Ben Stein: Science Leads to Killing People

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Oh, I forgot, I wasn’t suppose to show compassion was I, since I am one of those ‘unscientific religious people’ ! Sorry, I went past my stereotyped image.
😃

God Bless, maryJohnZ
No, my own response was not a remark against you… but it was against the common conservative misconception that the poor are lazy and don’t deserve welfare.
 
The problem is mainly the one alluded to earlier. If it’s genetic, there’s no point in trying to make it better, unless you go for the “eliminate defectives” kind of politics.

If we can convince ourselves that genes control behavior, then we don’t have any responsibility. Head Start? No need. Scholarship money? What for? The smart kids have affluent parents. And so on.

For one thing, we don’t know what intelligence is, and the data indicates that it’s an entire suite of different things that are determined by independent or even conflicting genes.

Me too. A small one. And inbreeding became a problem. Almost everyone there is related to almost everyone else.

Mostly. Not entirely. There are, for example, cases where a genetic defect causes retardation. And that will often be a greater factor than environment. It’s mostly in the exceptions that nature is more important than nurture.

Mostly parents. One parent or another gave them something. Or maybe a teacher did, and got them thinking. I cherish those students for whom I saw potential, who then went on to college and success. A precious few have told me that I was the one who convinced them.

Know the feeling. Why did you go on?

It’s all a matter of degree. But the evidence is that nurture is more important.

My father worked as a factory worker all his life, sacrificing to bring up 9 kids.he was not really interctive with us. He had to overcome an alcohalic step-dad that abused him, we went to catholic schools, learned about God, prayer, differences between right and wrong…but no catapults, pennhy games. Lots of woods to run around in, probably more an environment for poets and artists.

My sister is brilliant, has written many books including one of Joan of Arc, a recent one called “Eating Beauty”
which I did the cover for, ((cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4539)
She gives lectures to Bishops, sometimes 40 at a time…
She is a schoenstatt Sister of Mary. All of my other siblings have gone in many directions and are various occupations, from nurses aids, to stay at home moms, carpentry, macjine tooling, …no clear pathway in all that.

We all had the same upbringing. God has a special plan for each person and to judge by what they do or how wealthy they are or what degree they have is judging according to the world. I have found the greatest wisdom in some very simple, down to earth people. What was the difference? They sought God wholeheartedly and found what God wanted for them. That is what true intelligence, wisdom is… And the world, public schools certainly isn;t helping people get there.

Remember movies like “Bells of Saint Marys”…romantic ideas of the past to simply show people that God loves them and how their intrinsic value is in the fact they are images of God, temples of His Holy Spirit.

GodBless, maryJohnZ
 
My father worked as a factory worker all his life, sacrificing to bring up 9 kids.he was not really interctive with us. He had to overcome an alcohalic step-dad that abused him, we went to catholic schools, learned about God, prayer, differences between right and wrong…but no catapults, pennhy games.
That’s how it was with me, too. Back then, fathers weren’t supposed to be helping the kids learn. But that was an aberration of the industrial revolution. Prior to that, dads were just as involved as the mothers. And it works better. My sons are better men, my daughters are better women for it.
Lots of woods to run around in, probably more an environment for poets and artists.
Ironic. One of my sons is a poet, and has been published in a literary magazine. (software development pays the bills) One of them is a lawyer, and one is a rather good artist. The last is nice, since he shares my love of photography.

How nice to hear that your siblings have done so well. You have been blessed.
 
MaryJohnZ;3737953 My sister is brilliant said:

)
She gives lectures to Bishops, sometimes 40 at a time…
She is a schoenstatt Sister of Mary.

I like what I read of the reviews. You did a nice job on the cover also.

When Christ multiplied the loaves and fishes he created organic compounds ex nihilo. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, he created a living human being from dead organic matter also.

Evolution was not involved in those, or many other cases (the Miracle of Lanciano and many Eucharistic miracles, miraculous statutes and images).
 
I like what I read of the reviews. You did a nice job on the cover also.

When Christ multiplied the loaves and fishes he created organic compounds ex nihilo. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, he created a living human being from dead organic matter also.

Evolution was not involved in those, or many other cases (the Miracle of Lanciano and many Eucharistic miracles, miraculous statutes and images).
Thanks Reggie, for kind words. It is a good book. I would recommend it. It was interesting because my sister was receiving all kinds of praise for showing what essentially was part of Catholic history/ culture and how it revealed Catholic belief about the Eucharist and my mom, a high school graduate but old fashion Catholic couldn’t understand it all…afterall, they learned all that stuff when she was growing up. Shows how Catholic education programs have short changed our generation and present generations of children,

God Bless, MaryJohnZ
 
That’s how it was with me, too. Back then, fathers weren’t supposed to be helping the kids learn. But that was an aberration of the industrial revolution. Prior to that, dads were just as involved as the mothers. And it works better. My sons are better men, my daughters are better women for it.

