X-Message-Number: 18624
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 11:10:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: science/religion

Rudi Hoffman wrote:

"Friends, the long awaited WAR has begun!  I am referring to the oft
discussed tension between the forces of science, knowledge, technology,
and rationality Vs the forces of mythology, renouncement, "God did not
intend for man to do this," and the attitude that "I am not comfortable
with the possible ramifications of this, so I am going to lobby to
criminalize your even considering or researching possibilities."

Rudi, that war began around the time of Galileo. I prefer to see genetic
engineering as the beginning of the END of that war; the beginning of the
final defeat for religion. No more conceited hypocritical notions about
"sacredness of human life" (so far as I can see, science has shown a lot
more interest in minimizing the pain of life than religion ever did). No
more absurd ideas about "vitalism." When you can build a new person from
the DNA up, where's the soul? What role does God play? And if you can
defeat death, this removes the fundamental selling point that ALL
religions have in common.

The downside is that this defeat is obviously going to take far longer
than we hoped, and the struggle may still be going on 100 years from now.
We could pass through another Dark Ages period, relatively speaking.

What saddens me is that scientists are so much less adept at PR than the
antiscience contingent. One example: The word "zygote" should always be
used to make a clear distinction between a clump of undifferentiated cells
and a fetus. The pro-choice people had a golden opportunity here.
Educate the public by using just ONE WORD, and draw a line that is far
clearer than any arbitrary arguments about precisely when a fetus becomes
"viable." But this opportunity has been lost, like so many others. I've
met many scientists, and only a tiny minority have any clue about
presenting their work to the public. On the other side, of course,
religion has honed the art of preaching for hundreds of years. There lies
the real problem, from my perspective. It's all a matter of selling.

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