I'm not a big fan of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), as I've noted before. It is certainly wrong to abuse animals, but at times PETA puts animals before humans. When one counts cockroaches on a movie set to make sure none of them got hurt, something is wrong. But the core …
Category: Ethics
Cell transformation
Once again, news reports are showing that using human embryonic stem cells for research is not only immoral, but perhaps scientifically unnecessary. An article in the science journal Nature reports that ordinary pancreas cells in adult mice have been transformed into cells that produce insulin. Here are the first few paragraphs from an article on …
Nine months until Christmas — A solid reason to oppose abortion
From Abortion and Christmas by Scott Stiegemeyer: Even though we are still basking in the glory of the Festival of the Resurrection, today my mind turns toward Christmas. That’s because today is the commemoration of the Annunciation, the scene in Luke’s Gospel where the angel tells Mary that she will bear a son who will …
Continue reading Nine months until Christmas — A solid reason to oppose abortion
Consider the ant
The quote in my previous post was a positive one about the need to care for nature. Here's a silly quote from a well-meaning environmentalist perspective: The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration. --- Michael W. Fox, Vice President, Humane Society of the United States No, an …
Asexual Reproduction
Gene Edward Veith (Cranach) has a post on generating human embryos from human skin cells. The ability to generate stem cells from skin cells was a promising medical breakthrough that bypasses the serious ethical concerns that are associated with embryonic stem cell research; the ability to create an entire human being brings all kinds of …
Time Magazine — Top 10 scientific discoveries for 2007
Time magazine's top ten science stories for 2007 include: #1 -- Stem cell breakthrough. It looks like we can now do everything from a person's own skin cells; there is no medical need for research with embryonic stem cells. As pro-life advocates have been saying all along, therapies developed from a person's own cells are …
Continue reading Time Magazine — Top 10 scientific discoveries for 2007
HIV/AIDS: A.B.C., S.L.O.W., or S.T.O.P.?
Christianity Today has an article on Kay Warren's framework for fighting HIV/AIDS. (Kay Warren is the Wife of Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren). The article is HIV/AIDS: S.L.O.W. It Down, or S.T.O.P. It? The approach that has been promoted by many Christians in places like Africa is ABC --- A -- Abstinence B -- …
Divorce is bad for the environment
Divorce is bad for the soul. Divorce is bad for the children. Divorce is bad for the environment too. Headline on Yahoo News: Mother Nature feels the pain of divorce. Divorce can be bad for the environment. In countries around the world divorce rates have been rising, and each time a family dissolves the result …
Stem cells from adult skin cells
This is very important news. After years of having abortion advocates and liberal politicians pushing embryonic stem cells on us---despite the greater promise all along of other stem cell techniques--- researchers have found a way to coax human adult skin cells to become stem cells. This takes care of both the ethical problems of using …
Human Rice
An article in Friday's Washington Post has an article with the headline USDA Backs Production of Rice With Human Genes. The Agriculture Department has given a preliminary green light for the first commercial production of a food crop engineered to contain human genes, reigniting fears that biomedically potent substances in high-tech plants could escape and …
Nerve Gas
Books and Culture has an fascinating review of two books about nerve gas: War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda by Jonathan Tucker Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints by Frederic Brown Some quotes from the review: My favorite of Tucker's tales is the story of Boris Libman, a native of …
The Doomsday Clock
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved its famous "Doomsday Clock" to 5 minutes before midnight. This clock has moved forward and backwards depending on this ("liberal") group's perception of how close the world is to nuclear holocaust (timeline). It has been as close to midnight as 2 minutes during the 1950s, when the …
Baby Pictures
Check out the preview of National Geographic's In the Womb: Animals. Some links with more pictures: Daily Mail The Sun Question: If an elephant is an elephant, even when it is in the womb; and a dolphin is a dolphin, even when it is in the womb; then what is a human even when it …
Living forever through technology?
Glenn Brooke at Be Bold, Be Gentle writes about the possibility of greatly extending the human life span through technology: Ray Kurzweil is a very smart man, and has written extensively about his confidence that computers and medical technology (e.g., nanobots that will repair human tissue) will effectively allow humans to live forever. See this …
PETA strikes again, again
Headline: PETA mistakenly targets Alaska church. PETA was targeting this church for having a living nativity, but it turns out that the "animals" will all be played by living humans. So I guess it is acceptable to have humans crawling around in the dirt, but not cows and sheep. Grace and Peace
PETA strikes again
Welcome to The GeoChristian. Out of over 600 posts on my blog, this one on frog dissection is in the top five in terms of how many people view it. The purpose of The GeoChristian is twofold: 1. To enhance science literacy within the Evangelical Christian community. 2. To present a Biblical Christianity that is …
Stem Cells and Muscular Dystrophy
The headline is "Stem cells help dogs with dystrophy." Someone who sees this headline but doesn't read the article might think, "Oh, isn't it wonderful what can be done with those embryonic stem cells?" Wrong. Reading the article, the researchers did not use embryonic stem cells, but stem cells derived from adult dogs. Here's a …
Teen Sex Beliefs and Practices
Glenn at Be Bold, Be Gentle points to an article on teen sexual activity: "The Des Moines Register featured an article yesterday about teens and sex beliefs. Scary statistics and comments! Dads, we have work to do! Men, our communities need us to stand tall and speak truth and pray for transformed lives." Our responsibility …
Abortion Simplified
I got this from World Magazine Blog (they were quoting columnist Nat Hentoff): A longtime friend of mine is married to a doctor who also performs abortions. At the dinner table one recent evening, their 9-year-old son — having heard a word whose meaning he didn't know — asked, "What is an abortion?" His mother, …
Human Moral Ecology
"Although people are rightly worried about preserving natural habitats, too little effort has been made to safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology." -- Archbishop Celestino Migliore I got this from The Evangelical Ecologist. Grace and Peace
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