As you Stupid Heads already know, I generally like US President Barack Obama, except for the fact that I think he is a really big hypocrite on the aircraft usage issue by companies (please see the archives for that discussion).
I am now hailing him for lifting the ban on federal funding of {en:stem cell} research. In a nut shell, stem cells are the body’s magical mystery cells. They are cells that exist prior to functional specification and are capable of becoming any type of cell. The controversy surrounding the use of stem cells arises from their source. Although there are certain types of stem cells derived from adults, most stem cell research is based on embryonic stem cells derived from aborted human embryos.
This rant isn’t about the pros or cons of abortion. I assume that each and every Stupid Head can make that decision for themselves – I am talking about what happens once it is done.
Of course his Holiless Pope Eggs Benedict is completely against this move as being un-Catholic and evil and nasty and and… It is really not Popi’s fault of course, as Pope, he is morally obliged to stand in the way of science. Look at how the church treated {en: Galileo Galilei}. How dare a mere mortal come up with a theory?! Let’s persecute him and shut him up…it is the will of God. In researching this rant I came across some references to speeches made by Popi before his popeification where his takes a typical papal stance and refers to the whole Galileo affair as, “a symptomatic case that permits us to see how deep the self-doubt of the modern age, of science and technology goes today”.
What about saying, “We screwed up being time and we are sorry. Galileo was right.” It wasn’t until 1992 when Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture. Helloooooo? I think that we had a pretty good idea that Galileo was right going back as far as 1991.
Why be so opposed to progress and scientific advancement? Because. The power of the Catholic Church is based directly on faith, and faith, in general, is based on ignorance. We don’t know why something is so we attribute it to God. Why is the sky blue? God made it that way. Why do people die? God wants to bring them home. Why do bad things happen to good people? God has a cruel side.
Unfortunately this whole anti-scientific approach is actually quite an insult to God. Think about it. If God is all great and almighty could he not create a being with an inherent intelligence capable of discovering all of the hidden mysteries out there? I would think so.
This all reminds of me Douglas Adam’s treatise on God and faith, which basically states that if God proved his existence, then faith would be destroyed as people would know it is a fact. Since faith is destroyed God ceases to exist as his “power” is derived from the faith people have. Thus, God has proven himself to not exist. QED.
What this means is that Popi and his friends want to keep the Catholic Church strong so that they can continue to collect money, hoard it in the Vatican and spend money spreading the word in Africa that condoms are bad.
Timmy out