The expression "moral vacuum" has been tossed around in the media as an attempt to describe the apparent refusal of some sections of society to recognize, let alone live by, basic moral standards. ... The phrase is apt, but means more than the absence of morality. The whole point about a vacuum is that it does not just happen, for nature, as we all know, "abhors a vacuum." Vacuums have to be created. You get a vacuum when you deliberately suck out the air inside an object. It has to be pumped out and sealed out. Western culture for the past 200 years has been systematically and deliberately sucking out the transcendent from its public heart and core.