The Gay Gene and the Abortion Clinic

Extract from 'The Essential guide to 21st and 22nd century History' by Javier Weintraub the famed Texan Scholar.

Image is for educational purposes only. Fair use. 

The year is AD 2030 / 1451 Hijri
Hakim and is wife are pregnant.
They have found out about a new non-invasive technology that will allow them to determine if the baby will be male, female, autistic, have a cleft palate ...or is in possession of the newly discovered 'gay gene' - all without any risk of miscarriage.
Hakim is most concerned about the health and sex of the child.
It must be a perfectly healthy boy.
He has explained to his pregnant wife she will need to abort and try again, if the child is not male.
Hakim's wife is a 'good' wife.
She is his second of three.
She is obedient, as her culture teaches her to be and she naturally agrees to Hakim's demands.
She asks him if she can have a daughter one day, and he agrees - after 2 sons and as long as it occurs naturally.
Once the first set of results are returned, Hakim is delighted to discover the child is a boy.
But, much to his horror a gene associated with male femininity and in some cases homosexual tendencies is discovered just a few days later.
The OB's have located the 'gay gene' in his wife's fluids.
Hakim struggles with this. None of his other boys are gay? Are they?
Perhaps it is his wife's fault? More tests may confirm this!
Luckily for his wife and sons, Hakim does not fully believe in the gene's effect.
Still, he considers,  a gay son would be a nightmare to raise in his culture.
What IF the doctors are right?
If the boy was found out, his life would be in danger and Hakim's family shamed for generations. Reluctantly he decides to abort the male unborn baby.
His wife complies, admitting it is probably her fault and she abandons her dream of having a daughter forever.  In Hakim's country abortions are only legal for very serious illnesses and 'moral' reasons like incest, rape... and homosexuality.
A year later they have the 'perfect boy'.
Hakim is thankful for the 'science' that allowed this choice to be made. A few years later, his second wife quietly takes her own life, still broken hearted after losing her first baby.
Hakim's case is not rare or even culturally isolated. Nor is his wife's.
Since the 'gay gene' was identified in the 2022, millions of potentially gay or lesbian children have been aborted all over the world, especially in the western or 'free world' were abortions can be had on demand and with no reason given since the late 20th century.  After effects of such 'terminations' such as depression, drug use, and even suicide are not unusual in that region either. Rather they have been considered the 'norm' for decades.
"I don't hate gays, I just want grandchildren." is the popular excuse people make initially.
There is resistance to 'bio ethics' push - and it comes from a somewhat ironic, if obvious source.
Religious minds.
The various Christian churches, ministries, and Jewish temples and religious groups are openly mocked by the media and called homophobic for insisting the science is not good, or that homosexuality is a choice and not a medical condition.
The 'religious argument', as it was then known,  that we are all sinners or in a more secular language that we are all imperfect,  and that such sin or imperfections must be forgiven is spun by the media and scientific elites  as being silly and counter productive.
Doctor William Osborne of the Dawkins Institute  for a Progressive Society (London) was famously quoted (circa 2031) as countering this argument at a United Nations meeting  with: "The scientific community does not deal in sin, we deal in fact. The fact is that a defective genetic code can be repaired, and the frequency of it's recurrence be reduced and eventually eradicated by sterilization and termination. Evolution has shown us the way. Now science will follow nature! "
Public Ads read:"Counselling wont stop hate! Genetic therapy is the answer." is the answer from the scientific community.
A famous western bio ethicist*  proclaim: "Soon we will eliminate so called 'homophobia' and the instinctive violence against homosexuals by eliminating the error in the genetic code that make the homosexuals deviate from evolutionary norms. Eventually we hope to find what makes people hate defects so much, and eliminate that too - but this is a start..."
Gay pride groups applaud their new 'disability status' and collect their benefits in the western nations. A small fringe of homosexual activists are publicly opposed to the new definitions and entitlement programs - but they are labelled radical and outlawed in many regions.
The 'Gay lists' are drawn up. Homosexuals registered for benefits and assigned various levels of workplace counselling - and when young enough - a free, but compulsory, genetic therapy course to attempt to correct 'defective urges'.
By 2045 the voluntary sterilization program is in effect for all homosexuals in nations with a mandatory health care act/law. The program pays 'genetic homosexuals' a years salary to get 'fixed'.
The program was ineffective, but was widely supported for almost 20 years.
Thankfully, when the technocracy broke down in the last years of the 21st century , these issues were revisited.
[...]
The role of Reverend Thomas Winston Smith, the famous civil rights leader - and later the Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, simply cannot be underestimated.
His famous speech at the American South Eastern congress in 2089 was heralded as the 'deal breaker' on scientific racism, the neo-eugenics movement then known as 'boi ethics',  and the scientific persecution of homosexuals.
His famous voicecast will forever renowned as a major civil rights victory in 'Old Dixie'  and across the United States. The speech received a standing ovation from the crowds present; including then President Sir Gerald Robert Lee - the famed General,  long time Ambassador to Ottawa, - who counted Rev Smith as one of his closest friends as supporters.
Rev Smith had said:  "[...] and so we must cut the chains of this so called science in the name of morality and decency. We must recognize a man is not his race, his breeding, or his education - he is a result of his choices. He possess Free Will!
Being a homosexual is not a medical condition, Brothers and Sisters. These people do not need genetic therapy or to be treated like mental patients. They are not sick!
[...]It [being homosexual] is a choice. A choice that we, here in this congregation, may or may not understand fully, but it is a choice sometimes made out of love. That much we know.
We must respect that choice - the one made out of love!
And if we cannot agree with it - we are commanded to forgive it.
We are all made in God's image. More so, we are all sinners and none of us perfect.,
We will be forgiven as we forgive others.'[...]
Obviously these techniques and the science behind them were flawed, as homosexuals are just as present in modern 23rd century society as they have ever been, as evidenced by famed and loved personalities such as the ever popular Guy Mustafa - Cohen, president of the Island of Quebec  or the super talented Californian artist and song writer Tony Bush and his Dare Devil base jumping lover Jean Trudea-Obama. [...]
Today [ad 2226 /  1653 Hijri date of print] we all accept the reality of free will, and that a homosexual is making what was once, before the last eugenics push, referred to as a 'lifestyle choice'. Today homosexuals enjoy the same freedoms and rights as anyone else - and none are being sent to the alchemists lab to have their life codex experimented on. Today science has it's place as a tool, and is used by the thinkers - not the reverse.
[...]
Today, happily, the machines work for us, not us for them.
Today we are happy to confront questions as profound as choice and morality with humility.
We realize our tools and methods are imperfect, and we proceed with, some would suggest, much more care.  But the cost of this hubristic period in terms of human life and dignity have been incalculable.
[...]
Some suggest that the sheer loss of life to these programs could have seriously delayed colonization efforts in Antarctica and in the inner solar system by decades. One such work, 'The Malthusian Deception' by Bernard Marx, goes much further. It suggests that this loss of life is the reason for the 'blight' of the mid 21st century, and the genetic banks of these 'mad scientists' may well have been what gave rise to the killer moulds in the first place. More research is needed to confirm Dr Marx ideas, but it does seem that he has a very strong argument so far.
As Nathaniel Jackson the famous Australian pilot and the first man on Mars was once quoted as saying to his mirror.  
"Who made who? Well do me in, man - we KNOW it wasn't you!" 

