User:FishoFish/JG-bio

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Jeremy Griffith (b. 1945- , Aus) is an Australian author and founder of the organisation The Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood (FHA). The group promotes and provides a forum for his theory of human nature. Between the years 1975 and 1988 he developed a theory which claims to explain human nature, good and evil and provide a way to a better life. It arose due to his reflections on how humans could be both so loving and so hateful, this he calls the human condition. He also pondered why are humans destroying the planets environment and themselves. In 1988 he set-up the Foundation For Humanity's Adulthood as an organization to promote, support and discuss his theory.

General

In detail his theory of the Human Condition is a grand synthesis which attempts to explain human nature, especially evil, consciousness, human behaviour, sociology, institutions and human experiences, particularly the spiritual ones. It does this in a partly biological and purely naturalistic manner. It also attempts to bring about a transformation of humanity to a more loving and selfless state. In his book Beyond the human condition the forward states,

"...He was born in Australia in 1945, raised on a sheep station in central New South Wales and educated at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria. After graduating from Sydney University with a degree in biology he undertook the most thorough investigation yet carried out into the plight of the now-believed-extinct Tasmanian Tiger. During the six year period he spent in the wilds of Tasmania Jeremy's search and findings received international scientific and popular media coverage.
It was during this time in Tasmania that he turned his attention to the plight of another species - humanity. He says that Free: The End of the Human Condition, which he went on to spend 13 years writing, "grew out of my desperate need to reconcile my extreme idealism with reality".
After leaving Tasmania Jeremy established a successful furniture manufacturing business with one of his brothers. He recently disposed of his interests in the company."

The theory comes from his personal introspection and research about the idealism verses realism issue with respect to human behaviour. Since he uses his personal introspection as evidence for it's truth it cannot be regarded as purely evidence based theory. The following extract is quite insightful in understanding the underlying motivation and issues for his work. He explains while working in his furniture business,

"...Why for example did people want furniture that was highly embellished, artificial and extravagant rather than simple and natural...why, when the ideals were clearly to be cooperative, loving and selfless, was humanity so competitive,aggressive and selfless...The introspective, soulful time I spent with nature in Tasmania only heightened my idealism and thus the problem for me of understanding the non-ideal real world." From FHA website Directors biography

It is general agreed that the ideals of human behaviour are to be cooperative, loving and selfless, our ideal "world" we would all prefer to live in. Such is a world that all the major religions want us to head for. Yet we all observe that people don't appear to actually behave this way a lot of the time; They are competitive, aggressive and selfish. This situation of having an apparent contradictory nature he calls the human condition. He claims this apparent contradiction is correctly explained by his theory. But also that application of his theory can remove this contradictory behavior in humans.

His major published works are Free: The End of the Human Condition (1988), Beyond the Human Condition (1991) and A Species in Denial 2003.

Support for his theory

Over the years he tried to get many professional scientists, anthropologists, primatologists and all the leading literary agents interested in his theory but with little success. Their are many small comendations for the various books but they are only support for the originality and inspiring nature of the work, not factual correctness of the theory itself.

There appears to be only two professional scientists who still provide commendations of his theory. Others have given commendations for his books including Paul Davies and Colin Groves. However these scientists appear to currently not believe the theory is correct or remain quite for various reasons relating to bad publicity given to the FHA. The commendations come from John Morton and Charles Birch.

  • Morton is Emeritus Professor of Zoology, University of Auckland and the Lay Canon of Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland. He is the author of interdisciplinary books on science, religion and philosophy including; Redeeming Creation 1984 Man, Science and God, 1972 and various books and articles on ecology.
  • Professor Morton was interviewed by ABC radio's Andrew Olle about his theory and the FHA phenomenon on 25/4/95. In the interview Morton saw Jeremy aligning himself with Christianity and a long tradition of thought; That humans have lost their innocence and damaged their ability to love. He saw Jeremy as trying to make a prediction about how we will soon be much more loving and free of guilt and "evil".
  • About the theory itself all that was suggested is that it is only a partial truth not the "full" truth. (As is claimed by Jeremy).Morton states in the interview, "take the chisel to it intellectually a little bit" and "there's a substratum of truth in the book' Beyond the Human Condition'". He doesn't seem to be indicating specific belief in the actual process's and "tenets" of the theory such as the reality of the love indoctrination process, the existence of the "perfect instinctive integrative orientation state", the purely psychological nature of the negative side of human nature and how the theory should be applied to help humanity and its victims.
  • Morton seemed concerned by what he called "the emergence of a cultic drive or dominance of a human figure". Andrew Olle asks whether Jeremy regards himself as a Christian and Morton doesn't appear to really answer the question but only states that he thinks Jeremy had a Christian upbringing. Since the theory implies that there was no need (and it probably didn't happen) for the objective resurrection of Jesus one can't see how it is fundamentally Christian since it denies the basic tenets of that faith.Finally, from the interview it doesn't come across that Morton apprehends the vast magnitude of the "truth" of the theory as Jeremy sees it or the changes he or the theory will produce. He just see's it as another small step to find the full "truth".
  • Charles Birch is Emeritus Professor of Biology, Sydney University. He was a winner of the 1990 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion and his works include: On purpose 1990 Liberating life : contemporary approaches to ecological theology, 1990 Toward a post-modern world, 1987 Regaining compassion for humanity and nature, 1993 Feelings 1995 Population and environment : three facts, eight fallacies and three axioms, 1973 The liberation of life : from the cell to the community, 1981.
  • Birch will not state publicly whether he believes the theory is correct in general or it's details. He only gives general support for the originality and inspiring nature of the FHA and its books.

