Posts by Neil Morrison
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Kim Hill will be providing the opportunity to see how it's not just conservative Christians who have a problem with evolution but left-wing scientists as well.
She's interviewing Steven Rose, co-author of Not in Our Genes,
this Saturday.It could be argued that it's the resistance to Darwin from left-wing academics that's hindered science far more than conservative Christians.
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Maybe the Pew question skirts round the common ancestor because many people don't understand the concept.
I think them that take issue with evolution the most strongly are very aware of this detail. The Pew question is well worded but I wonder if the pro-evolution percentage might have been a bit down if it had been put differently.
And I don't believe we came from chimps because no species that's living now was descended from any other species that is living now (he says hoping that he can at least get something right today)
All true, except for bacteria maybe - they’re still keeping on but I don't know if there's still the same species as back in the Precambrian.
I'm not that worried by the Pew statistics. The one area that would be of concern is the influence on science education and there the religiously motivated opponents of evolution have had few successes and lots of failures - most notably in Texas recently where a Bush appointed judge found against the creationists.
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The Pew question is carefully worded but maybe it skirts around one important controversial aspect of evolution - descent from a common ancestor. I could see a lot of people accept that plants and animals have evolved but not go along with being related to chimps.
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Only one in three 18-25 year old people accept the scientific fact of evolution!?!
I thought the figures were the exact opposite - only 1 in 3 don't accept evolution. It would be interesting to know how this compares with other countries.
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...the unnerving side of the genetic knowledge that's accumulating
There's quite a lot happening already in the field of genetic counseling on a whole range of genetic variations. There's a Genetic Service run by ADHB. I'm not sure in what instances they might advise a termination of pregnancy, say, but certainly the ethics involved with these sorts of issues and how to communicate this sort of information to parents is a growing field. I think that's a reassurance.
What strikes me as possibly a bit troubling is now we know some of the details of the genetic basis for our social skills then that opens up the door for tampering with that for political purposes. But it's fascinating that we are now able to see how evolution has encoded complex behavioral skills.
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But we're talking about events that happened in the 80s. Since then the Police have changed much as NZ society has changed. It's not like other NZ institutions like rugby clubs don't have their own skeletons from that era. At least the Police are facing up to theirs.
These were a small group of cops from a particular time, there's no reason to make this a more blanket condemnation of 'Police culture". The Police were not responsible for the non-disclosure of pervious convictions and they were the ones who investigated Rickards and co.
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ron, you're sounding a bit like Ron Law.
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National's ideas on forestry carbon credits deserves a bit more of a reasoned response. That the trees were planted before Kyoto will remain true no matter who gets the credits - the Government or foresters. If it's unfair for one party to reap any unforeseen benefit then it's unfair for both.
National's proposal that a proportion go to foresters is reasonable and equitable and the idea that individuals can play a part in the Kyoto process should be something to be encouraged.
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Pharmac's approach seems to be a good compromise but they wouldn't be doing this if there hadn't been the lobbying. The 52 weeks is an issue but the basics of the pro-Hercetpin case, that it should be used here in NZ for the early treatment of breast cancer, has been shown to have merit. And even though Dr Daniel Hind praises Pharmac his study did point out the economic justification for the 52 week treatment period.
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A Brownian motion could also be used to mix things up.