Polar Dancing

Hmmmm. The Governor of Missouri went to BIO 2007 earlier this month to promote Missouri as a "hub" for life science, yet the Missouri Life Sciences Research Trust Fund, a sizeable chunk of funds designated for spending on, guess what, the life sciences, is held up in the State Assembly because state legislators aren't comfortable with 9 percent of the funds being used for stem cell research. This is holding the state of Missouri back economically and tempting comparisons with the state of Kansas, which has for several periods of time during the last 10 years, attempted to teach intelligent design AS SCIENCE in K-12 science classes statewide.

Real quick here, as points of interest,
1. I do not believe that all principles, moral or social, should take a backseat in the name of scientific progress.
2. I am a fairly devout Christian who believes that the creation story detailed in the Bible is metaphoric and symbolic.

Now this post is not about what I think of what Missouri's doing or what Kansas has done. That was context for a far greater problem, polarity. For some reason, Americans believe that everything has a clear-cut answer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're seemingly always less than 20 feet away from an Internet connection, which with the click clack of a few keys, provides us with any information we're looking for. Can't remember who won the 1975 World Series? It's right here. How many seasons of Family Matters aired on ABC vs CBS? Find that here.

Presidential candidates in both the 2004 and 2007/8 (what year are we actually going to be voting in anyway?) have strived to disprove their opponents as flip-floppers, one of the more ridiculous developments on this whole front. The latest accusation comes from John McCain and is directed at Mitt Romney over his stance on illegal immigration. There are some great quotes on this one, but in the spirit of not making things easy to find and therefore clearly defined, I'll let you, my intrepid readers, find those. Bush's whole campaign tactic (yep, there was only one) in 2004 was that John Kerry was a dreaded flip-flopper! Meanwhile, the man who was elected President in that election seems to have executed some solid flip-flops in his life on issues such as whether cocaine is OK or not, whether we were justified in going to war in Iraq, and so on.

I would urge everyone, and this is as a resident of the Washington, DC metropolitan area (where politics is essentially the hand that feeds me), to not buy into all this political hype. I know it's hard. Every single media outlet is shoving campaign coverage down our throats at all times. But there are gray areas.

So in closing, what about stem cells and evolution? Please make an educated decision as to how you feel about each. Science and religion can coexist in our society. They have for thousands of years. Without ranting, there are museums here, in Washington, DC, where you can view pottery from what is today China that is over 7000 years old. And don't give me the "argon/carbon dating isn't accurate argument." It's accurate. The stuff was made prior to 5000 B.C. However, there are no labels on the pottery saying "If you believe this is really old, then you must denounce your faith." Just because no one first-hand witness can explain in detail how humans evolved doesn't make evolution untrue. Same goes for stem cells. Stem cell research doesn't have to conflict with your religious beliefs.

Maybe this went in circles. I hope not, and I sincerely hope that you will take something from this. Sorry for all the seriousness so early in the week.