Tuesday, March 17, 2009

This just in...

OK, so the pope's new pronouncement, offered just today, is that condoms won't help Africa's AIDS crisis. Actually, this isn't new. They've been saying this for years.

The problem? It's just patently false.

This is one of those situations where ideology is trumped by stubborn little things called "facts." Like the facts from scientific studies that have been done showing the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of AIDS. Like the studies showing that educating people about effective contraception doesn't increase the rate of sexual activity, it only increases the rate of SAFE sexual activity.

So I suppose if you put aside that condom use prevents infections, deaths, and the further destabilizing of families and societies...then, sure, I guess you can argue on ideological grounds that condom use won't help the AIDS crisis. But if this were any other issue...or, better, if some grounds other than religion were to be used to make the argument...people would be referring the pope for psychiatric care.

THIS. IS. CRAZY.

No comments: