>No natural law requires the repetition of magical formulas, and no natural law forbids homosexuality or eating pork< One might consider the natural law to be

>No natural law requires the repetition of magical formulas, and no natural law forbids homosexuality or eating pork< One might consider the natural law to be selection on relative fitness: reinforcing connections to allies, producing descendants, and avoiding premature death via trichinosis, for example. Societies which encourage these behaviours (or which strictly regulate who may specialize in genetic v memetic reproduction, and how) may gain an advantage over their competitors to propagate genes and memes. The glib treatment of religion in this piece, and other short pieces by this author,ellides a lot of interesting discussion about the intersection of social and 'natural' law, and its precriptivist v descriptivist components. I'm not convinced by the description of the inducible teenage otaku. Over the medium term, some will feel compelled to perform activities that garner attention and praise from potential mating partners. Over the long term, the otaku are likely to be overtaken by persons who more strongly feel such a compulsion, and who gain mating opportunities as a result. The scenario he proposes requires widespread buy-in by both genders to avoid a selective differential (in the absence of a huge disruption to our current reproductive arrangements).