Theory schmeory; just pray for answers
I can just imagine how Galileo must have felt. His church-dominated society threatened him with persecution, just as anti-intellectual Americans led by George W. Bush and conservative churches try to stifle scientific inquiry when it conflicts with their doctrine.
Consider the "evolution" of bacteria to withstand today's antibiotics. Should we research bacterial "evolutionary resistance," or should we assume "evolution is just a theory" and pray harder that these "changed" bugs will go away?
Consider stem cell research. Should we study frozen embryos before they are discarded or simply discard them and pray harder that diseases like Alzheimer's will go away on their own?
Consider gay Americans. Should we accept them as they are and treat them as equals like it says in the Declaration of Independence, or should we deny them partnership privileges and pray harder for them to deny their sexuality?
Consider poverty. Should we research its root causes and try to prevent it, or rely exclusively on "faith-based initiatives?"
Thoughtful people don't rely on God to solve problems. They rely on their God-given intelligence to find solutions to problems. Fortunately, for mankind, Galileo and Darwin didn't spend their whole lives praying.
Kurt Lauenstein
Greensboro
Comments (4)
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Amen, Brother! Reminds me of a Danish proverb: "Pray to God in the storm - but keep on rowing." We have work to do here. Shouldn't we be doing it?
Posted on February 3, 2005 12:51 PM
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Posted on February 3, 2005 4:04 PM
This letter is disengenuous at best, downright insulting at worse. It portrays those of us who are religious as a bunch of Neandrothals who think the earth is flat and wish to keep it that way.
I would like Dr. Lauenstein to find one person who is not in favor of antibiotic research. Please good doctor, show the data that prove embrionic stem cells have cured anything. I'm not a doctor, but understand that adult stem cells have proven more effective.
What I reject is the callous disregard for human life that seems so important to the so called "secular progressives". How about we use the embryo from one of Lauenstein's children for research and destroy what would have been his grandchild?
I have no problem with people who are gay, in fact I have a few friends who are gay. What I reject is the militant gay lobby trying to redefine marriage and shove it down our throats.
As for poverty, this is a favorite calling card for liberals. It's just not "fair" that some people make more money than others. We have spent trillions on the "war on poverty" over the last 40 years. What has it done, not much.
The true fact is over human history there are people who have more or less than others and that will not change. I am all for assisting those truly in need and I give money to charitable causes and my church. What I'm not for is the government taking my hard earned money at gun point and giving it to someone who doesn't want to work. Since Lauenstein is a doctor, he probably makes good money. I think he should donate 70% of his take home pay to charity to help eliminate poverty.
I agree we should use our God given talents to provide solutions to problems. However, we are just mere humans here for a short period of time and there are many things on this planet that we cannot control. Witness the Asian tsunami as an example. God is ultimately in control, so I pray to him instead of the government to help me with my life.
Posted on February 3, 2005 4:26 PM
Bravo, Dr. L. And I am now on record to say that if my wife and I have to take fertility pills and we get an abundance of embryos (as many do with various procedures), I would happily donate a small slew to aid the research. A grandchild or child is just that: a child, not an embryo. Potential sentience is not the same as the beginnings of actual thought or heartbeat, etc. Potential is not reality, not even is it probability. The majority of embryos made via fertitilty procedures are frozen in useless state until they are discarded. Now that is a waste of potential, indeed.
We share genetic material that is so similar to chimps that the earliest stages of pre-fetal development look incredibly alike. Why, then, are the same people not protesting the destruction of primate stem cells for research? At the very very earliest, almost all mammals are similar, in fact. So, no mice in the labs?
As for the earthquake and tsunami: How does that prove God is in control? That statement disregardis the workings of natural phenomena. There is no need to call upon supernatural causes for such occurences. They have always happened across the globe in utterly random ways as well as after well-understood changes in climate, etc. I am no seismologist, nor archaeologist (but I can spell Neanderthal),
yet I have heard and read plenty of science that attempts to explain and when it fails, is willing to adjust to reality and revise until it finds better explanations. We betray our own human intellect if we abandon reason.
Science is not a faith, but a method for investigation. Faith, while it may have its place in the human "heart", cannot ever be "proved" in the way science seeks. That is no shame. Prayer seems to put people at ease and give them hope. This can lead to benfeicial outcomes. But neither should the faithful deny or confuse the separate roles of these two methods.
Posted on February 3, 2005 6:42 PM