It’s a case of sour grapes for the maverick Dr. Severino Antinori. He thinks the Raelians are giving science a “bad name”…. I’m not sure whether to snicker politely, or roll off my couch in rib-splitting laughter. This from a man who is hiding his own cloning research in some unknown (?) Arab country, and who plans on producing his own little clone-baby next month.

Methinks the good doctor protests too much.!

Then there is the Vatican.. you know, the ones having a hard time dealing with pedophilic priests. They think cloning is “an expression of a brutal mentality, lacking all ethical and human consideration”. No word yet on whether rearend-loving priests who continue to serve the will of the Church have equal claim on the “brutal mentality” or not. The Church has squandered much of it’s moral authority, particularly amongst American Catholics, and even non-Catholics who often look to the church as a moral bell-weather. For the Church to expect to be taken seriously in the cloning debate is laughable.

The bigger question is this. Why the absurd amount of attention to the claims of a cult with a philosophy that makes Scientology look tame in comparison? If the Hare Krishnas came out with a statement that they had cloned Lord Krishna from a sample of his freeze-dried dung, would world leaders and theocrats jump on their throats as well? Despite the absurdity of such a claim..?

Update from Razib: Check out Randall Parker’s take over at Story Pundit.

What next? “Chuckles the Clone”?

Posted by razib at December 29, 2002 12:46 PM| TrackBack | Email this article
Comments

The Church hasn’t been this decadent since the days of the Borgia Popes.

Posted by: duende at December 30, 2002 10:01 AM

The Church doesn’t have a ‘pedophile priest’ problem; that’s a gloss on the real issue, which is that the priesthood is ~50% homosexual, and a particularly immature homosexuality that avoids adult sexual relationships and prefers the seduction of vulnerable teenage boys. But these boys for the most part are post-pubescent, and therefore not the victims of pedophiles. Just the targets of emotionally disturbed, immature, and socially retarded deviants.

Posted by: misanthropyst at December 30, 2002 02:50 PM

To the contrary, the bulk of the catholic church’s misconduct cases are not child molestation but rather hetereosexual misconduct. The pedophile stuff gets the most headlines. I’ve not seen any evidence that the church has more such abuse than similar organizations – I do believe that the church has been criminal in its coverups however.

Posted by: Robin Roberts at January 2, 2003 12:32 PM