Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Republican Presidential wannabes Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have
worked themselves into a lather protesting the Obama policy of including
coverage of contraception costs incurred by employees of religious
institutions under the Affordable Care Act, describing it as a "declaration
of war against the Catholic Church." This was mere ignorant political
hyperbola. There are, after all, 217 religious denominations listed in the
2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, differing only over which
superstitions they choose to believe. There is, of course, a strong
precedent for legislation that gets into the marriage bed, as in the ban on
polygamy practised mostly by Mormons. We certainly don't want to discourage
anyone from practicing contraception.
Atmospheric pollutants are causing global warming, our oceans are becoming
sewers, shrinking freshwater resources are threatening food production,
energy costs are rising, our beautiful blue planet is changing color. There
is hope. These trends will all be reversed if the average fertility rate of
the planet falls below two; it already has for much of our planet .
On Sunday, February 12, the CBS series 60 Minutes reminded us of the
largely unfulfilled promise of television to expose the foolishness and
fraud that diminishes our brief lives. If you did not see Sunday's program
I urge you to obtain a copy. Much earlier, many of us had followed with
growing wonder the news on television as Dr. Anil Potti reported amazing
progress in tailoring chemotherapy to a patient's own genetic makeup, with
remarkable results. However, as the science community often tells the
public, it's not a discovery until it's been independently confirmed. The
willingness of researchers to open their findings to the entire scientific
community is what gives science its success and credibility. In this case,
it could not be confirmed and may be one of the biggest medical research
frauds of all time. Unfortunately, it was not the first time that Duke
University had fallen victim to foolish and fraudulent science.
Even today, Parapsychology, including extrasensory perception, has millions
of believers, including some describing themselves as scientists who tend
to be drawn ever more deeply into belief. Perhaps it's a selection
process. A scientist won't get much coverage by announcing to the press
that no evidence could be found. The unexpected is more interesting; of
course it's also more likely to be wrong.
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