There is nothing wrong with sex

Boring sex is the wellspring of human dignity, according to Justin Noia in his column, "Sex rules." To separate ourselves from the animal kingdom, we should wait until marriage to have sex, and then only tolerate it for the sake of procreation. That, friends, is the human way: Lay back and think of England.

I must disagree with Noia. We owe our uniqueness to the dynamism and creativity of the human mind; we owe nothing to our capacity to slurp vitality from the world with haughty moralizing or words like "circumlocutorily." Yes, that mind gives us the power to reject biological imperatives. It also allows us to create new imperatives, "moral" demands that have little to do with right or wrong. Binding ourselves to Scripture or to childish conceptions of sexuality is not a glorification of the human mind or the unpredictability of will. It's just really boring.

And I think Noia will find himself in boring company. Albert Einstein had multiple lovers; Alan Turing was gay. America's cherished authors were largely booze-soaked sex-addicts. There is nothing wrong with sex. It makes people happy. For all its sheer power, its predictive abilities and pattern-recognition skills, you'd think the human mind would realize that it's okay to be happy.

Mike Devlin

Duke School of Law '10