Archive for May, 2005
Dismembers Only
The Dallas Morning News, in an article titled “How Language is Framing the Stem Cell Debate,” has taken to task Tom DeLay’s characterization of embryonic stem cell research as the “dismemberment of living, distinct human beings.”
Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University linguistics professor, said that by
using the word dismemberment, Mr. DeLay and others opposed to embryonic [...]
Stem Cell Theology
In today’s Washington Post is a column by Jerome Groopman titled “<a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701285.html”>Beware of Stem Cell Theology</a>,” noting the difficulty involved in gleaning a definitive Biblical position on human personhood and the ease with which selected passages can be manipulated for political gain.
<blockquote>But it is also foolish, and wrong, to use the founders of Judaism, [...]
Eco-theology
In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, former Secretary of the Interior James Watt rails against “The Religious Left’s Lies.” Watt seeks to counter accusations that biblical literalists are more apt to exploit the earth’s natural resources because of their reliance on the coming Rapture.
Now political activists of the religious left are refreshing those
two-decades-old lies [...]
Sci Wars: Attack of the Clones
Among the most cogent arguments against the evisceration of science in this country is the potential threat to our economic and national security. Diminished standards for science education ( such as the presentation of fanciful mythology as valid scientific hypothesis) and severe restrictions on research into the therapeutic potential of embryonic stem cells, for example, [...]
Read More..>>IDiot America
Yet again proponents of “Intelligent Design” (or, more correctly, a religiously-inspired pseudoscientific call for the introduction of supernaturalism into the natural sciences) have gained control of the Kansas State Board of Education. An editorial in the Washington Post this weekend takes them to task:
But there is no serious scientific controversy over whether Darwinian evolution
takes place. [...]
While Nero Fiddles with the Education System
A letter from former U.S. senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman in today’s New York Times highlights the national security risk inherent in sacrificing this nation’s leadership in science and technology. This was in response to, and support of, a column on 29 April 2005 by Thomas Friedman titled “What, Me Worry?” In that piece, [...]
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