Absolutely…one of the findings concerning troubled youth is they most often come from disfunctional families without a father’s influnec.

Ironic. One of my sons is a poet, and has been published in a literary magazine. (software development pays the bills) One of them is a lawyer, and one is a rather good artist. The last is nice, since he shares my love of photography.

nine to know your kids did well and have many gifts. It is amazing what God can do with two people and the joining of their lives, marital union…surprising the children that come forth. I would never have expected my 3. All of them special, gifted in different ways, loved by their friends, a joy to be around… good examples to their peers too, because they all go to church and are true Catholics. But I did the 5 first Saturdays with each of them at first communion time and took them to monthly confession as well as
praying family rosaries every Sunday…


How nice to hear that your siblings have done so well. You have been blessed.

Yes, the Blessed Mother has been our Mother! Not that everything is perfect but she has defintiely been at work in our lives, bringing Jesus to us.

Praise Be to Jesus and Mary
MaryJohnZ
 
Know the feeling. Why did you go on?.
Nurture! My father is a Patristic theologian, and my mother’s degree was in international relations; they left the county so we could be educated. We still own the 50 acres I grew up on, and I go there as often as I can get away from my university job. Actually it’s quite interesting talking with my old classmates, and teaching my ten-year old to chainsaw and shoot guns. My kids’ lives are enriched by having one foot in the world of international scholarship and the other in the rural redneck life.

Still, I don’t believe it’s all nurture; my older son effortlessly achieves the 99% percentile on national tests every year without studying, (something I never quite accomplished); his brother is around 87%, and they live in the exact same environment of nurturance. Could be a genetic fluke.

Petrus
 
A biig thing would be to work toward reversing the trend toward working mothers and allowing mothers to bond and spend time with their kids. Pope John Paul II talked about governments paying moms so they could stay home with their kids and be the main caregiver. That would be great for a lot of young mothers.God Bless,MaryJohnz
The Republicans would never go for paying moms to stay home with the kids, as that sort of fiscal irresponsibility is antithetical to “compassionate” conservatism.
 
Still, I don’t believe it’s all nurture; my older son effortlessly achieves the 99% percentile on national tests every year without studying, (something I never quite accomplished); his brother is around 87%, and they live in the exact same environment of nurturance. Could be a genetic fluke.

Petrus
Well, I hope the technology to select embryos that results in speciments such as your older son will proliferate and be used widely. I simply loathe the aspect of chance in human reproduction. If that makes me a reviled “eugenicist” then I support eugenics. And I do not see what’s wrong with “eugenics” in that context.
 
Well, I hope the technology to select embryos that results in speciments such as your older son will proliferate and be used widely. I simply loathe the aspect of chance in human reproduction. If that makes me a reviled “eugenicist” then I support eugenics. And I do not see what’s wrong with “eugenics” in that context.
Ribozyme, why do you loathe chance? Admittedly my wife and I are fortunate not to have children with serious genetic anomalies, and I know if we had that might change my perspective considerably. But I love how different my two sons are, coming as they did from the same gene pool. They reflect some things in each of their parents, and have traits uniquely their own; each day with them is a delight (except that the older one is approaching teen angst!)

Petrus
 
Still, I don’t believe it’s all nurture; my older son effortlessly achieves the 99% percentile on national tests every year without studying, (something I never quite accomplished); his brother is around 87%, and they live in the exact same environment of nurturance. Could be a genetic fluke.
That’s not unusual. First borns tend to be more focused and successful.

**In his book The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why, New York University sociology professor Dalton Conley says that 75% of the income inequality between individuals in the United States occurs between siblings in the same families.

According to CareerBuilder.com editor Kate Lorenz, research shows that birth order impacts personality, behavior, learning, and, ultimately, earning power. First-born and only children usually reach higher educational goals, obtain greater prestige, and acquire more net wealth.**
lawcrossing.com/article/index.php?id=2958

The environment was indeed slightly different for your two sons. That is not to say that genes had no role. It’s just that nurture tends to obscure the role of genes in the vast majority of us.
 
