The Jewmanist

Teach the controversy! Oh, well, wait..

The chief scientist in Israel’s ministry of education, Gavriel Avital, “sparked a furor” by questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming, leading to calls for his dismissal, according to Haaretz (February 21, 2010). “If textbooks state explicitly that human beings’ origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions. There are many people who don’t believe the evolutionary account is correct,” he was quoted as saying. “There are those for whom evolution is a religion and are unwilling to hear about anything else. Part of my responsibility, in light of my position with the Education Ministry, is to examine textbooks and curricula.”

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Hava Yablonka of Tel Aviv University told Haaretz that Avital’s statements were tantamount “to saying that space should be given in textbooks to the view that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it. It’s astonishing that the chief scientist of a government ministry can say such bizarre things.”

Where do we get our creativity and inspiration from? It’s different for everyone. As a teen, I began writing (I also drew and painted some). I wrote many poems railing against “the system”. I wasn’t 100% certain what I even meant by that at the time. Yet I think it had something to do with what I could easily refer to as the Expected Steps of Life that are pushed on us by religious institutions, political figureheads, and our families. After childhood we’re all pushed towards college, then the must-have job that you hate, get married to the first warm body (of the opposite sex) that hangs around for a few months, have 2.5 kids, buy a house, and mess up your kids in a similar fashion that your parents did to you (to a lesser extent if they’re lucky). Continuing the job you hate while saving for a retirement you so you can finally enjoy your money and spouse. These steps are all a part of the “American Dream” and must not be done out of order!

Stem cells rock!

Three Australians have had their sight restored thanks to their own stem cells and ordinary contact lenses.

Although the novel technique was used to reverse blinding corneal disease, it promises to be a quick, painless and cheap treatment for other visual disorders. It may even be useful for repairing damaged skin, the researchers reported today in the journal Transplantation.

The team leader, UNSW stem cell scientist Nick Di Girolamo said: “We’re quietly excited. We don’t know yet if (the correction) will remain stable, but if it does it’s a wonderful technique”.

According to team member Stephanie Watson – an opthalmic surgeon with Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital – two of the three patients were legally blind in the treated eye; they can now read big letters on the eye chart. The third could read the top few rows of the chart but is now able to pass the vision test for a driving license.

Via Live Science:

The phrase “medical miracle” is a newsroom cliche. It means a situation in which a person makes an unexpected recovery despite great odds or a pessimistic prognosis.

Yet often the phrase is used much more broadly to describe a seemingly supernatural or paranormal healing or curing event such as faith healing. While to many people it may seem obvious that a miracle has occurred, in reality such miracles are rarely as impressive as they seem.

On the ABC newsmagazine Primetime, a recent segment shows a good example:

A Canadian teenager named Adam Dreamhealer claims to cure cancer, coax the comatose to consciousness, and drive out infection.

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Many of the miraculous “healings” attributed to Dreamhealer seem to be simply the result of misunderstandings, poor logic, errors in critical thinking, and the common uncertainty of medical knowledge.

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