On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 07:29:02 -0400, DSK wrote:

And today, I heard a report that Bush wants public schools to start
teaching creationism hocus-pocus, and that he's still against expanding
stem cell research.


Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
It's called Intelligent Design and I agree with you on that one.

Really? I though you were proclaiming a while back that evolution had
never been "proven" and it shouldn't be taught as science?

No - that's not what that discussion was about.

~~rick~~ and I were having some fun with the concept of evolution -
his took Darwin and evolution as gospel and I pointed out that a
direct link between protohumans and homo sapiens didn't exist and that
I believed that the cause of the leap from proto to sapiens were
aliens.

The whole thing was tongue in cheek on both sides.

... As
to stem cell research, I'm still a little leery of adding more lines
to the research system. I understand from a pragmatic standpoint that
you might as well use the materials that are going to waste anyway,
but it still isn't something that I've reconciled with myself yet.

So I guess, in a sense, I'm sort of with the Prez on this one. :)

Sorry, but you're putting yourself into the garbage can on this one. You
can't drive science backwards, attempts to try are disastrous on all
fronts. Go burn some witches if it makes you feel better.

To begin with, you had no call to make an assertion such as that
without exploring the issue at a more in-depth level. It shows that
you are only capable of name calling on limited evidence and even more
limited discussion.

Second, the President wants to limit adding embryonic stem cells from
frozen embryos to the current 78 lines currently in existence. In
that, I am in agreement. My reasoning is that there are clear and
compelling moral and ethical issues in destroying potential human
beings for the sake of research that needs to be explored and
reconciled before moving into the destruction of same.

Third, the current 78 lines have shown no, and I will repeat this for
your edification, no evidence that these lines will do anything to
effect or affect any current debilitating disease as was originally
claimed. While there are some arguably positive results in current
testing and research on these 78 lines, they are minor at best. Like
taking Sudafed for allergies. The length of time, money and
investment in those 78 lines has done nothing to add to the quality of
life.

Fourth, I am not against science or research in this area at all. On
the contrary, it would be nice if somebody could create a cure for
rheumatoid arthritis which cripples me on a regular basis based on
stem cell research.

However, there is a ready source of stem cells at abortion clinics,
which is the law of the land even if I don't agree with it, which can
be used are just as valuable if I understand the biology correctly.
There is no need to destroy frozen embroyos to obtain stem cells.

Fifth, adult stem cells are showing more promise in the potential
cures of paralysis and disease cure than embryonic stem cells. It's
pretty easy to get adult stem cells - doesn't even hurt. The jury is
still out on these types of stem cells, but the early research is
showing great promise.

To put paid to this, next time you name call, be a man about it and
try to understand first - as hard as that may be for you to do.