around until he finds another person that can satisfy the urge. When he gets tired of that woman or he sees a better and higher end model, he trades-in that person and goes after the upgrade. The problem is that people aren’t things; they’re, well, people. They have hopes, dreams, feelings, and aspirations just like you do.

I'd encourage you to check out the rest of this relatively short article. It's worth the read.

expelled: a review

Today I had the privilege of taking a break from school to go see a documentary hosted by Ben Stein about the controversy surrounding the evolution/Intelligent Design issue. I was a skeptic at first, because I tend to oppose ID and creationist propaganda against evolution, which portray the theory as godless and evil–but this film wasn't like that at all. Rather, it was a fascinating look at what is happening in the world of science today. Highly acclaimed biologists like Richard Dawkins claim that science is all about skepticism, questioning, and self-examination, yet when it comes to challenging the fundamentals of modern scientific premise, the academies and universities have dismissed even the notion that the hypothesis of Intelligent Design could enter the arena of debate. Thus, many capable professors, biologists, and even physicians have undergone fierce scrutiny and rejection from the scientific community, often when the rejected are not proponents of Intelligent Design, but rather believe that their ideas should be heard and their questions answered in an open intellectual forum.

While I myself would side with proven, tried-and-true methods and widely-established scientific evidence, I certainly believe that anyone who challenges these discoveries in light of his own evidence-based discoveries has the right to be heard, even if ultimately his argument doesn't quite measure up. Intelligent Design isn't a religious institution, which is why it certainly should receive more serious consideration than Creationism, whose sole purpose is to forcibly squeeze science into their comically narrow-minded interpretation of Genesis 1.

Ultimately I do believe that there is a higher power, namely the Judeo-Christian God, who created the universe and all that is in existence. In that sense I certainly would agree with anyone from the creationist or ID camp that life is, unquestionably, intelligently designed, and absolutely saturated with evidence for it. Evolution may be perceived by many as a way to explain a universe without God. I think the very complexity of the mechanism of evolution, as well as the preciseness and exact order of events necessary for human life to come about, are definitely pointers to a designer, and an impossibly brilliant designer at that.

Expelled won't be in theaters much longer (today was its last day at the Metreon), but if its still playing near you, I'd highly recommend seeing it. It's a compelling documentary and a highly engaging and entertaining film.