Friday, April 27, 2007

'And That is a Scientific Fact!'

Came across some this in Lestienne's "The Creative Power of Chance", and thought it deserved to be shared:

"From the standpoint of individual variations, the "genetic distance" between two individuals chosen by chance from the same large human grouping is as great as that between two individuals taken from different racial groups. Let us not forget that racial differentiation is a fairly recent phenomenon, linked to the great migratory movements that took place during the last milion years. In fact, it is generally thought that it does not go back more than two hundred thousand years, and may even disappear again if, with a little goodwill, we can surmount what remains of our disdain for cultural differences."

I really hope people are able to really consider this and understand what it means for everyone.

And if that doesn't convince, then there's always the (perhaps now cliche) line a few paragraphs earlier:

"Each of us certainly has in our body several million molecules of the water that passed through Socrates' body (supposing that nature equitably recycles), and our bodies are made up of atoms, themselves recycled, that were forged some billions of years ago at the heart of a star."

And they say science takes away the wonder of life. Philistines!

Oh, and can anyone guess the film I'm quoting from with the title?

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