Ribozyme, why do you loathe chance? Admittedly my wife and I are fortunate not to have children with serious genetic anomalies, and I know if we had that might change my perspective considerably. But I love how different my two sons are, coming as they did from the same gene pool. They reflect some things in each of their parents, and have traits uniquely their own; each day with them is a delight (except that the older one is approaching teen angst!)

Petrus
Why do you all stereotype what “success” is, —meaning the university educated high achiever… I doubt God see success in the same way. What about the 'little way" of St, Theresa and Brother Andre, the 'door keeper". I guess madern day eugenics would have eliminated such people if they could.

Here is brother Andre;s biographical information:

ewtn.com/library/mary/broandre.htm

The modern world misses what life is about!

I am familiar with a man in the vincinity who is basically near to being a street person. He looks completely like a beggar. Rides a bike everywhere. Goes into local churches without shoes because he feel he is walking on 'Holy Ground", spends all his time in prayer and adoration…a regular St. Francis in many ways, but he is probably not in that 99% academic achievement range, maybe never completed High School, lives on disablity from medical problems…but you and I can not judege who is greater in life. That man may be doing much more good then the most successful scientist you know.

My friend has a nephew who did very poorly in school because his mind was not made for that kind of thought process but now he does custom tiling in people’s homes and can look at a space and automatically estimate how much til is needed…does a beautiful job and makes a great living for himself. That is just another kind of intelligence.

God does have a purpose for each person. He lovingly formed them and saw them and wanted each peson as they are. Look for the individual beauty and the “Christ” in each person, not their IQ.

I agree with barbarian on this one.

God Bless, maryJohnZ
 
Great craftsmen also tend to be firstborns. Success is a matter of learning in most cases.

And unfair or not, first-borns generally get more attention than younger sibs.

And we’ve moved a long way off-topic here. If I remember correctly, it was concerning Ben Stein’s libel against scientists.

It appears that his statement has been exposed for what it is, and unless anyone has any exculpatory evidence, it might be time to end this.
 
The Republicans would never go for paying moms to stay home with the kids, as that sort of fiscal irresponsibility is antithetical to “compassionate” conservatism.

But the Republicans tend to be anti-Planned Parenthood as well.
Republicans may not every idea worked out, and they are right to discourage people from just becoming social dependants.

At the same time there must be a lot of money out there going into Planned Parenthood coffers ( despite the fact PP makes millions of dollars in profits every year) and for public day cares,
and for all those public subsidized safe-sex and Title 10 programs which hand out birth control and give teen counseling separate from parental involvement… that money could be diverted to help moms that wanted to be at home with their kids. I am sure it would take some carefull planning so that the government wasn’t being too intrusive into the homes, but at the same time people were not misusing the money and abusing kids as we can see does happen in some cases, mainly because the person has been dehumanized so much in our culture. Mothers have been taught to see their kids as ‘burdens’ not gifts…

You have to revive faith in the importance of "motherhood’ and that it is not just a mindless sacrifice in which the woman is completely unfullfilled. Most stay-at-home moms will tell you that is what they thought about being ‘moms’, but as they enetered the role and as they lived it they could see how much they were bringing to their families and that they would never have chosen a career over that sense of being involved with their own kids.

These moneys would have to be paired with programs to build up stable families in some way. Day care and universal nursery schools certainly will not build up our families!We’ve allowed the break down of the family to go so far that it will have to be some kind of complete shock treatment to change things at this point.
I don’t know what the complete answer is other than prayer and some graces from God right now.

It seems to me that the Dems are big into women’s lib and child care and Planned Parenthood programs as being the direction to go. I would put more trust in the Republicans to do something in this area.

God Bless,
MaryJohnZ
 
Great craftsmen also tend to be firstborns. Success is a matter of learning in most cases.

And unfair or not, first-borns generally get more attention than younger sibs.

And we’ve moved a long way off-topic here. If I remember correctly, it was concerning Ben Stein’s libel against scientists.

It appears that his statement has been exposed for what it is, and unless anyone has any exculpatory evidence, it might be time to end this.

I disagree…there has been plenty of evidence shown the opposite direction, that evidence has just been reject by you.

As far as i am concerned we have basically established that Darwinism was the basis for eugenics philosophies to begin with, that the Darwinists countered or tweaked their theories too late to stop things like the Nazi death camps…that eugenics is still alive today ni some scietific thought, although some scientists are countering it. I think we also saw that at the very least the education community is hardlined about letting any other viewpoint but evolution into classrooms.

I still believe scientists are forming the world view behind many of the negative, anti-family, anti-child programs in our country. If scientists disagree with eugenics then they are not fighting the way it is being used in genetics and social policies of today.

