Open Discussion Quotes
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
As one of the few working scientists on the commission she provided much of the information on current science and unmasked some of the “junk science” that was presented by the committee staff. When the commission was asked to vote on a ban on all cloning including prohibiting stem cell research in conformity to President George W. Bush’s position, she led a majority voting against the ban. To salvage the situation, the Chairman then modified the proposed resolution to call for a 4 year moratorium on such research and get a narrow majority. Shortly thereafter Blackburn and two others who had had different views from the President were fired by the White House and replaced by three members whose views leaned in the opposite direction. See Commission Chairman Kass {611735} for the views that were acceptable to the White House.
Unfortunately, much modern Islamic philosophy and religion sees new knowledge and innovation of ideas as heresy per se. However, this was not at all true at the beginning of Islam. This narrow-mindedness and intolerance began to develop in 1100, hundreds of years after Mohammad. Contrast Abu Hanifa with an Islamic modern fundamentalist who claims there can be no valid new knowledge: {620307}. This jurist is more typical of most Muslim judges and legal experts, than the fundamentalists who tend to promote their believes more vigorously and get much more media coverage—including in this collection of quotations—simply because the are so violent and such a danger.
