Only the Litany of Falsity says “The Church is Anti-Science”

The claim that the Church is opposed to scientific study is one of the more, ahem, ignorant of all the claims made against Her.

Holy Mother Church is the progenitor of the university system and the scientific method. Do you know any other churches that fund a team of astronomers and maintain a planetary observatory? Let me know if you do.

So when the Church states that something like embryonic stem cell research is a bad thing, it’s really poor form (i.e., makes you look stupid indeed) to suggest that it’s because the Church is anti-science, against technological progress.

Rather, embryonic stem cell research is bad because scientific study (and Divine Revelation) establishes that an embryo is an unborn individual of the human race, and therefore shares in the human dignity that we all have.

We don’t kill people in order to conduct experiments on them. Destroying an embryo to collect its cells is no different (morally speaking) than forcibly taking all the organs from an unwilling donor.

And, let’s not forget that embryonic stem cell research has yet to deliver on any of things it has promised.

In contrast, the Vatican recently honored Professor Silviu Itescu with the “Key Innovator Award” from the Pontifical Council for Culture for “his leadership and ingenuity in translational science and clinical medicine in the field of adult stem cell therapy.” Professor Itescu is on the brink of “producing a therapy to treat congestive heart failure – the biggest killer in the industrialised world,” that will not require any surgery.