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Topic: virus: why human advancement is shifting out of the US. (Read 1010 times) |
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rhinoceros
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Re:virus: why human advancement is shifting out of the US.
« Reply #1 on: 2004-11-24 11:55:56 » |
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[hkhenson] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml
[rhinoceros] Wow! It is worse than I thought. I wonder why creationism appears so appealing in the states, of all places. It is not so in most other christian countries. Could it be a desire for having "good roots"? (i.e. where they are coming from)
<snip> Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the vast majority says that even if they evolved, God guided the process. Just 13 percent say that God was not involved. But most would not substitute the teaching of creationism for the teaching of evolution in public schools. <snip> 47 percent of John Kerry’s voters think God created humans as they are now, compared with 67 percent of Bush voters. <snip>
[rhinoceros] Among the links at the left I found something even more bizarre. "Religion in the Pharmacy"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/23/eveningnews/main657435.shtml
After Idalia and Jose Moran's son was born by C-section, Idalia Moran's doctor advised her not to get pregnant again for two to three years, and prescribed the pill.
CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts reports when she went to the pharmacy, the cashier said, "You know what? I cannot refill them because the pharmacist says it's against his religion because it's abortion."
Moran told CBS she was stunned and ashamed.
"I felt really bad, because I thought maybe these are for abortion," Moran said. "I don't know."
Across the country, more and more pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for religious reasons.
South Dakota, Arkansas and Mississippi even have refusal clauses on the books. And 13 other states are considering mixing medicine with morality.
At Lloyd's Pharmacy in Gray, La., Lloyd Duplantis believes in prayer.
"God bless the great state of Louisiana, the parish…In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit…" Duplantis said in a makeshift prayer group in the middle of his store.
And he believes birth control is tantamount to abortion. So, he stocks his shelves accordingly.
"I don’t sell condoms. I don't sell foams. I don't sell creams," Duplantis said. "I don't sell anything to do with contraception."
He said, even if a woman who was the victim of incestuous rape walked in his door after having been prescribed the pill, he wouldn't change his policy.
"I would tell her that I can't prescribe this," Duplantis said.
Few question a pharmacist's right to make a moral choice. But doesn't one have a distinct responsibility as a pharmacist?
"That's right, and that's what I'm doing," Duplantis said. "There's science supporting my moral decision."
Four out of five Americans disagree with Duplantis. In a CBS News/New York Times poll, 80 percent of respondents said even if pharmacists have religious objections to contraceptives, they should not let it interfere with their job.
<snip>
"It's a very ominous trend," Feldt said. "I think the anti-choice right extremists have become emboldened by the current administration in Washington and they feel they are in the political ascendancy."
But Duplantis says he's no extremist, just a Christian businessman.
"I want everyone to have freedom of choice to help them achieve what they want," he said.
In his pharmacy, he advocates "natural" family planning. <snip>
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rhinoceros
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My point is ...
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Re:virus: why human advancement is shifting out of the US.
« Reply #2 on: 2004-11-24 12:55:55 » |
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A second thought on creationism in the States. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml)
I just wrote that creationism is not as appealing "in most other christian countries" and now I realize that the US (unlike other countries) is not officially christian. This difference, with all its history, may be one reason that creationism has a foothold in the States.
In the "officially" christian countries, the religious establishment evolved in close relationship with the mainstream authority -- in fact it was part of it. Having to deal with the academic establishment, among others, they had to clean up their priorities and to frame their preaching "properly"; they even established state funded theological schools withing the academia. This role of the church has subsided today, but they still have a stake; in Greece, for example, there are still state funded theological schools, priests are still paid a (meager) salary from the state, and the church is a major stockholder in many technological companies.
In the "land of the free", on the other hand, this... spiritual wonder we are witnessing today is largely due to the enterprising spirit of kooky uneducated street preachers and TV evangelists with unconstrained faith in their mission (hey Rev. Moon!) and with many folk tales to say. Now, why this really works... (just like it does with the "non-creationist" christians in other countries) is another matter...
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