On A More Serious Note...

There were a couple semi-serious news stories that surfaced over the last couple weeks that I wanted to address. But instead of a long-winded diatribe for each, I thought I'd combined them short and sweet to avoid getting all worked up and having my head explode.

The first story deals with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donating over $287million for HIV research. I know, I know, how could I possibly see any wrong in this humanitarian gesture? Well, I wouldn't except for one little word - cancer. In the most recent statistics released by the CDC, cancer is the second leading cause for death among Americans with a staggering 22%. The top-10 leading causes for death account for over 83% of all deaths in the United States and HIV/AIDS is not among those top-10. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic (in 1981) an estimated 529,113 people have died from HIV/AIDS in the United States. That's slightly less than the number of cancer victims last year alone. All I'm saying is this - cancer is just as deadly, affects more people annually, kills more people annually, and is pretty much impossible to prevent. It's been around for ever and we're still no closer to a cure. By no means am I intending to belittle the HIV/AIDS epidemic, all I'm saying is couldn't some of that $287million gone to cancer research?

The second story just makes me sad - recent surveys show that less than 50% of Americans believe in evolution. That wouldn't be so troubling if those surveys were conducted in 1905, but these were done just last year! What is this, the middle ages? Are we going to excommunicate Galileo for suggesting that the Earth revolves around the sun? The line between government and religion is precariously thin and that is not a good sign, as I've stated on this blog previously; however, it is simply unconscionable to allow religious beliefs to interfere with science. Not only is it unconscionable it's simply ignorant and narrow-minded. Somewhere down the line your ancestor was a monkey (see the image in the post below). God didn't wiggle his nose and create you out of clay or an extra rib. The Genesis story is an allegory. Grow up and deal with it. Normally I wouldn't really care if people made a conscious decision to be morons, but since so many of these morons hold a seat in office I don't want to see science stagnate because these knuckleheads withhold funding based on theological beliefs. The only people who fear the advancement of science are those of little faith and, worse, those who have something to gain by keeping you in the dark...