This except is from a larger work of satirical 'prehistory' by your most Faustian author.
This section deals with gay rights and homosexuality.
No names or places are intentionally linked to real people or events.

The work is simply fiction, and written for the explicit purpose of providing a provocative double take on our direction as a culture in an entertaining way.I hope the readers 'get it' for what it is - a stance AGAINST bigotry and murder dressed as science and medicine.

Religion useful for atheists too!

An unusually moderate take from an agnostic/athiest rationalist.

Could this be the end of 'new Atheism' and a return to sober Agnosticism by the intellectual elite? Don't hold your breath!

It is nice to hear, however, the sane approach to this metaphysical mental exercise still exists; that one may still think freely within the 'free thinker' movement.
Kudos to De Botton for taking a stand against negativity and ant-religious bigotry.
A new title for my book list :)

Religion useful for atheists too, author argues (from CTV.ca) 

What if instead of mocking religions, atheists could borrow the very best ideas from? That's the question author Alain de Botton asks in his intellectually challenging but highly readable new book, "Religion for Atheists."

De Botton argues that it's possible for those who don't believe in God to look to religion for insights on everything from how to communicate ideas well, to how to build a sense of community, to how to keep our egos in check.

De Botton, who has published bestselling books on a range of subjects, from the philosphy of love, to architecture, to travel, has little patience for the debate about whether God exists. There will never be an answer to that one, he insists.

But he says for too long, his fellow atheists have wasted so much energy arguing with the faithful about whether the doctrines of religion are "true."

"Atheism has really been put on the map by what I call New Atheists, like Richard Dawkins and Chris Hitchens. They've been very successful, but at the same time, they've gone a little far with a negative direction. They've identified atheism with a hatred of religion – not just non-belief, but mockery and loathing," de Botton told CTVNews.ca recently when he was in Toronto.

While these "noisy fringes of atheism" -- as he calls them -- have dominated the public debate about atheism, he believes there remains "a silent majority" of atheists who don't necessarily hate religion and don't believe that "religion poisons everything," as Hitchens so fervently believed.

"I think there is a middle who think, ‘Look, maybe the doctrines of religion are not that convincing, but Christmas carols are nice, and religions rites of passage are nice,'" he says.

Those atheists who have been so quick to dismiss religious faith have failed to notice what makes religions as institutions so compelling, de Botton says.

There are a number of things that religion gets right, de Botton argues. The way they use music, religious art, and lyricism to inspire, or example. Or the way that every religion in the world emphasizes time for quiet reflection, to take a step back and to be reminded of our need for humility in a greater universe.

