There's a wonderful introduction to the current "discussion" (or maybe the word "hysteria" would be better) about autism and vaccination in Mind Hacks (click here). One part of the discussion takes place in a new book called Autism's False Prophets, by Paul Offit. The book addresses the huge fearfulness that parents now have about vaccinations, and their complete disregard for scientific findings that repeatedly show that autism is not linked to vaccinations. Mind Hacks notes that there have been anti-vaccination scares for as long as there have been vaccinations, and it's clear that the current anti-vaccination lobby (actually, it's an entire culture) are another manifestation of today's anti-scientific craziness. There's a link in the article also to a recent series that BBC did about all this.

I thought it was important to write about this today, because I am realizing more and more that it simply isn't funny, or cute, any more to adopt an anti-science stance. Maybe it was cute in junior high school, or even in college, to pretend that science is beyond any realistic understanding, the province of hopeless nerds, and ultimately unimportant to real life... but it stops being cute when the leaders of government and industry (and sometimes even education) blithely dismiss the findings of genuine working scientists, and formulate their own opinions about reality, often based on what their Bibles tell them, or on how their pastors interpret said Bibles, or on what position will most benefit their bottom line, or just on whatever feels right to them at the moment. This crap has got to stop, or we are in real trouble; and this impending (oh well, it really isn't "impending" any more) world-wide environmental crisis has become all the more obviously dangerous, with emergence of the current Republican ticket, which features a vice-presidential candidate who openly scorns science, and who is applauded and admired for doing so. This Republican ticket is apparently running neck-and-neck with the Democratic ticket, and I find this utterly appalling.

If there really are any women out there who think it would be good to vote for McCain just because Hillary Clinton isn't on the Democratic ticket, who think that voting for a ticket that includes Sarah Palin is in any way a good idea because of her gender, then I have to say that I am begging you to open up your minds to what is really happening here. We simply cannot afford another pair of ignorant (or malevolent) cowboys in the White House, regardless of gender. The world is crying out for intelligent solutions to real problems, many of them of our own making. For a change, let's work together to bring some relief and healing into this world, and to all creatures, and all of creation.