Originally posted by caltour: This is why it is so scary to have fundamentalist christians aiming for political power. Almost any changes they would make to reflect biblical principles would erode the very bedrock of our secular humanist government.
Just to give one example: what if the christians succeed in banning stem cell research? They would be using biblical principles to destroy scientific inquiry. The fire-and-brimstone people might be happy about it, but the founding fathers (and the Enlightenment scholars who established modern science) would be appalled.
Aiming for political power is the right of any...including a fundementalist musliim or atheist. That does not imply that the constitution will be changed.
Your example is an instructive one. I personally support all forms of stem cell research. But I have heard no mention by any Christian of banning it. They opposed FEDERAL TAXPAYER dollars, including dollars drawn from their own pockets, to support embryonic stem cell research but not peripheral blood or chord blood stem cell research (which as an asside has generally been more sucessful to date..not to say the it might not be surpassed by embryonic). No problem with Private funding for Emryonic. Corporate funding. No problem with State tax dollars as California is doing. Though I would personally have no problem with my tax dollars on embryonic research, I can acknowlege that others might and can go along with diverting NIH research dollars to other science...adult stem cell, gene therapy, growth factor therapy, nanotech, etc. that may be equally likely to cure a given condition (spinal injury etc).
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