Archive for ‘July, 2009’

RU-486 legal in Italy inspite of Vatican opposition

datePosted on 09:42, July 31st, 2009 by Kosmic Kurt

Good job Italy! In an almost unanimous vote, the Italian Drug Agency approved the use of the abortion drug RU-486. This is significant because the Vatican, which is located in Italy, has argued that the drug is a form of abortion and abortion and contraception are banned by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has lobbied heavily in Italy and the United Nations against the use of the drug which provides a safe alternative to an actual physically invasive abortion.

Italy’s decision is perfect example of a national government taking the correct course of action and looking out for the well being of its citizens even when that action contradicts leading religious dogma. This is the 21st century. All nations need to put past and harmful behavior based on unfounded and irrelevant religious traditions and superstitions behind them. Religious institutions have no business whatsoever trying to involve themselves in health care.

Italy legalized abortion in 1978 and also allows use of the morning-after pill. Abortion is legal in most European countries.

Wake Up Scientists!

datePosted on 12:25, July 14th, 2009 by Kosmic Kurt

Last month a group of paleontologists toured the Creationist Museum in Kentucky (Palentologists visit Creationist Museum). All of them were offended, most were outraged, and one was even brought to tears. Well, what the hell did they expect? The truth? Wake Up! The museum not only preaches the asinine ideas of a flat, 6000 year-old-Earth where people walked hand in hand with dinosaurs; but also blames all of the suffering in today’s world on the science of evolutionary biology.

Hopefully this was a wake up call for the few scientists that did attend the tour. Scientists today MUST speak up and speak out against the rampant proliferation of ignorance and harmful religious dogma that threatens all aspects of our world today. Ignoring these lunatics will not cause them go away. Their medieval ideas need to be confronted and destroyed publicly at all costs. I realize that many scientists hold on to the idea that if they confront the ignorant creationists, flat-earthers, etc. they will be giving credence to the outlandish ideas. So, they choose to ignore them. Bad idea! While scientists ignore them, they gain power and followers.

Rational people everywhere must fight ignorance and deceptively false knowledge whenever it is encountered. Truth, real scientific truth, must be taught publicly again. Scientists can not bury their heads in a laboratory and ignore what is going on in the real world. We need people like Richard Feynman, and Carl Sagan now more than ever. When someone makes a stupid statement like, “6,000 years ago when the dinosaurs…” they need to be confronted right then on the spot and told there were no dinosaurs 6,000 years ago. Creationism and other ills of society need to be destroyed, not with silence, but with careful, lucid, correct explanations of how the universe really works. I blame the scientific community for their misguided political correctness; afraid of offending someone’s beliefs – if it’s nonsense, offend away!  Science is not about being nice. Science is about discovering the truth. If someone has a bad or false idea, tell them it’s bad or wrong. If they persist, they need to be reprimanded and discouraged from spreading their nonsense.

I have a new slogan I’m going to put on a t-shirt:

The universe is 13.7 billion years old
The earth is 4.6 billion years old
The earth is round
Humans are distant cousins of all other species alive today
When you die, you cease to exist

If you have a problem with any of the above facts, you are an idiot!