Information on exactly which ideas and process's of the theory they support is unclear and further clarification of their belief in the theory is required.

Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood (FHA)

The Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood is a foundation set-up by Jeremy Griffith in 1988 to promote, discuss, explore and apply his theory of general evolution, human evolution and human nature. It comprises of several directors and approximately 100 members.

It once also have subscribers which simply received the FHA newsletters and other printed material and had access to the lending library. One of the directors with a public profile is Tim Macartney-Snape who is a well know Mountaineer. The organization is based near Chatswood in Sydney. There were member groups in Armidale, Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand. People once also went on bush retreats where seminars were conducted by Jeremy.The foundation appears to be partly financed by the selling of his furniture business and more recently his brothers furniture business. Other income comes from donations and membership fees. Subscription for a year was around $30 in 1994. The FHA is currently developing a detailed computer based correspondence course, counselling service, documentary and public relations system.

Based on the pre-1996 FHA Newsletters, the group appeared to be people who all hold the strong belief that Griffiths theory is correct and important to the survival of humanity. On the whole they have not been actively recruited and manipulated. But rather have come across his books or other members and felt or thought there is a truth and profundity to his theory and have contacted him or the FHA for more information or active involvement. Jeremy Griffith has also held public lectures and functions at various places including New England University at Armidale to actively create publicity or exposure for his theory.

Their is no evidence within the FHA of intentional deception or manipulation techniques, except possibly some level of communal reinforcement, which would be expected. To understand a group one has to study it's two components; content and process.

    • Content. This is the subject matter the group discusses or believes or the task the group is carrying out.
    • Process. This refers to the behaviours which are being exhibited between and to group members while the group is working. It is also know as group dynamics.

Process is the important property when determining the nature of the group; To some extent content is irrelevant. The bulk of its members appear to be young adults who are or were university students. Male/female ratio seems to be approximately equal. A proportion of the males seem to have an involvement in Rugby Union due, I suspect, to their common education in the "Greater Public Schools" (GPS) system. This school system has a strong traditional involvement in that sport since it sees such sports as character building. The women don't seem to have such sport based uniformity, although they also now appear to have a sports team.

There also existed a group of members' parents who acted as an observer group of the FHA to monitor the foundations activities. It is unknown wether this group still exists.

It is true that some parents were not happy with their children's involvement in the FHA. There appears to have been around three families in this situation. Some of them tried various methods, including Anti-cult practitioners, to separate their children from involvement in the FHA. Most of these appeared to fail since their involvement was probably based more on self motivated interest rather than external psychological manipulation.

The members appear to have completely accepted the theory's terminology and world view. This makes it much harder to critically evaluate current or new evidence on the truth of the theory. It puts the theory at risk of becoming dogma. They would say the evidence and life experience ("it makes the world transparent") clearly supports the truth of the theory. Also that their conscience expresses to them the truth of the theory.

One must also consider that the impressiveness of Jeremy Griffith plays a part, such as Tim Macartney-Snapes comments of Jeremy illustrate;

Jeremy is without doubt the most honest person I've ever met. He is honest to his core, most of us can be honest on the surface...The evidence for that is everywhere...he is acutely sensitive to lying even in the most oblique form. Those of us who have spent time with him have experienced his uncanny ability to get to the truth. It is this very characteristic that has enabled him to reveal the explanations...there is no compromise for Jeremy where the truth is concerned. This is a difficult thing for most to come to terms with....and you will have to believe me until you can experience the truth of it yourself; that in his mind we have an immensely valuable tool for understanding the world. (Letter to Millikan 12/3/95 ).

Jeremy Griffith is the original source and developer of the theory and may be the final authority on the content of the theory. The foundation supports the theory which thus indirectly supports Jeremy since he is the creator and only person capable of being apparently honest (see prophet) and unevasive enough to discover the true form (with the help of Science) of the theory.

