Intelligent Design support letter to the editor

[fuelair]

The following letter to the editor appeared today in the Orlando Sentinel. At first, I was thinking "Another----------- idiot" and then..... Enjoy!!!:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/orl-le06_308jan06,0,1896306,print.story

 

[sophia8]

Nice one!

 

[articulett]

He forgot to mention Ebola...

The oversight is forgivable--

 

[fuelair]

Thought y'all would find it interesting!!

 

[maddog]

Sweet!

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Marvelous! I have saved that in my favs.

~~ Paul

 

[Spindrift]

I'll bet there are a lot of people who will totally miss the point.

 

[Tearout]

... No, my friends, we must stop this senseless slaughter of the good Lord's handiwork, and instead, honor and venerate them.

So then if a creationist develops a serious illness, cancer for instance, no attempt at medical intervention should be undertaken.

 

[fuelair]

I am totally down with that!!

 

[JoeEllison]

Awesome!!!

 

[rjh01]

There are certain people who would agree with that writer. They hold that all life is sacred. I doubt if the author is one of those.

 

[Jeff Corey]

Every sperm is sacred http://video.google/videoplay?docid=9002085385040727366

 

[Furi]

and a little more Python

All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.

Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom,
He made their horrid wings.

All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.

Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid,
Who made the spikey urchin,
Who made the sharks, He did.

All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.

AMEN.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

I liked it, but he gets a 1 point deduction for using cancer cells as a "lifeform".

 

[RobRoy]

So then if a creationist develops a serious illness, cancer for instance, no attempt at medical intervention should be undertaken.

Isn't that what the somewhat misnamed Christian Science church holds? Also, I believe, Jehovah's Witnesses have a less-drastic version of this concept.

The original letter is a nice work of irony. Unfortunate only that the author didn't delve further and deeper to draw some more outrageous conclusions.

 

[shadron]

I liked it, but he gets a 1 point deduction for using cancer cells as a "lifeform".

Ummmmmm, well, there is a strain of human cervical cancer cells calls "HeLa" (after the original donor, Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951. It is indeed a life form pretty much on its own. The existing mass of such cells now far outweighs it's original donor. It grows ferociously and without end in the lab. It couldn't live, likely, without help, but then again...

"Reporter Smith continued, "In the half-century since Henrietta Lacks' death, her ... cells ... have continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits". HeLa was used to test human sensitivity to tape, glue cosmetics, and many other products."
--Wikipedia, "HeLa".

 

[Wowbagger]

Someone, please write in a refutation!! Here, I'll give you the opening line: "Mr. Elgison: I find it rather preposterous that you think the kind, and loving God would Create such misery, when you know perfectly well, that it is all part of an atheist plot to destroy all life on Earth!!!!!!1111!!!!!!one!!"

 

[ebola]

He forgot to mention Ebola...

Somebody call?

Eric

 

[fuelair]

Ummmmmm, well, there is a strain of human cervical cancer cells calls "HeLa" (after the original donor, Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951. It is indeed a life form pretty much on its own. The existing mass of such cells now far outweighs it's original donor. It grows ferociously and without end in the lab. It couldn't live, likely, without help, but then again...

"Reporter Smith continued, "In the half-century since Henrietta Lacks' death, her ... cells ... have continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits". HeLa was used to test human sensitivity to tape, glue cosmetics, and many other products."
--Wikipedia, "HeLa".

But the help it needs is miniscule - move it somewhere and open it's container is pretty much it. Key point : her cells were used to test lots of things - but extremely often the experimenters thought they were using other lines from other body parts WHICH THE HeLa cells HAD TAKEN OVER!!

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Ummmmmm, well, there is a strain of human cervical cancer cells calls "HeLa" (after the original donor, Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951. It is indeed a life form pretty much on its own. The existing mass of such cells now far outweighs it's original donor. It grows ferociously and without end in the lab. It couldn't live, likely, without help, but then again...

"Reporter Smith continued, "In the half-century since Henrietta Lacks' death, her ... cells ... have continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits". HeLa was used to test human sensitivity to tape, glue cosmetics, and many other products."
--Wikipedia, "HeLa".

Leaving viruses aside for a moment, does it exhibit the common characteristics of life? And are there any Pubmed articles that call HeLa a lifeform? (one will suffice for me to retract )