A chara, - 1. Religion, in its meaning of "re-connecting humanity with God," gives fullest meaning to human dignity, worth and obligations.
2. Materialistic humanism, in denying this essential realisation of all human value, degrades us and proposes ambitions and explanations of human life which are stunted and demeaning.
3. Nowhere is this regression more evident in our Western world than in its uprooting of sexuality from its true environs in marriage and the consequent gifting and nurturing of human life by parents in love.
4. Contraception and the pill, particularly in extra-martial and casual affairs, erodes this primary vision of the value of life-giving and loving. They certainly pave the way, perhaps over a couple of generations, for the acceptance of abortion and euthanasia as human "rights" and/or as solutions for pre-diagnosed illnesses in pregnancy or the "releasing of the elderly from a seemingly burdensome existence.
Gaelic wisdom has exquisitely posited the value of all of us in stating the worth of a person wounded in psyche or mind as being that of a "duine le Dia".
That is the value and, indeed, the destiny of humans which Dr Connell defends. It is also the understanding of our human raison d'etre upon which civilised secular life depends if it is to be richly humane and inspired by truly democratic ideals. - Is mise, Colm O Torna,
Garran Ghleann Sceiche, Ard Aidhin, Baile Atha Cliath 5.