Throwing the Word "Science" Around

It seems that I hear the word science a lot used by people who are not scientists but want to put down people with a pro-life view. The "unscientific" seem to most commonly be those who think things like embryonic stem cell research to be unethical. The reasoning seems to go something like, " Embryonic stem cell research holds a lot of promise for helping serious diseases so it must be the right thing to do. Yes, I understand why people may have a problem with it but in the furture this will help people with serious illnesses so science will be vindicated in the end." What does this have to do with "scientific" or "unscientific"? People with pro-life view points aren't objecting to the fact that this research may help people but to the destruction of human life in the process (to state the obvious). What those who consider themselves to be enlightened and "scientific" are really saying is that to hold value in human life at its earliest stages to the time of natural death (traditional pro-lif stance) makes you a neanderthal. Is this idea based on science or is it ideologically driven? I think we can easily see that it is the later. Ironically the pro-escr crowd accuse Bush's policy of banning federal funding on escr as being ideologically driven and being "unscientific". Not providing funds for for ethical reasons is not a scientific decision but a policy decision so I'm baffled at the word unscientific being thrown around in regard to this. To quote Wesley J. Smith from his blog Second Hand Smoke in the entry Media/Obama Conflate Ethics Dispute with Science. "...they don't have the candor to admit they are as political and ideological as their opponents. Instead, they pretend they are objective, indeed, scientific. That may be a good political tactic, but nothing could be further from the truth."

A Great Find

A caller on EWTN Radio's Catholic Answers mentioned the group Flipsyde's song Happy Birthday. He called it a pro-life rap song. He said they were a "secular" group too. I had to investigate so I googled it and this is what I found. I thought it was one of the most open, honest things I have ever heard. It cuts through all the politics and politically correct language and seemingly comes from the heart. I'm not sure if this is the personal experience of this young man, Piper, or a song about someone else but how rare it is to hear a man's perspective about the hurt of abortion and expecially a black man's perspective. Apparently this is from 2005 and this group is (or was?)more popular in Europe than in the United States. This song says it all! Please listen.

Letter

Here is a letter I submitted to the local newspaper regarading the policies of the new Obama administration. It appeared in this last Saturday's paper:


I would love to be able to rejoice fully with many others in the country at the inauguration of our 44th president, Barak Obama. Unfortunately this occasion is overshadowed by Obama's strong support for abortion and embryonic stem cell research. It has been said that in the first days of his presidency President Obama is going to overturn the current ban of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research as well as bring back many other policies that threathen the unborn. Science should be guided by ethics. The use of embryos for stem cell research destroys a human at the very beginning of life. This is unethical. Why don't we use federal funding to look for ways to fight diseases without destroying human life? This would be ethical.

Why is it considered progressive to destroy life in its earliest stages for our own purposes? Please think about this President Obama and reconsider your positions on these issues. Human rights begin with protecting the most defenseless among us.

Some Good Thoughts

The days of Christmas are dwindling but I came across "The Perfect Christmas Gift" from the blog A Wise Woman Builds Her Home. It tells of "the perfect Christmas gift" to our husbands, our children, our parents, ourselves , and our Heavenly Father. I like this post because it gives very specific ideas that are things that I struggle with. It provides some much needed guidance to myself. Here are some of the parts that jumped out at me:

Our Husbands
"Build him up with your words and vow to never tear him down again. Help him with his weak areas. Love your husband and forgive him of His shortcomings the way Christ has forgiven you. I don't think he'll want to return or exchange this kind of a gift!"

Our Children
In a spirit of kindness, meekness, patience and joy, spend time with them for this is really what they want--not that toy you fretted over purchasing that will sit in the corner untouched for much of the year. (italics mine)

Our Parents
"Respect them and love them because of who they are and do not remind yourself of their failings...Love them unconditionally because they need Christ just as much as you do. "

Fresh Start for Schooling

Well we've had a nice long break from schooling or at least from floundering schooling. I think things will be back on track now. We're getting a strong start.

Math-Gabriel does his math during the day and I check it and he corrects it in the evenings therefore we can go onto the next lesson the next day instead of having one lesson drag over two days.

Language-We are using Mater Lingua- We didn't do this today partly because we finished week 9/day one yesterday. I think I'll go back to spreading one week over two weeks. I'll also use a bit of God's Gift of Language for grammar and we need to do something about spelling. We need to make dicatation a priority. In fact maybe we should do this before any other language for the day.

History-We are studying American History with the Catholic textbook Sea to Shining Sea. We'll go back to dividing this up into smaller chunks and perhaps just doing it every other day. Today I had son write a narration as we had done last year. It was good. We tried doing the questions at the end of the chapter a few times after reading the chapter at a faster rate. It felt too rushed. I think we might go back to putting narratives into book of centuries too. We were trying a timeline this year but I'm not sure we like this.

Science-Concepts and Challenges Series-We'll try for a lesson a day or whatever. I'm not so concerned about this as at this point science can be picked up here and there.

Son takes Spanish and Orchestra at the Jr. High.

Religion-Shame on me for really not having this as first priority. I bought Baltimore Catechism #2 at the beginning of the year but we can't find it. We listen to lots of EWTN radio which really provides a lot of catechism. Every now and then I look at Catholic Culture .org and we read about the saint for the day.

Well that's it in a nutshell.

FOR TODAY (December 23, 2008)...

Outside my window...There is snow and gray and bare trees
I am thinking...that maybe I should get away from my compueter
I am thankful for... having enough food to eat and the fact my husband has a job...
From the learning rooms...Son is helping me cook
From the kitchen...doing the prep work for tomorrows food so I can relax tomorrow
I am wearing...my husbands gray zip up sweater over a blue t-shirt with jeans and black socks
I am creating...A Christmas Eve Bash
I am going... for a walk later
I am reading...blogs
I am hoping...for peace of mind
I am hearing...The Catholic Radio station and the click of baby playing with toys
Around the house...I need to straighten
One of my favorite things...Cholate Mousse cake
A few plans for the rest of the week:Christmas Mass, play in the snow, practice more, do banking and grocery shopping

Here is thought I am sharing...Enjoy the simple things in life.

The new atheism

I have heard said that unlike past atheism where people really thought about what was true that the current atheism is a fad. I understand this as it seems that many people who push the anti-religion view point consider themselves to be more intelligent than those of us with faith. It almost seems that people call themselves atheists because it instantly makes them an intellectual without having to open their minds and really search for the truth, even in places that they would rather not look: traditional religion and especially Christianity. That would definately not be cool and intellectual sounding.

An example of this would be the atheists who put up their sign denouncing religion in the Washington State Capitol. They announce to the rest of us misguided fools (and I parapharse)that the natural world is the only one that exists and that religion results in the "hardening of hearts and the weakening of minds." What do they base this on? Really? Religion has done no good in the world? There are many non-religious people, even atheists, who would not agree with this. It seems that it is the need of this particular group of people to stroke their own egos and that is their ultimate purpose in putting up such a sign.