Wednesday 6 September 2017

Of Mogg and marriages



Jacob Rees-Mogg has come out as being opposed to same sex marriages because of his religion. On one level that’s fine so long as it is between him and his particular brand of Catholicism but it looks like more of a problem to me because he appears to believe that the definition of marriage – the view of what marriage is – should be taken by the church and not the state. I think in wanting to exclude the state he has avoided the real issue – If the state should have no role in defining marriage then exactly which church out of the many in this country gets to be the one that does define marriage?

Mogg says, “I’m a Catholic, I take the teaching of the Catholic church seriously. Marriage is a sacrament and the view of what marriage is is taken by the church, not parliament.”

 “I support the teaching of the Catholic church. The marriage issue is the important thing, this is not how people arrange their lives.”

Why is this a problem? – Because Catholicism is not the only religion in the UK, because not every religion restricts marriage to just one man and one woman and, more importantly, because he has singled out same sex relationships for exclusion whilst ignoring all the other things that Catholicism expects in a marriage. My own heterosexual marriage did not conform to the teaching of the Catholic Church yet he doesn’t seem bothered by it, or at the very least he hasn’t voiced his opposition to that type of marriage.

He says that he supports the teaching of the Catholic Church, and in doing so is opposed Gay marriage. Fine, catholic teaching on Marriage states clearly that the couple must be man and woman, but it also teaches that they must be baptised, that they must vow to bring up their children ‘according to the law of Christ and his Church’ and that they must give their consent before God and his church – specifically the catholic God and the catholic church, not the god or church of any other religion. All fine if you are a catholic, perhaps more generally for a Christian, but if Mogg wants to be consistent with his adherence to religion then he should oppose any marriage that is not between a catholic man and woman.

No more Jewish weddings, Hindu marriage or Muslim matrimony, no more Mormon polygamy or Polynesian plural marriage. He supports the teaching of the Catholic Church and those teachings says clearly state that marriage is between a Catholic man and Catholic woman, not a Hindu man and woman, a Muslim man or woman, an atheist man or woman or, whilst we are at it, between men, between women or any plurality of the above!

Monday 13 March 2017

Why Elon Musk is really boring.



Many will have noticed how transport entrepreneur Elon Musk’s conquest of the US car and rocket industry has now extended to the creation of transport infrastructure. Musk’s encounter with a traffic jam was reportedly the catalyst for him creating “The Boring Company” with the aim of bringing his particular brand of innovation to the tunnel building industry. 

Tunnels, like cars and rockets, are nothing new and modern uses for tunnels as transport go back to the 1850’s when the first tunnel was built to develop and test trains intended for the city of London’s proposed underground railway. Musk’s plans would seem to hinge on two facts. Firstly that traffic chaos is a problem that demands a solution, and in business solutions can make you money, and secondly that tunnelling hasn’t really moved forwards much and may be ripe for the application of innovative thinking and modern technology.

As a solution to traffic chaos his plans might seem to have a problem, one that any road tunnel has - ventilation. Cars and trucks produce some quite toxic gas and as a consequence existing road tunnels over a certain length require the addition of heavy duty ventilation systems to ensure that drivers entering at one end do not emerge from the other suffering terminal effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.

To many this would be a major problem, and more importantly a major cost, but to Musk this may actually be an opportunity because he just happens to own a company that make cars with zero tail pipe emissions, and he has plans to expand from electric cars into electric freight vehicles as well.
If Musk s efforts to convert the world to electric vehicles are successful then he will create a vast market for tunnels that no longer need heavy duty ventilation and in doing so will also reduce the cost of building them in the first place. Even if some continue to use internal combustion engines his tunnels may well become an exclusive and traffic jam free option for those with an electric vehicle.

If this really is how he has seen the issue then it may be a stroke of genius, but there may also be another side to this tale. The real reason why Musk is boring may be entirely out of this world because if he is serious about starting a colony on Mars then the best and safest places to live are deep underground. Developing the skills and technology to create a pressurised, safe and expandable habitat under the surface of Mars will be vital if his master plan to take over the red planet is to succeed.

So why is Elon Musk really boring? because of MARS!