Important to stay abreast of advancing science

By Letter to the Editor on September 7, 2017.

Re: “SD76 rejects petition for last time,” Aug. 15

On June 21, a spokesman for the Concerned Parents of SD76 declared in the News that “we’re not trying to impose our particular (Christian) values on all the other childrenÉ,” and that “a five-year-old is incapable of deciding his or her gender identity.”

Unfortunately, they impose their Christian values on their own children who may later in life experience intense, cruel and unnecessary emotional agony if they must reconcile their natural sexual identity with the one their parents erroneously believe is “normal.” It is much to the credit of secular schools, whose grip on reality is much firmer than anything religious, that they recognize these conflicts and make efforts to comfort those from the LBGT community who undergo this psychological torment.

Neuroscience, thanks in large part to functional magnetic resonance imaging, has made giant strides in the last few years revealing how the brain operates and shedding light on the relationship between the structure of the brain and the formation of personality. Of great interest is the mounting and compelling evidence that free will is largely an illusion. No one “decides” to be gay.

Inhabitants of planet Earth have a moral obligation to stay abreast of advancing science. Not only our happiness but our continued existence as a species may well depend on it.

Fred Lewis

Medicine Hat