Tag Archives: history

Bunkum

I’ve often heard from atheists that the Bible doesn’t stand up to academic scrutiny.
If they don’t trust the Bible, I imagine they wouldn’t waste their time discrediting
the Book of Mormon. DNA evidence casts doubt (duh!) Mormon claims that
Israelites emigrated to the Americas 2,600 years ago, with the now-extinct Lamanites
and Nephites becoming the ancestors of American Indians. (Thanks, Relapsed
Catholic)

This article made me think. What sorts of scientific research would cast doubt on
orthodox Christian beliefs? How would we respond? I invite my readers to come up
with answers to both hypothetical questions.

Et Tu?

1 Reply

Father Jim Tucker, of Dappled Things, links to an interesting article about comparing modern Europe to the Roman Empire.

“A lot of ink has been spilled and hands have been wrung over how the American Republic has become something of an empire after the Roman model, although I think the case is overstated.”

I thought this relevant due to a lengthy thread about just this topic in the comments to another post of mine.

Sacrilege and Medical Science

2 Replies

Fabian of Report from Greater Tokyo has responded to Jerry's stem cell primer.

"On the medical science issue, once upon a time, it was considered sacriligious to cut open a human corpse. Early doctors' methods were notoriously unreliable, and early post-mortems were unlikely to either find the exact cause of death or provide immediately useful data for medical research.

However, although no one knew exactly how that research might be beneficial in the future, we know now that it was invaluable to almost every modern surgical technique.

Similarly, although we don't yet know which way stem cell research may take medical science, and we don't even know of any specific benefits, but it seems reasonable to believe that there will be some tangible medical benefit in the future. If the anti-stem cell research people had won back then, modern medical surgery would still be at the amputate and cauterize stage. Stuff as basic as resetting a broken bone would be life-threatening, and almost certainly result in long term problems.

Comments? Criticisms? My gut reaction is to say that cutting open a corpse is not the same as destroying a living creature. Whether killing that creature is killing a person or not is a matter for debate, but that a living thing is killed is not."

Thoughts?

Aborting Voters

20 Replies

Sed Contra has an interesting piece on the Roe Effect’s impact on this and future elections. For those who don’t know, the Roe Effect is the name for the reduced numbers of people in the 18-29 age bracket. Had abortion been illegal for the last 31 years, there would be more liberal voters alive today. Dean’s defeat was attributed by some to this effect.

Pope Celebrates With Oratorians

Ales Rarus

A Rare Bird, A Strange Duck, One Funky Blog