In the end, I still believe Ben Stein’s statment has a lot of truth in it. I believe the Judeo-Christian concept of Creation and the worth of each human person is being trampled upon and science does have its share in allowing that to happen.

In Christ,

maryJohnZ
 
I disagree…there has been plenty of evidence shown the opposite direction, that evidence has just been reject by you.
Well, let’s take a look…
As far as i am concerned we have basically established that Darwinism was the basis for eugenics philosophies to begin with,
In fact, I showed you that as early as 1918, Darwinists demonstrated that classical eugenics, as proposed by your people, was fatally flawed. And nothing whatever in Darwinian theory supports eugenics. As Darwinians showed, eugenics can’t work.
that the Darwinists countered or tweaked their theories too late to stop things like the Nazi death camps…
Remember, we showed that your people (lawyers, theologians, etc.) established eugenics, and that scientists rejected it.
that eugenics is still alive today ni some scietific thought, although some scientists are countering it.
There may be a few non-Darwinians, but not many. The people from the Pioneer Fund, for example. But Darwinians like Gould demolished their arguments, too.
I think we also saw that at the very least the education community is hardlined about letting any other viewpoint but evolution into classrooms.
We showed that even Stephen Gould willingly accepted a YE creationist as a doctoral candidate, but that IDers and creationists refuse to let those of opposing views into their institutions. Like the Soviet leaders, who lambasted the US for any perceived violation of rights, while savagely persecuting dissent themselves, the IDers are accusing scientists of the very sins they commit.

We have shown that Stein lied, for example about the Smithsonian firing an employee (who turned out not to be an employee at all). If you feel there’s a real case, now would be the time to show us one.
I still believe scientists are forming the world view behind many of the negative, anti-family, anti-child programs in our country.
The problem for you is a lack of evidence for your belief.
If scientists disagree with eugenics then they are not fighting the way it is being used in genetics and social policies of today.
The’ve already shown that eugenics are bad science, and can’t work. That’s all science can do.
In the end, I still believe Ben Stein’s statment has a lot of truth in it.
We’ve established that he lied. You cannot serve truth by lying.
I believe the Judeo-Christian concept of Creation and the worth of each human person is being trampled upon
Your people, not mine. Nothing in science promotes that.
and science does have its share in allowing that to happen.
You might as well say plumbing does. For the same reasons. It might be a bit disconcerting to accept that Stein lied to you. But he did. At some point, you have to come to terms with reality.
 
It seems to me that the Dems are big into women’s lib and child care and Planned Parenthood programs as being the direction to go. I would put more trust in the Republicans to do something in this area.God Bless,MaryJohnZ
You have a problem with child care? I guess that’s the Republican mentaility? Both my sons attended a wonderfully nurturing Christian child care center, and now attend a wonderfully nurturing Catholic school. I don’t have a problem with child care; I just have a problem with people who don’t care enough about children to fund it, or who slash medical coverage for children, like Bush did.
 
You might as well say plumbing does. For the same reasons. It might be a bit disconcerting to accept that Stein lied to you. But he did. At some point, you have to come to terms with reality.
Plumbers have access to lead pipes, acetylene torches, and other instruments capable of horrific torture. Besides, it was plumbers who assembled the showers in the Nazi death camps, and we know what those “showers” were used for. MaryJohnZ, do you realize the contributions plumbers have made to genocide?
 
Why do you all stereotype what “success” is, —meaning the university educated high achiever…
MaryJohnZ – there you go again – twisting someone else’s words. I never stereotyped “success.” I hope you can participate in a discussion some day in which you don’t twist someone’s word or quote out of context.
 
You have a problem with child care? I guess that’s the Republican mentaility? Both my sons attended a wonderfully nurturing Christian child care center, and now attend a wonderfully nurturing Catholic school. I don’t have a problem with child care; I just have a problem with people who don’t care enough about children to fund it, or who slash medical coverage for children, like Bush did.
The children you are gifted with are your responsibility, not the governments.

I feel sorry for you because you missed out on really being with your children. Maybe you feel that is not the case, but having stayed home with mine I would know the difference. We had a salesman come to the house one night and he just remarked: "I can tell you stay home with your kids. There is always a big difference in the way the kids behave. "

I am sure you are fortunate to be able to send your kids to a Catholic school. Not everyone can afford them. If you can afford a private school you can probably afford medical coverage. I can see having programs for jobless people and very low income, but if you can afford it you should pay for it.

God bless you and your kids,
MaryJohnZ
 
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