Friday, November 21, 2003
BEWARE THE NEW ATLANTIS
Voice of God's Death Squad
I've blogged before about The New Atlantis, a relatively new journal devoted to the views of anti-progress bio-luddites. I spent a little while this morning looking into the background and other work of the editorial staff, and the result was sadly predictable: It's the religion, stupid.
The editor-in-chief is Eric Cohen. Cohen is supported by the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C. and the EPPC seems to be the main sponsoring organization for The New Atlantis. Although you'll find some nice things about "individual freedom and responsibility" in EPPC's description of itself, the important item in their "about" blurb is this:
The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) was established in 1976 to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues.
Five of eight items listed in the EPPC's "programs" section deal with religion in a positive way, basically exploring how religious "moral reasoning' can be injected into public life. Two of the four other editors who get a blurb at The New Atlantis get support (presumably financial support) from something called "Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy," which is an EPPC program. Major contributors to the first two issues of The New Atlantis are members of George Bush's stacked-deck Presidential Advisory Committee on Biotechnology, which was created to rationalize the religious/conservative ban on stem cell research that Bush's religious-right backers intended to legislate before the Committee was ever formed.
The New Atlantis aims to become the premier mouthpiece of a religiously-based retreat from technological progress. The high-minded "moral disgust" that lies at the foundation of this position is ultimately a death sentence for millions of people. Why? Because we're supposed to die, that's why. Who says? God, that's who. Now shut up and die.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 7:53 AM
