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Ivan Seeking
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The belief in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal being - God - cannot be falsified.
Ivan Seeking said:The belief in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal being - God - cannot be falsified.
I'm curious -- how much of this statement is based on knowledge of what the pope actually said and the rationale behind it and how much if it is simply hopping on the anti-Catholic bandwagon?humanino said:By the time they make an official statement that indeed they have hurt millions with this comment on condoms, AIDS will already be considered a disease of the past.
What the heck does "public attention" or "responsibility" have to do with ignorance?turbo-1 said:Point taken! Let me say that it is extremely ignorant for anybody with great public attention (and therefore responsibility) to make that claim.
A person of the Pope's prominence must accept the responsibility that comes with his power. For good or ill, he can support the work of others, or undermine them with a word. Remember how traders hung on every word of Greenspan's statements and parsed them over and over again, no matter how vague? Greenspan tried to walk a fine line because of his power and responsibility. In the eyes of the faithful Roman Catholics of the world, you can multiply that influence, probably by millions. It was irresponsible of the Pope to undermine the work of health-care professionals, sociologists, and other aid-workers as they try to stem the wave of HIV. It was irresponsible of him to put church doctrine (condoms=contraception=sin) ahead of the lives of people who are threatened with HIV or who may pass it on to others if they are not supplied with education and condoms.Hurkyl said:What the heck does "public attention" or "responsibility" have to do with ignorance?
Ivan said:As for Dawkins, from what I have seen, the reasoning used against religion shows that he fails to understand the essence of faith
Focus said:I think Richard Dawkins is aweful. I mean don't get me wrong, he is a smart guy and I would agree with most of the things he says but I think he is driving more (religious) people away from science and I think that's very wrong.
This is why I don't really like Dawkins, he isn't actually educating people in science, he is just shoving atheism down their throats.
turbo-1 said:Point taken! Let me say that it is extremely ignorant for anybody with great public attention (and therefore responsibility) to make that claim. For many people in the world, the Pope is the ultimate moral authority, and they believe that their deity speaks through him. "Just say no to sex" is not going to stop the ravages of HIV in Africa, but the Pope cannot possibly publicly support the use of condoms because condoms prevent procreation as well as HIV, and that is against church doctrine.
In some African societies, there is apparently a stigma attached with condom-use, and the Pope is not exactly helping to quell this. He's not a health-care professional nor a sociologist, and he is blithely undermining the work of professionals who give so much of themselves trying to stem the tide of HIV in Africa.
siddharth said:I think Richard Dawkins popularity and his books are among the best things to happen. I think he's a fantastic person, who makes very good, and rational arguments.
Right, but sometimes, that technique might work. There are plenty of others who have a much more gentle way of promoting science. Neil De Grasse Tyson, for example. However, imo, Dawkins is very effective (in terms of popularity and books sold), because he is able to offend people and directly challenge their beliefs.
I should withdraw this -- while the article in the OP portrays him as making a specious argument, it isn't really fair to condemn him without finding out what he actually said.Hurkyl said:If he really wondered, then why didn't he find out before making his statements? It sounds more like he just wanted an excuse to attack religion.
siddharth said:Since a lot of opinions are flying around, I'll add my own. I think Richard Dawkins popularity and his books are among the best things to happen. I think he's a fantastic person, who makes very good, and rational arguments.
Hurkyl said:I should withdraw this -- while the article in the OP portrays him as making a specious argument, it isn't really fair to condemn him without finding out what he actually said.
Dawkins said:I did not say the Pope is "stupid, ignorant or dim" – I hope I would never say anything so repetitive. My exact words were "stupid, ignorant or wicked."
Richard
arildno said:Thus, he objected to having labeled the pope as "stupid, ignorant or dim".
Given that the Pope may be right when he says that condoms won't solve the problem,
Ivan Seeking said:Except for the fact that he seems to have no idea what he's talking about when it comes to religion. He is no more qualified to comment on religion than the Pope is to discuss String Theory.
Perpetuating hate and scorn based in ignorance is doing no one a favor. What he is doing helping to further divide a nation [if not the world] through misconception and fear. He is playing to the lowest common denominator.
Based on Moonbear's statement and the post that I made earlier about the young African man, the Pope may understand the situation far better than Dawkins does;
His Holiness said:[HIV/AIDS] a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem
...
the traditional teaching of the Church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids
CRGreathouse said:Although I haven't made that claim, I think perhaps you would call me "extremely ignorant" as well for raising the possibility?
he latter is obvious by economics: any decrease in 'price' for a standard* good increases the quantity consumed.
Honestly, I have had my share of feedback about this statement from people actually working with populations there, and none of them would actually support the statement. Now several days later here in this very thread I can read claims that informed people may actually think otherwise. To me this is what has been invented, it took a few days to fabricate a plausible argumentation :tongue2:Ivan Seeking said:If you bothered to read the referenced statements you would know.
Maybe that's Dawkin's problem: He doesn't bother to get the facts. He is far more interested in taking cheap shots for the purposes of profitting through ignorance.
arildno said:That people do not choose to use condoms, and therefore get infected is not at all an argument against condom usage.
