Thursday, September 3, 2015

Oh, for G-d's sake!

Michael L.

I cannot seem to get away from this Matisyahu tune.



Think of it as an open thread.

5 comments:

  1. btw, I had to make a medical appointment today and the clerk asked for my "race."

    I find it remarkable that at a medical office, a place of science, that they would ask for my "race."

    I am pretty sure that the field of biology - which is the field of science that gave us medical science - does not recognize "race" as a human category.

    If I drove down to Palo Alto and marched onto Stanford University and wandered into their Department of Biology and asked to speak to their foremost expert on human "races" they would laugh me out of the building.

    There are biological human differences, but there is no such concept as race within contemporary human sciences and I let her know that.

    Heck, I am a humanist, not a scientist. If you have a problem, go argue with them.

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    Replies
    1. In our corporate wellness nonsense there's a very long 'voluntary' questionnaire. At one point it specifically asks if you are Asian. Not clear on why other than the questions before and after have something to do with diabetes. I did not know Asians are susceptible to diabetes. I suspect they are not but since the entire exercise seems suspect, who knows why they do it.

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    2. People in the UK who come from an Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi background have about a 4/6 times greater incidence of diabetes 2 than the general population.
      It's probably to do with that susceptibility.

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    3. There is NO basis for racism in biology. There is, however, an ongoing debate around biology and race. It is associated with genealogy. It is about evolution and minor adaptations. It helps us understand the story of the human race.
      Social sciences have a theory that must not be allowed to be challenged. That is the death of academic enquiry. And of hard science. It is the job of science to tell us what the world is made up of, not to politicize their evidence.
      Unfortunately, the social sciences which have dominated the academy for many decades have not been open to evidence that they believe is politically dangerous.
      There is, in fact, nothing dangerous about what some biologists are finding.
      But this will go on and on because the politics of the social sciences will ensure that that is so.
      The same social sciences tell us that gender is entirely a social construct.
      They are not correct about that.

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  2. As their are certain genetic traits associated with race that make people predisposed to getting certain diseases, I think for a medical examination it IS a valid question.

    If you were getting say a drivers license or such I would agree with your point about the race question

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