Obama names evangelical Christian to run National Institutes of Health

[IndianaGreen]

Subordinating science to religion

Obama names evangelical Christian to run National Institutes of Health

By Patrick Martin
30 July 2009

Earlier this week, President Obama announced the selection of Francis S. Collins as the director of the National Institutes of Health. Collins, while an accomplished biologist and the leader of the groundbreaking Humane Genome Project, is an increasingly outspoken advocate of evangelical Christianity who has publicly declared that Darwin’s theory of evolution cannot explain the moral dimensions of humanity.

In selecting Collins, Obama clearly bypassed many qualified scientists whose appointment would not have generated controversy over their outspoken religious views. The decision was intended as a deliberate accommodation to the religious right.

In 2006, Collins published a volume entitled The Language of God. The title of Collins’ book was suggested to him by the statement made by President Bill Clinton welcoming the first successful mapping of the human genome. Clinton, like George W. Bush a Southern Baptist, declared, “Today, we are learning the language in which God created life.”

While opposing the pseudo-scientific teaching of the creationists, known as “intelligent design,” Collins argued instead that there was no contradiction between evolution and religion. He claimed that god created the world 13.7 billion years ago, set evolution in motion, and then intervened from time to time in human history, as in the Christ story.

Collins claimed that there were aspects of human nature that could not be explained by Darwin’s theory. “Selfless altruism presents a major challenge for the evolutionist,” he argued.

Shortly after the book was published—and more than four years after the Human Genome Project successfully mapped the genetic structure of man—Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/coll-j30.shtml

[annabanana]

1. Does "The Family" slip something into every newly elected President's coffee

at the first "prayer breakfast"?
Are they subjected to some powerful, subliminal indoctrination?

[PSzymeczek]

15. I thought Obama

didn't go to the prayer breakfast this year.

[anonymous171]

2. Trotskyites are so fucking funny. nt

[IndianaGreen]

3. Didn't Obama appoint Francis S. Collins? Yes or No?

You are the only sticking your head in the ground like an ostrich.

[Chemisse]

4. Selfless altruism? How is that a challenge?

There are many species of organisms that are altruistic, sacrificing their own interests for that of the group. The group survives and reproduces, as opposed to the individual. So the genes of the species survive. Sometimes it is more important for the species to survive than the individual.

In addition, if organisms like humans help each other, they all benefit so all survive to reproduce.

[RainDog]

5. funny.

everything about evolution is true EXCEPT for the parts the doctor doesn't want to believe are true because they contradict the lies that the doctor doesn't want to admit are lies.

that's pretty funny.

this is the sort of intellectual bargaining you get when people are brainwashed as children to believe in a hateful god who will punish them. sort of like an abusive parent.. he's really a good guy, even when he smites me. I mean, he didn't mean to deny me a life of oneness with the earth, it's just that I didn't want to be an imbecile and not being an imbecile was the one thing god said was
unforgivable to him, but he had a bad day at the office and just because he damned all humanity for the (horror) sin of not being a dumbass...

yeah, that's a god we should all get behind... us.

[undergroundpanther]

6. Evangelical

I am getting sick of evangelical assholes.I wish they'd stop trying to dominate the world for themselves via their 'god'.

[katandmoon]

7. Obama couldn't find somebody who wasn't a religious fanatic?

[IndianaGreen]

9. The troubling thing is that Obama could have appointed a Democrat

but chose to go to the other side, once again!

[winyanstaz]

8. Why do I get the feeling this will not bode well for women's health issues?

Why is Obama appointing so many right wingers anyways..anyone figure that out yet? This Administration just keeps on slidding right.

[crickets]

13. That's one of the first things that occurred to me as well. -nt

[QC]

10. I guess nobody at Goldman Sachs wanted the job. n/t

[Daveparts still]

11. One can only Imagine Thompsons opinion of Obama

"If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin." (Hunter S. Thompson)

"It's almost embarrassing to talk about (Bill)Clinton as if he were important. I'd almost prefer Nixon. I'd say Clinton is every bit as corrupt as Nixon, but a lot smoother."(Hunter S. Thompson)

"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear -- fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer." (Hunter S. Thompson)

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
(Hunter S. Thompson)

[GTurck]

12. Its funny..

how people still don't really know what Darwin was getting at. Darwin never tried to explain the moral/spiritual dimensions of human beings or our mental capacities. He was describing the physical evolution of the human body.
We PROGRESSIVES need to understand that ourselves and address it.
I don't know anything else now about Collins but that he is a biologist recognized for his work on the human genome and HE DOESN'T BELIEVE THAT DARWIN CAN EXPLAIN HUMAN MORALITY! He should be denied a post in the administration because of that. I think we all need to step back from our own positions and let some air into the rooms of our minds. No one can explain our development of a moral sense or the sense of the divine but we can and should be able to chart how our bodies (including the brain inside our heads) has evolved and continues to evolve. That is all Darwin attempted to do.

[RainDog]

14. from the article

the doctor says that he accepts that natural causes are behind human evolution (and that it actually occurred, unlike extreme nuts/idiots) HOWEVER, this doctor goes on to state that, of course, natural causes are disrupted when god decides to put his finger in the pot of history. Those cases, he is able to determine because...

... because of no factual evidence.

and it is only his version of god, apparently, that gets to stir the pot.

the issue of whether or not evolution can account for morality is not the real issue.. however, genetics and behavioral observation of other primates makes it clear that there is also "morality" at play in their lives. however, since humans do not assign animals the same moral standing as humans, these actions are defined only within the parameters of the scientific method.

so, god is responsible for human morality but animals are part of the earthly realm?

now, all this said, I don't claim to know if a god exists or not because, yes, god is outside of the boundaries of science. scientists are not called upon to comment upon god or to bring god into any equation that works to understand the natural world. nor should they.

I don't know if there are dimensions to existence that are like the levels of sound that are perceived by dogs but not by humans. However, I do know that it makes no sense to ascribe those dimensions to any supernatural phenomena when we already know of the strangeness of the universe that exists that is also something that can be described without supernatural qualities... and must be described in this way to be able to move toward more knowledge.

we already know our material world is composed of more nothingness than somethingness at the atomic level.

this may be interpreted in a spiritual way or not... but it really doesn't have anything to do with the ability to reach a level of understanding about the composition of matter and spiritual interpretations are personal, not the matter of the state. or of science.

after decades of assault by irrational religious thinking on every level of american life, I don't think people are too far off in remaining extremely skeptical about anyone who publicly aligns himself with a religion who is in a position of power.

self-identified "religious right" people in this nation have focused on issues that are direct expressions of their homophobia, misogyny and apocalyptic thinking. there's a reason religious people are not trusted by many. they haven't earned it. in fact, they have destroyed it.

[GTurck]

16. I don't know...

but maybe it is because it is all One and what can be known individually is only one thing in a thousand trillion possible occurrences at any one time. My comment was only on the fact that by confusing science and theology human beings on both sides have tried to understand oranges by describing apples. We need a common and respectful dialog on this and many other issues but not for solutions only deeper appreciation of the complexity of it all.