Biological Backgrounds

In this chapter Downey explains the human love of catharsis from as far back as the Greek tragedy. 

I have actually always wondered why people were drawn to violence, sex, and moral horrors in film and other mediums.  As someone who is not particularly bothered by watching violence in films, I asked myself if watching anything that falls within these genres is healthy for us as human beings.  Why do we like to be horrified?

Downey believes that it is cathartic for us to visually see what we are capable of because the idea that we are not taking part in those activities even though we can somehow calms us.  Actually, that is probably too much of an understatement.  Downey believes that subconsciously we actually do desire to take part in violence and incest, and he uses the Greek stories and plays of the gods to explain that somehow we are living vicariously through these things because society tells us that we cannot have them.

Unfortunately for Downey, he finally made an argument that I can disprove due to my days in pre-med.  While trying to explain that we avoid incest purely for societal reasons, Downey states, “Were we all born with a special insight into biological insight? Not likely.” Sorry Downey, but you should have done some biological research before you made that statement. 

Nature has equipped us with an incredible amount of information that we never knew about until modern medicine.  Take even the phenomenon of attraction for example.  It is very clear from our physical states that man and woman are meant to be together, but nature helps that along through simple things such as pheromones.  Another example would be the chili pepper.  This spicy food is detrimental to the cells lining of the tongue and the mouth; however, after it is bitten into, the brain sends out endorphins so that the person will keep eating the pepper.  This is because the body knows, for a number of reasons that would take too long to discuss, that the pepper is filled with vitamin C, a necessary nutrient for our survival.  If nature can dictate which kinds of foods we eat or who we are attracted to, is not safe to say that nature might also know that having sex with your brother is a bad idea, for purely genetics sake?

Add in the fact that, as Christians, we believe that God created Nature and her rules.  Wouldn’t it also be safe to say that God would put inside of us a natural repulsion for a physical relation with our family members because He knew the detrimental results? 

The more subtle idea of human beings being drawn to disturbing images because they are a cathartic release of our fears of what we can become is more compelling to me.  I believe that Downey is on the right track about human nature, but has taken it a step too far.  Although he would just say that by saying that I have proven his point because I have rejected his thesis based on my own repulsion to his ideas and my disbelief in my capabilities of doing such heinous acts.  He would be wrong.  I have seriously considered his ideas, and because of my knowledge in biology, I disagree with his sentiments.