Fixed.Moonbear said:It IS an argument against prevention strategies that rely [solely] on condom usage though.
I suppose you have a reference showing that any of them have expired before being given out? How about a reference showing that a significant fraction of them have expired?Moonbear said:then spending a lot of money purchasing and shipping and distributing cases of condoms to that community just to sit around in the sun until they expire
Agreed.Moonbear said:like making sure those who are already infected can get enough of the drugs to treat them so they do not have gaps in treatment that lead to increasing resistance to the drugs. If drug resistant strains of the virus are being allowed to rapidly develop because there is no consistent access to those drugs, and people are already on second line drugs and developing resistance to them as well, and these are the same people who are frequently traveling between multiple countries, and 50% of those infected with HIV in these countries also have TB infections, for which there is developing a high incidence of extreme drug resistant TB, that is far more of a public health crisis than can be addressed by handing out condoms.
The Pope said condom use worsens the spread of HIV, which is either ignorant, stupid, or wicked. Dawkins will take any chance to insult religion, true, but it's generally it's because the religion makes it so easy, by saying/doing things as ignorant as this.Moonbear said:The Pope may have been speaking from a purely religious perspective, but Dawkin's is lashing out from a purely anti-religious perspective. Neither is being scientific in considering the effectiveness of condoms in regions where HIV/AIDS remain most prevalent.
NeoDevin said:According to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/the_pope_is_either_stupid_igno.php" , Dawkins was misquoted in the telegraph, and what he actually said was "The Pope is either stupid, ignorant or wicked."
Dr.D said:The Pope's point was that the use of condoms encourages promiscuity through a false sense of security. He made this pretty clear in what he originally said if you paid any attention to his original statement.
Dr.D said:The Pope's point was that the use of condoms encourages promiscuity through a false sense of security. He made this pretty clear in what he originally said if you paid any attention to his original statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7951839.stmThe Pope said the "cruel epidemic" should be tackled through fidelity and abstinence rather than condoms, and that "the traditional teaching of the Church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids".
Did he also mention that to solve the current economic crisis, it is enough that everybody behaves honestly ?The Pope said the "cruel epidemic" should be tackled through fidelity and abstinence
humanino said:It took the church establishment more than 350 years to officially concede that the Earth rotates around the Sun (they did it in 1992). By the time they make an official statement that indeed they have hurt millions with this comment on condoms, AIDS will already be considered a disease of the past.
But that was NOT the Pope's argument, hence, he certainly should not be given credit for it. Even if discouraging condom use happened to be the smartest strategy around, a foolish argument converging upon that strategy would still be foolish, and the person arguing in such a manner would be..a fool.Moonbear said:It IS an argument against prevention strategies that rely on condom usage though.
If you KNOW you are dealing with a population who will not use condoms, no matter how much you educate them about their effectiveness,
Dr.D said:Now, why would anybody care about anything that Richard Dawkins said about anything?
Dr.D said:siddharth, within a few days after the Pope's comment there was a report out of Harvard that supported what he said (I don't have the citation).
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527376Citing several studies published in peer-reviewed journals since 2004, Green said that empirical data does not support the idea that condoms are successful in decreasing the spread of HIV.
“The Pope may be right,” Green said. “The marketing and distribution of condoms won’t solve the problem. Partner fidelity has a much better chance.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7967173.stmBut the London-based Lancet said the Pope had "publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue".
It said the male latex condom was the single most efficient way to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV/Aids.
"Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear," said the journal.
But it said the comment still stood and urged the Vatican to issue a retraction.
"When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record," it said.
"Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/Aids worldwide.
Edward Green, the director of the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project and senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health,
arunma said:I try not to pay any attention to angry atheists. I agree with the poster who called him the Rush Limbaugh of science (though I would associate him more with New Atheism, since science isn't atheistic). Actually, this guy makes Limbaugh look good.
What concerns me more is that he's receiving honorary degrees from universities. From what I've looked at in terms of scholarly work, he doesn't seem to be a particularly accomplished scientist. Not that he's a bad scientist, but he doesn't seem to have done anything above and beyond your average professor. This points to a disturbing trend in which people seem to associate science with atheism. There are people out there who whip out their American Atheists clubcard as if it were a scientific PhD. Good science has nothing to do with religious beliefs. You can be a good scientist and believe in witchcraft (in fact, such people exist). What I would like to know is: precisely why is Dawkins being honored here? And if it's for science, precisely what scientific work has he done to merit the honor? Running around and crying about how he hates the god whose existence he rejects doesn't count.
I stress the official statement. All (easy) references I find on the web indicate the contrary. For instance from wikipedia on HeliocentrismBobG said:No later than 1822, the Catholic church acknowledged that the Earth rotates around the Sun. It took until 1992 to apologize for their treatment of Galileo.
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine said:"If there were a real proof that the Sun is in the center of the universe, that the Earth is in the third sphere, and that the Sun does not go round the Earth but the Earth round the Sun, then we should have to proceed with great circumspection in explaining passages of Scripture which appear to teach the contrary, and we should rather have to say that we did not understand them than declare an opinion false which has been proved to be true. But I do not think there is any such proof since none has been shown to me."
—Koestler (1959), p. 447–448