The "science" of nonsense

[Chris James]

In pursuit of my naming Africa an eternal third world continent I offer yet another piece of news:

http://www.advocate.com/news/world-news/2014/02/06/ugandan-scientists-claim-gays-are-made-not-born

It seems the lunatics in charge of this asylum will go to any length to persecute the gay population in Uganda. I think someone should revoke Scott Lively's humanity for starting this mess. If Christians are going to persecute gay people then we need to call this the African Inquisition.

The lesson Uganda's government is preaching is intolerance, mostly to distract their population from the corruption of the current politicians. A quick lesson in return would be to shun Uganda on the world stage. Cut off their access to the internet so I stop receiving all those scams for money, put their hackers out of business.

Hatred is a national pastime in Africa with a new target every week. Religious, ethnic and economic hatred seems to spill over from one disorganized mess of a country into the next. No wonder the Taliban is having such a field day over there.

Update: the doctor quoted in this article has a shocking resume. It seems his background is in public health and he has worked with AIDS clinics in the past. Just the kind of person who should know better than to make outrageous "scientific" comments like this. Go see for yourself: http://www.parliament.go.ug/mpdata/mps.hei?p=f=t=t=339=Ndorwa&n=t&details=t&j=741&const=Kaberamaido++County&dist_id=28&distname=Kaberamaido

[DesDownunder]

A leader of the rightwing Liberal party once told me that she didn't want same sex marriage because it would lead to people wanting to marry their dogs. I was so flabbergasted at the time that I failed to make any response to her statement. I just wasn't expecting that an educated member of an Australian parliament could have possibly made such a statement.

In fact she wasn't making the statement as much as she was exhibiting the influence of her religious views; the cultural views that seemed to me to be far removed from my limited but classical education.

It is almost impossible to discuss this matter and other related issues without appearing to be somewhat judgemental of those who have fallen victim to religious dogma or are uneducated in the scientific method.

Looked at, with a view of the long trek humanity has made to technological understanding of the cosmos and we should see that the ancient times of old civilisations are relatively recent in terms of our planet's life span. If the dawn of our cognisance is only few millennia, we shouldn't really be surprised that primitive myths and customs need to be eradicated from determining our progress into compassionate states of being; more concerned with our enlightenment than our ability to exert authority over the lives of others.

Given that relative short period of time since we attempted to build civilised communities, it really shouldn't surprise us that there are much larger pockets of ignorance than we thought could possibly survive the Reformation or the Enlightenment. That this ignorance uses some of the best thoughts and attempts to advance our understanding to benefit life, demonstrates how much we have yet to learn; how much understanding and knowledge there is yet, to impart to those still hell-bound by irrational belief.

That the dark ages sanctimoniously, used logic to impose superstition to determine who was a witch, or to judge a person as being a heathen and stoned to death, is merely the forerunner of inquisitions which do in fact surface in today's world, and not just in Africa.

The danger of the human race finding itself subservient to religious belief, or enslaved to fascist mentality of brute force, or laid waste to a barren ignorance of compassion is ever present whilst we corrupt our economies for profiteering off of each other.

The basic human trait of cooperative socialisation for survival, must be recognised by our cultures and our societies for the sake of our peaceful coexistence. It cannot be achieved if we don't understand that our fear of each other is as primitive as our superstitions, and as unnecessary as any of our irrational faiths.

[Chris James]

Um...yeah, what he said.

Given that modern science has pretty much indicated the continent of Africa as the source of human life on the planet, the cradle of civilization, as it where, seems to have moved far away from those shores.

In our ancient past the scholars of the Fertile Crescent (remember that from your history class?) shared knowledge across the water with the Greeks. The science of chemistry and mathematics was developed during those years, some say thanks to Alexander the Great but I think the Arab world already knew how to count on their fingers and toes. And then along came the religion of Islam and knowledge fell into disrepair in Africa and all across the Middle East.

A religious timeline will show that knowledge was pushed aside in favor of religious fervor and we entered the Dark Ages. Ignorance reigned supreme when the only source of knowledgeable thought was a religious text. The Bible and the Quran are two examples of human frailty and ignorance. 'Nuff said.