Of all the Christian and quasi-Christian groups that exist, of all the possible sects one might encounter, I think the Catholic brand remains the most consistently exasperating.
Whether they’re refuting the heliocentric model, torturing Christ into infidels, or buggering acolytes, their particular model of goddishness is at once infuriatingly arrogant and laden with self-righteousness. These guys have had hundreds of years to perfect the art of being smugly wrong, and they are masters at it.
On the other hand they have managed to do — or back — some damned fine things, such as the Sistine Chapel ceiling and Gregor Mendel’s rather significant work in studying inheritance.
Nevertheless, if you want to match empires in terms of protection of human learning and early scientific progress, Islam is well ahead of the game.
Not that I’d like to see a return of Islamic caliphates, mind you; however, I can’t say I like the Catholic trend in fertility much either.
From the Washington Post, this. Creighton University in Omaha is funding work in a Catholic approach to fertility. Run by Thomas Hilgers and dubbed the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, the center has the blessings of — among others — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pausing in their endless pursuit of boning choirboys long enough to issue a position on the subject.
Let that percolate for a moment.
For one thing, the Catholic church has never had a particularly strong history in studying human reproduction so much as making infantile claims about it (and insisting that it must happen or it simply won’t sanctify any action that might be remotely associated with it); this is a church that, after all, considers a blastocyst to be, for all practical purposes, fully human.
For another, who gives a greasy handshake what a bunch of old, allegedly virginal men think about any part of human reproduction or the study thereof?
But the institute doesn’t simply study reproduction (which, technically, is what many people do late at night while surfing the net) — it actually indoctrinates teaches doctors how to practice reproductive medicine in a way consistent with Catholic beliefs.
A Gathering of Understatements
What’s the problem with a few doctors going god-goofy and catering to their similarly infected patients? To begin with, medicine — which is at its heart a scientific practice — has very little to do with goddish pursuits. Consider: If you have pneumonia, would you rather have a ten-day course of antibiotics, or a pair of crossed sticks hanging over your bed?
Shockingly enough, some of the god-boys agree.
“Combining medicine and religion is dangerous,” said the Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “This tendency is creeping into our health-care system.”
Dangerous is one adjective; fucking stupid is what I’d be more inclined to say. The Catholic commentaries on science have proved, over the centuries, to be false; why in hell would anyone imagine their record with human health would be any better? Remember, this is the same church that said, recently, Hitler and Stalin had been possessed by Satan.
Worse, there’s the political side of it. Already the fanatics are trying to both block abortion and prevent the distribution of contraception; as Pam reports some are even trying to push abstinence “education” on adults. How long do we imagine it will be before Catholics and Protestants link hands in an unholy alliance against human reproductive choice?
“If you look at what’s happened with abortion services being severely limited in large parts of the country, this is not at all an unrealistic fear,” said R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
With Bush and his cadre of inbreds still avidly funding “faith-based” (meaning primarily Christian evangelical) social services, this is much more than simply a realistic fear; it’s damned near a prediction of what will happen if the religious galvanize along this line.
Holy Water, Holy Rocks; What’s the Difference?
What’s probably the most outrageous part of all this is that the institute is taking a New Age approach, touting the holism of their treatments in an example of classic rock-fondler’s rhetoric.
While most of the patients are Catholic, Hilgers accepts anyone. He said they are drawn by his holistic approach, attentive care and superior outcomes.
“Mainstream gynecology and reproductive medicine take a Band-Aid approach. Our success rates tend to be much, much better,” Hilgers said.
And it just gets more stupid. While the institute boasts medical technology, while it inarguably uses medical science to acheive its ends, and while it apparently does have some success — despite the Catholic rejection of in-vitro fertilization on doctrinal grounds — they sure are quick to trot out the m-word.
“Life is God’s to create,” [Cami] Carlson said, echoing the sentiment of half a dozen other women from around the United States and Mexico interviewed this month while being treated at the clinic. “It’s a huge sense of peace knowing that we’re going about things in a morally sound manner.”
Not that m-word. This one.
Bulletin boards titled “Miracle Baby Hall of Fame” are filled with snapshots of children.
Miracle. Miracle? …Miracle!
Someone needs to consult a dictionary. Miracles are events which are physically impossible. Fucking and getting pregnant, while not always causally connected, are nearly enough so to conclude that the former, in many cases, leads to the latter. Certainly enough that the m-word doesn’t apply, however impossible it might be for specific couples to accomplish.
The above miracle-referencing quote looks pretty absurd in the context of this obviously-slanted opinion; but take a look at it in the context of the institute itself.
The institute, which is attracting more than 700 new patients a year, melds modern medical facilities with the philosophy and symbols of Catholicism. The waiting room greets patients with a bust of the Madonna and Child and an illuminated stained-glass crucifix. Bulletin boards titled “Miracle Baby Hall of Fame” are filled with snapshots of children. Down the hall is a fully accredited lab for analyzing hormones. An ultrasound suite downstairs is equipped with the latest technology. A large statue of St. Therese stands in a stairway leading to the Chapel of the Holy Family, where Mass is celebrated weekly.
This is a perfect, classic example of the human capacity for comfort with total self-contradiction. In the middle of “miracle” declarations, holy statues and worship facilities sits some of the more advanced tools of medical technology available. This is at least as egregious as any evangelical using television to decry the value of science. This level of selective blindness regarding what is acceptable or ordained of “god” is obsessed so totally on minutiae as to be pathological.
No Actual Numbers
The institute shifts closest to New Agers and fanatics, however, in its willingness to present unsubstantiated claims about itself. Regarding Hilgers’ comment on the subject of “holism”, for instance, one doctor had this to say.
“I don’t think he understands what a traditional reproductive endocrinologist really does,” said Jamie Grifo, a New York University fertility specialist. “It’s simply a myth that we don’t look for the underlying disease.”
Hilgers’ institute uses a kind of rhythm method — along with hormonal treatments and, one assumes, prayer — to (according to Hilgers) accomplish results that are medically significant. While this is feasible, I’ll submit that it has less to do with praying up a baby and more to do with the couples involved feeling like they’re in comfortable surroundings. Stress and zygotes do not get along very well.
There are other objections. The institute’s studies have not been published in peer-reviewed journals — a bedrock necessity for any scientific claim, as this allows testability, falsifiability, and the opportunity for peers in a given field to evaluate the merits of a given set of claims.
Hilgers objects that no journals will publish his results — a common and rather pathetic excuse offered by those clearly caught up in pseudoscientific nonsense. Put another way, he says he’s getting results, yet refuses to offer proof of those claims and, when asked for proof, objects that no one will let him present it.
Rather than argue facts, though, Hilgers offers “training” instead for health-care professionals — working in both the US and overseas locations — to continue to offer religiously-based reproductive medicine to all who come. (Sorry.)
One imagines it’s only a matter of time before someone develops a Catholic form of physics wherein a critical mass of prayergivers becomes sufficient to cause fission; or a Pope-approved mathematics that sets π equal to 3.1 and eventually squares a circle.
Either of these pursuits is sure to have as much merit as Catholic dabbling in sex; however, given the human tendency to see miracles in the most mundane events, given our gullibility as a species and our ability to support several opposing ideas at one time, I don’t expect the issue to be settled much before our species evolves into something else entirely — assuming the religious idiots let us last that long.
Spew