John Adams On The Stubborn Centrality Of Facts... And The Advisability Of Vaccination
Alan: The transformation of vaccination into a political battleground reveals the core dilemma of The Republican Party.
While science demonstrates an expanding domain of Truth relating to the mechanics and function of the material world, American conservatives feel obliged to oppose truth because science is a liberal darling. And if those evil liberals support science, the GOP will oppose it.
The dynamic is equivalent to Obama hatred. Any political view that issues from Satan Himself, must be categorically opposed not only as a political duty but as a sacred obligation.
Conservatives who think God is on their side -- and in "His" omnipotence has the ability to trump Truth -- might wisely review the exegesis of Thomas Aquinas, the premier "Doctor of the Church."
Arguing against those who said that natural philosophy was contrary to the Christian faith, (Aquinas) writes in his treatise "Faith, Reason and Theology that "even though the natural light of the human mind is inadequate to make known what is revealed by faith, nevertheless what is divinely taught to us by faith cannot be contrary to what we are endowed with by nature. One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of them from God, he would be the cause of our error, which is impossible."
"Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World" by John Freely
St. Thomas Aquinas, Natural Law, and the Common Good /// Aquinas Quotations
Compendium Of Pax Posts On Thomas Aquinas
Two likely G.O.P. presidential contenders suggest vaccines should not be required. "First, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, while visiting a vaccine laboratory [in Cambridge, England], called for 'some measure of choice' on whether shots guarding against measles and other diseases should be required for children. Then, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an ophthalmologist who is also readying a 2016 campaign, said in two U.S. television interviews that he thinks most vaccines should be voluntary, citing 'many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.' " Philip Rucker and Rosalind S. Helderman in The Washington Post.
Vaccines create a dilemma for conservative philosophy. "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's slightly-too-expansive answer to questions about the measles vaccine has sent oppo researchers scrambling. What, if anything, have the many people angling to be president said about vaccines? ... The default position of most Republicans, and Republican candidates, is that individuals can be trusted and the government can't. How does that manifest when Republicans are asked about vaccine mandates?" David Weigel for Bloomberg.
Chart of the day: There were more than 100 new cases of measles in the United States last month. Christopher Ingraham in The Washington Post.
The national attention to the measles outbreak could ultimately be bad for kids. "The outbreak has fueled a backlash against the anti-vaccine movement that is likely to be counterproductive. Dr. James Cherry, an infectious disease specialist at U.C.L.A., for instance, labeled parents of unvaccinated children 'selfish' and 'dumb,' while a Los Angeles Times columnist, Michael Hiltzik, called for treating 'the anti-vaccination crowd' as 'public enemies.' If we've learned anything in politics over the last few decades, it’s that this kind of language is likely to be polarizing, driving people away rather than persuading them." Brendan Nyhan in The New York Times.
Debates like this one risk polarizing the issue of vaccination along a political axis. "Right now, most Americans do vaccinate and support vaccinations, and there’s no evidence of a partisan divide on the subject. But imagine what would happen if that were to change. We already have the blueprint readily available from other science based issues that have become substantially partisan, namely, embryonic stem cell research, global climate change, and the teaching of evolution. In each of these cases, we see that people seize on facts (and behaviors) that align with their political and religious identities and belief systems. Partisanship leads people to divide over scientific fact itself, and then creates policy dysfunction, gridlock, and quite a lot of divisiveness."Chris Mooney in The Washington Post.
GERSON: There is always a limit to individual rights. "Many states (including California) make it relatively easy to refuse vaccination for 'philosophic' reasons. This does not, I suspect, mean that people are reading Immanuel Kant or John Stuart Mill; it means they are consuming dodgy sources on the Internet. ... Some Americans seem to believe that the mere assertion of a right is sufficient to end a public argument. It is not, when the exercise of that right has unacceptable public consequences, or when the sum of likely choices is dangerous to a community." The Washington Post.
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