Fox’s Minority Report has lost its collective mind. On Monday night, in an episode called “Memento Mori,” MR attempted to blame the Church for thousands of years of scientific and medical darkness.
In this scene, a Senator is attempting to assuage the worries and concerns of religious “extremists,” as her bodyguard calls them, over her plan to cure children of diseases in the womb. Except she does it by essentially blaming the faith the “extremists” believe in for destroying scientific progress:
Senator: Thank you all for coming. As many of you know, I am a religious person. And my church's position has always been that life is sacred. For hundreds of years, from Galileo to Ventner, this meant opposing science. But I'm proud to say that in recent years, the church has come to see just how much science can do to safeguard life and eliminate suffering for the weakest among us. And now I'd like for you to meet my heroes. Each of them is suffering from a genetic illness that this bill would eliminate.
Really? The Church’s commitment to the sanctity of life meant opposition to science? Is that why the Roman Catholic Church is the largest nongovernment health care provider in the world? Because preserving life has nothing to do with science?
Nor, is this anything “recent.” Contrary to what our hypothetical and highly misled Senator says about the church opposing science from “Galileo to Ventner,” it was the church that laid the foundation for much of the scientific medical theory that she so smugly lauds.
It was an Augustinian named Gregor Mendel who developed theories on genetics. It was a Jesuit named Athanasius Kircher who discovered through examining the blood of plague victims, that microorganisms were responsible for the disease. And it was Michelangelo who greatly expanded the knowledge of anatomy, through sketching cadavers.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
So no, you do not get to sit there and pretend that the Catholic Church kept the secrets to ending the suffering of children locked away for millennia because of superstitious hocus pocus while people died, when in fact the Church has saved, and is continuing to save, far more people than have ever been saved by governments who run often failing universal healthcare cabals. Or, by television shows with extremely bad acting.
But nice try.
