Posted on 12/06/2005 6:32:18 AM PST by NYer
AUSTRALIA'S most distinguished expatriate scientist, Lord May of Oxford, has launched an attack on the Catholic Church, blaming Vatican policy for the spread of AIDS in the Third World.
Lord May said that the Vatican's opposition to the use of condoms was an example of "dogma" leading to the deliberate misrepresentation of facts, at great human cost.
The Sydney-born scientist's words came in his final speech delivered as president of Britain's Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific organisation, past presidents of which include Isaac Newton and Joseph Banks.
Speaking in London, Lord May described AIDS as a pandemic, with more than 40 million people infected across the world. He quoted a UN report from June that said effective and essential prevention strategies "reach only a fraction of those who need them".
"The dissemination and adoption of successful prevention strategies is being seriously hindered by arguments over the role that contraception in the form of condoms should play. This controversy has nothing to do with a scientific assessment of the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the transmission of HIV, but rather derives from religious beliefs against the use of contraception," Lord May said.
"The Vatican promotes abstinence outside marriage, and condemns condom use. This disapproval … is not an effective strategy for preventing dissemination of HIV, not least because unprotected sex with an infected individual is high risk regardless of whether the act is intended for procreation or recreation. With added support from fundamentalist groups, these arguments have the effect that aid from the US for tackling HIV/AIDS seems usually to be tied to promoting abstinence and condemning condom use."
Lord May is a pioneer in the use of mathematical theory to analyse the spread of disease in populations. He harbours a strong resentment against the Vatican for what he believes is an unforgivable denial of reality.
While he has not attacked the Catholic Church publicly before, he stated at a private seminar in the early 1990s, his belief that the Pope had been responsible "for more deaths than Hitler" through Vatican policy on contraception.
I would suppose to prove his theory he can show in countries with high Catholic populations there is a high rate of AIDS...
At one point I may have agreed with him, however, as I recall, condoms do not stop virus' from penetrating the condom.
>>Lord May said that the Vatican's opposition to the use of condoms was an example of "dogma" leading to the deliberate misrepresentation of facts, at great human cost.<<
Hey moron, our dogma also opposes promiscuity and any sex outside marriage...the REAL cause of the spread of AIDS.
what a douche. keeping ones fly zipped could have prevented the pandemic. It is mass suicide.
The Vatican doesn't disapprove of condom use for homosexual activity. It condemns the activity itself. And the Vatican's stance against sexual activity outside marriage didn't cause the spread of AIDS. The reckless practice of plugging each other's poopers did and does.
Just about the only place in Africa that has been able to control the AIDS epidemic is Uganda -- and their program highlights abstinence (supported by religious belief) as the first line of defense against AIDS. Uganda is about 30 percent Catholic.
Like I said, the guy's an idiot. Plus, he's an anti-Catholic who's just looking around for a stick to beat the Church with, never mind the facts.
Condoms are not needed if one simply abstains from intercourse before marriage and is monogamous during marriage. The Church proclaims the only 100% foolproof way of avoiding HIV (barring, of course, IV drug use or accidental needle-sticks by health care workers). This person simply doesn't like that this method requires that one keeps one's pants zipped.
Truly a man of the people. But I can't figure out why these guys perpetrate these feudalistic titles. What's his first name? Why the "of Oxford" bit?
So, for this "scientist" to be speaking truthfully, millions upon millions of people must be simultaneously heeding the Vatican and spreading AIDS, while also heeding the Vatican and preventing the spread of AIDS. What a fool, who can't even grasp the internal contradictions in his flawed 'argument' - there's not even a plausible veneer of science behind his remarks, rather, they are revealed as anti-Catholic bigotry, pure and simple...
Condoms prevent the spread of AIDS about as effectively as the use of the pill prevents abortion. The fallacy of his argument is that men will behave rationally when it comes to matters of sex. Distribute condoms widely and men will put them in their wallets, and KEEP them there. There is an element of magical thinking among the advocates of birth control methods. One good general health clinic in a country will do more to stop the spread of AIDS than a billion dollars spent on condoms and pills.
There would be no AIDS spread whatsoever if everyone followed the Catholic (in fact the Christian generally) teaching on sexual morality -- no sex outside of marriage. What an Orwellian transversal to blame the Church for people's sin.
Church teaching isn't "don't use condoms." Church teaching is "no sex outside of marriage."
If people followed the real church teaching, aids would not be a problem.
Lord May is beating up on a straw man.
Click here to read more about this dimwit from the, hold your nose, BBC
With all the glorification of condoms that occurs in this country as a means of preventing HIV, they are not used, as evidenced by rising HIV infection rates in recent years. One has to wonder why this is occuring despite all the condoms that are thrown at people. Perhaps it is that people who care so little for their own selves that they will screw (as that's all they're doing outside a spiritually healthy relationship) anything that's walking for the sake of one night of physical pleasure are already so careless with themselves that they don't care if they get an STD? Perhaps they simply don't take responsibility for their actions in general, and so it doesn't matter what are the repercussions of their perversion. Some male homosexuals intentionally try to get infected with HIV...they see HIV as being a part of gay culture. There have been a few articles on that posted on FR in the past few years.
The bottom line is that HIV is primarily a behavior-driven disease. No amount of obfuscation on the part of the condom worshippers will ever erase that.
This guy should be a lawyer specializing in foolish law suits.
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