If a member significantly modified one of the theories major tenets on scientific grounds would it have to be approved by Jeremy Griffith or be considered wrong, evasive, deluded at some level by Jeremy and thus the FHA officially as an group? It would seem so, since in the final analysis he claims, he is the person in the foundation (perhaps the world) who is least capable of self-deception.

Controvesy in the Media

For a short time in 1995 he and the FHA recieved bad publicity from the press, in particular the ABC program Four Courners. Claims were made that the group was cultish in nature. This media attack appeared to be a backlash against the fears of parents of unrelated groups which were infact cults. It this case turned out to be an more of an issue priorities and enthusiasm, of young adults prefering to spend more time learning about his theory and less helping with domestic duties.

The program was eventually found to be in breach of the ABC's code of practice by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. Legal defamation hearings followed and are still in progress. Since 1995 the group has had little Australian media attention.

The Four Corners incident

It appears some parents became concerned with their children's involvement in the FHA and instigated a group which deals with cults. The objective was to try and remove support for the FHA, remove people from the foundation and warn people about them. This caused quite a storm for the members relationships with their parents. Although most of this was not occurring in the public arena. Then came along David Millikan with a lucrative offer to the FHA. Millikan offered Griffiths a part in a proposal for an international documentary on alternative beliefs from around the world. The Australian contribution was to be done by Millikan on Griffiths theory. It seemed like an excellent opportunity to publicize the theory and get it into the public debating arena. Millikan secured the ABC's Four Corners to do the program on the theory promoted by the FHA. It was titled 'The Prophet of Oz' and was broadcast on 24 and 25 April 1995. Its producer was Deborah Masters and reporter Dr David Millikan.

The documentary was presented by him and introduced by Liz Jackson. It primarily focused on the alleged destructive nature of the group and the personality of the founder Jeremy, rather than the theory itself. It was quite damning and definitely a piece of inaccurate and unbalanced journalism, and according to Griffith a witch hunt. The Foundation complained to the ABC about the program but did not, in their view, receive an adequate response.

This brought the "destructive nature" accusations of the FHA in into the papers, radio and television. The FHA has now faded out of public view and continues it programs to promote its theory know as the "understandings".

The Foundation presented a compliant to the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) against the ABC relating to the Four Corners program. The ABA has stated that the essence of the FHA complaint is that the ABC acted contrary to clauses 4(a) and 4(d) of the ABC code of practice.

  • Clause 4(a) of the code provides: Every reasonable effort must be made to ensure that the content of news and current affairs programs is accurate, impartial and balanced.
  • Clause 4(d) provides: Balance will be sought through the presentation, as far as possible, of principal relevant viewpoints on matters of importance. The requirement may not always be reached within a single program or news bulletin, but will be achieved within a reasonable period.

The ABA investigation

The Australian Broadcasting Authority concluded it's investigation into the Four Corners program in February 1998. It ruled that the ABC did infact violate its own code of practise on three of the four complaints made by Jeremy Griffith and the FHA. In more detail it's conclusionwas;

  • the program failed to provide balance by the omission of relevant viewpoints on the issue of family turmoil amounting to breaches of sections 4(a) and 4(d) of the ABC Code. The program was not inaccurate in its reporting of the merit of Mr Griffith's work. the statement by Dr Millikan that 'Christ talked about another who would come after him ... Jeremy Griffith believes Christ was talking about him' was inaccurate amounting to a breach of section 4(a) of the ABC Code. the program breached sections 4(a) and 4(d) of the ABC Code by failing to present the principal relevant viewpoints in relation to Mr Macartney-Snape's role as a guest speaker.

One must make a distinction between the theorist and the theory. Shermer's view when looking at movements are illustrative:

  • Criticism of the founder of a philosophy does not, by itself, constitute a negation of any part of the philosophy. The fact that Christians have been some of the worst violators of their own moral system does not mean that the ethical axioms of "thou shalt not kill," or "due unto others as you would have them do unto you," are negated. The components of a philosophy must stand or fall on their own internal consistency or empirical support, regardless of the founder's personality quirks or moral inconsistencies. By most accounts Newton was a cantankerous and relatively unpleasant person to be around. This fact has nothing at all to do with his principles of natural philosophy. With thinkers who proffer moral principles, as in the case of Rand, this caveat is more difficult to apply, but it is true nonetheless. It is good to know these things about Rand, but it does not nullify her philosophy. I reject her principles of final Truth and absolute morality not because Rand had feet of clay, but because I do not believe they are either logically or empirically tenable. Criticism of part of a philosophy does not gainsay the whole. In a similar analogy as above, one may reject parts of the Christian philosophy while embracing others. I might, for example, attempt to treat others as I would have them treat me, while at the same time renounce the belief that women should remain silent in church and be obedient to their husbands. ... The critic of part of a philosophy does not necessarily repudiate the whole philosophy. ...

See Also

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