Jeremy Griffith

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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). He obtained Australian wide notability in 1995 with the airing of the ABC Four Corners program "Prophet of Oz".

The FHA 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.

1 Searching for the Tasmanian Tiger
2 Human Nature Theory
3 Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood (FHA)
4 Controversy in the Media
5 See Also
6 References & Further Reading

[edit] Searching for the Tasmanian Tiger

In 1967 he went searching for the believed extinct Tasmanian Tiger. He was joined by James Malley and the now well known Greens Senator Bob Brown. He was unsuccessful during the five years looking the Tiger and become disillusioned about it's exitence. He had traveled an impresive 800km per week looking for the tiger but to no avail. ^[1]

[edit] Human Nature Theory

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. ^[2]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.^[3]

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

He Currently lives in Sydney and continues to work on presenting the theory to the world.

[edit] 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.

One of the directors with a public profile is Tim Macartney-Snape who is a well know Mountaineer. Tim Macartney-Snapes comments;

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 ).

[edit] Controversy in the Media

For a short time in 1995 he and the FHA received bad publicity from the press, in particular the ABC program Four Corners. Claims were made that the group was cultish in nature.

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 Australian Broadcasting Authority concluded its investigation into the Four Corners program in February 1998. It ruled that the ABC did in fact violate its own code of practise on three of the four complaints made by Jeremy Griffith and the FHA. In more detail *[1] its conclusion was:

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.