Posted on 12/06/2005 6:32:18 AM PST by NYer
AUSTRALIA'S most distinguished expatriate scientist, Lord May of Oxford, has launched an attack on the Catholic Church, blaming Vatican policy for the spread of AIDS in the Third World.
Lord May said that the Vatican's opposition to the use of condoms was an example of "dogma" leading to the deliberate misrepresentation of facts, at great human cost.
The Sydney-born scientist's words came in his final speech delivered as president of Britain's Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific organisation, past presidents of which include Isaac Newton and Joseph Banks.
Speaking in London, Lord May described AIDS as a pandemic, with more than 40 million people infected across the world. He quoted a UN report from June that said effective and essential prevention strategies "reach only a fraction of those who need them".
"The dissemination and adoption of successful prevention strategies is being seriously hindered by arguments over the role that contraception in the form of condoms should play. This controversy has nothing to do with a scientific assessment of the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the transmission of HIV, but rather derives from religious beliefs against the use of contraception," Lord May said.
"The Vatican promotes abstinence outside marriage, and condemns condom use. This disapproval … is not an effective strategy for preventing dissemination of HIV, not least because unprotected sex with an infected individual is high risk regardless of whether the act is intended for procreation or recreation. With added support from fundamentalist groups, these arguments have the effect that aid from the US for tackling HIV/AIDS seems usually to be tied to promoting abstinence and condemning condom use."
Lord May is a pioneer in the use of mathematical theory to analyse the spread of disease in populations. He harbours a strong resentment against the Vatican for what he believes is an unforgivable denial of reality.
While he has not attacked the Catholic Church publicly before, he stated at a private seminar in the early 1990s, his belief that the Pope had been responsible "for more deaths than Hitler" through Vatican policy on contraception.
"Scientist blames Vatican dogma for AIDS pandemic (likens pope to Hitler)"
Somehow, I think Hitler would have found a cure for AIDS before it became a pandemic.
Using the facts provided by the CIA Factbook and Nationmaster.com there certainly is some correlation between Catholicism and AIDS rates, for example the following are countries followed by % of population with AIDS and Religious content:
US - 0.6% - RC 24% Prot 52%
UK - 0.2% - RC 8% Prot 63%
France - 0.4% - RC 88% Prot 2%
Italy - 0.5% - RC 95% Prot <1%
Spain - 0.7% - RC 94% <1%
Australia - 0.1% - RC 26.4% Prot 41%
China - 0.1% - 95% Daoist (Officially Atheist)
I have included only reasonably wealthy countries to ensure that each has a decent system of education and access to condoms. Most of the third world catholic countries support the above theory even more strongly, but are an unfair comparison due to low levels of education and poor condom availability. Now clearly there are many other factors affecting AIDS infection rates, but even with some exceptions there is a certainty of around 80% that a country with 25% or above Catholic population is will have more AIDS sufferers than a country with less than 25% Catholics.
It may be that lower condom use in catholic countries leads to higher AIDS populations, but I somehow doubt it. If someone was sufficiently strong in their belief not to use condoms, then one could safely presume that they would also be sufficiently devout to not practice sex outside marriage, thus with only one partner infection could not occur. Or am I being naive? I know many single catholics indulge in sex outside marriage, but do they use condoms or not? Would a single catholic feel better about himself having sex with a condom than without? Is unmarried sex without a condom less of a sin then unmarried sex with a condom?
The correlation between catholic population and AIDS percentage is clear, but the reasons why, certainly are not.
I seem to recall seeing something indicating AIDS actually goes UP with condom use. (False security brings on stupid behavior?)
Yeah, the abstinance-promoting Catholics caused AIDS. Not the sexaholic immoral, utterly evil Queer Mafia. Thats the ticket.
What a fecal mass this obnoxious fool is!
Not really. You should compare the Phillipines with a large RC population and relatively low AIDS rates, with those surrounding countries with small RC population and much higher AIDS rates. Your list shows nothing to suggest any correleation since comparing China to France is nonsensical. France, Italy, Spain are good reference points, but they need to be compared to other European countries that aren't as isolated as the UK but have lower RC populations.
The RC church's message is: abstinence. Since when is abstinence the cause of AIDS?
I now understand; the Pope says don't have sex outside of marriage. But some fellow says 'What does he know?" and does it. But then he thinks "the Pope says don't use a condom" and he says "Well, OK then; he's the Pope after all"
Pseudo-scientist and a good example of the antireligious dogma to be found among some halls of science.
The Catholic Church opposes homosexuality, sex outside of marraige, and birth control.
Homosexuals don't use birth control because they cannot get each other pregnant. As to why they continue to engage in high risk sexual activity (sometimes with anonymous partners, sometimes with known infected partners without condoms...) it is because they follow perverted desires and animal lust. "Don't crouch my style..."
The culture has been encouraging homosexaulity and hedonism (with Gay Pride parades in many cities around the world and school instruction).
The disease was politically protected unlike any other virus so it's spread was not tracked and contained.
The Pope is not to blame and I doubt that any endorsement of condoms (when people are raping infants) would stop the tide of new AIDS cases.
AIDS is caused by sharing body fluids, notably blood through shared needles and semen and other fluids during sex. Don't want AIDS? Be very cautious - gee, I might even say "conservative" - when you might are going to find yourself sharing fluids. For instance: don't use intravenous drugs. Don't be sexually promiscuous. Good, now your chances of getting AIDS are very, very small.
AIDS has really put the sexual liberation crowd into a mad frenzy trying to reconcile their ideology with the realities of biology. Sex with many partners increases your chances of disease. Wearing a condom while still doing the behavior that gets you the diseases seems kind of stupid to me. But then again, I haven't received a knighthood.
That's correct. The condom material is quite "porous" relative to the size of the virus. Condom Safe-Sex Theory Full of Holes
Clear as mud... Propaganda...
You can't be serious or you are seriously a charlatan.
If one wanted to measure the effect of Catholic dogma on the spread of HIV in a specific country, it would seem the to be rather an easy test. Measure the percentage of HIV infected Catholics versus the percentage of HIV infected non-Catholic population.
And be sure to correct for those putting the condoms on their needles, the efficacy is null.
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Catholics and Fundamentalists are to blame for the spread of AIDS? This man is a scientist? Agenda-driven beliefs can be awfully confusing, it seems.
There is one HUGE HUGE HUGE logical flaw in this argument. The Catholic Church also says no sex outside of marriage. If these people do not use condoms when they fornicate i.e. commit adultery, they are certainly not doing so because of Catholic scruples. This man is just a disingenuous anti-Catholic bigot.
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