All religions have also always focused on architecture, building worship spaces designed for reverence, says de Botton.

"They know that the space you're in really affects your mood. It can inspire awe or calm, or gratitude, or love. The secular world thinks of humans as just brains that don't need that, and that our eyes are not affected. Whereas, or course, we are integrated beings and the space we're in can influence our ideas," he says.

He writes that secularism has been so concerned with personal freedom that it has missed the opportunity to guide humans on how to live.

"So opposed have many atheists been to the content of religious belief that they have omitted to appreciate its inspiring and still valid overall object: to provide us with well-structured advice on how to lead our lives," he writes in the book.

He writes that "no existing mainstream secular institution has a declared interest in teaching us the art of living." But he says the keys to the art of living can easily be found by sampling a bit of each of the world's religions.

It is that idea that de Botton knows will anger religious believers. Religions are not buffets where you can pick what you like and discard the rest, they protest. But de Botton argues that the downfall of many of the world's faiths is their insistence that followers "must eat everything on the plate."

"I think you can pick and choose morality from different religions," he says. "I know that sounds bizarre and I'm a fan of commitment. But the idea of having to commit to only one faith seems bizarre.

"I understand it if you're a believer. But as a non-believer, it's no more important to stick to one faith than to stick to one kind of novel as a student of literature. Imagine if you said, "I really like Jane Austen." And someone said to you, "Well, I hope you'll only be reading Austen then, and not picking and mixing and reading (Vladimir) Nabokov next." You would think, well why not?"

De Boton says just as we can appreciate different aspects of Austen and Nabokov's writing, so too can we appreciate the Zen Buddhist emphasis on compassion or the Jewish emphasis on forgiveness.

"Why not pick and mix ideas?" he asks.

the Aristocrat

On one of my favourite blogs (egnorance) Dr Egnor posted an all time favourite poem by the master intellect, G.K. Chesterston.
It's infernal subject could not be more appropriate for our Faustian crowd!|

Chesterton: the Aristocrat

G.K. Chesterton, from The Catholic Thing:

The Aristocrat 

The Devil is a gentleman, and asks you down to stay

At his little place at What’sitsname (it isn’t far away).

They say the sport is splendid; there is always something new,

And fairy scenes, and fearful feats that none but he can do;

He can shoot the feathered cherubs if they fly on the estate,

Or fish for Father Neptune with the mermaids for a bait;

He scaled amid the staggering stars that precipice, the sky,

And blew his trumpet above heaven, and got by mastery

The starry crown of God Himself, and shoved it on the shelf;

But the Devil is a gentleman, and doesn’t brag himself.

O blind your eyes and break your heart and hack your hand away,

And lose your love and shave your head; but do not go to stay

At the little place in What’sitsname where folks are rich and clever;

The golden and the goodly house, where things grow worse for ever;

There are things you need not know of, though you live and die in vain,

There are souls more sick of pleasure than you are sick of pain;

There is a game of April Fool that’s played behind its door,

Where the fool remains for ever and the April comes no more,

Where the splendour of the daylight grows drearier than the dark,

And life droops like a vulture that once was such a lark:

And that is the Blue Devil that once was the Blue Bird;

For the Devil is a gentleman, and doesn’t keep his word.

"There are souls more sick of pleasure than you are sick of pain."

The lures of Satan are subtle, often, and he woos with pleasure. Sometimes suffering is healthier, as Christianity has always taught. Chesterton at his best.

Drawing by John Welding 

Original link and comments HERE.
Thanks again, Mike!

A dish of Black Death

An article in the UK's Daily Mail outlines a new 'discovery' or find that seems to indicate that researchers have discovered the pathogen responsible for the dreaded black death..and apparently it is still about today!


"DNA taken from the skeletons of plague victims in medieval London has unearthed a shocking revelation – the Black Death is still present today.
Bodies of victims, who were buried in a mass ‘plague graves’ in the capital, show that part of the same sequence of genes still exists, hundreds of years later.
The Black Death claimed the lives of one-third of Europe's population in just five years from 1348 to 1353."


In a rather cocky, and typically Brit-o-scientistic fashion the articles author delcares:
"Scientists have now confirmed that Yersinia pestis which is known to cause cases of the plague today was also responsible for the brutally damaging bubonic plague which almost wiped out Europe."

Not to worry though, because "the modern day bug spreads much more slowly and is far less deadly."

So, while no news is good news....it also means no grants. The question is what becomes of this pathogen now it has been isolated and these scientists have their curiosity satiated (for now).  Sure some history books will be updated and there will be much talk about how the pathogen arrived etc (delivery);But what happens to the nasty little killer bug in a dish when all the rich guys send all the nerds home and close / change the lab?  Should we 'trust' them to eliminate this stuff. Is yet another genie now out of the bottle? Another Pandora's box opened by reckless curiosity?
What happens to the Dish of Black Death?
The soldier and the historian in me say 'weapon'.
The father and uncle say 'not again'.