UnHerd Public intellectuals risk alienating religious believers.

Giles Frazer 

Last week, my bishop, the Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Revd Dr Karowei Dorgu, issued an unprecedented statement to the BAME community. He used to be a GP and hospital doctor, and is concerned by some fears that the Covid vaccine is secretly an attempt to wipe out the black race, or that it marks out patients with “666”, the sign of the beast. “Be wise, ignore the conspiracy theories, take the vaccine,” he pleaded.

He wasn’t alone. The Archdeacon of Croydon, the Ven Rosemary Mallett, then issued a similar statement: “I also hear that there are a number of people from black and minority ethnic communities who are finding themselves really worried about the vaccine… Please, please, get yourselves vaccinated.”

... As a priest with a black majority church in the same diocese, I am also making every effort to reassure people that the vaccine is safe.

It seems, however, that the same cannot be said of the very people whose jobs it is to promote the “public understanding of science”.

Continue reading @ UnHerd.

Sneering Scientists Won’t Win Over Anti-Vaxxers

UnHerd Public intellectuals risk alienating religious believers.

Giles Frazer 

Last week, my bishop, the Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Revd Dr Karowei Dorgu, issued an unprecedented statement to the BAME community. He used to be a GP and hospital doctor, and is concerned by some fears that the Covid vaccine is secretly an attempt to wipe out the black race, or that it marks out patients with “666”, the sign of the beast. “Be wise, ignore the conspiracy theories, take the vaccine,” he pleaded.

He wasn’t alone. The Archdeacon of Croydon, the Ven Rosemary Mallett, then issued a similar statement: “I also hear that there are a number of people from black and minority ethnic communities who are finding themselves really worried about the vaccine… Please, please, get yourselves vaccinated.”

... As a priest with a black majority church in the same diocese, I am also making every effort to reassure people that the vaccine is safe.

It seems, however, that the same cannot be said of the very people whose jobs it is to promote the “public understanding of science”.

Continue reading @ UnHerd.

1 comment:

  1. I often read Giles Frazer but this seems to be a broad brush attack on science that doubts the validity of religious claims rather than a serious attempt at explaining why some faith groups are hesitant about the vaccine.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with Professor Roberts claiming that the resurrection and virgin birth “all seems a bit … makey-uppy,” One does not need to be a scientist to think that.

    Intelligent Design is a joke science: by the admission of Dembski Intelligent design is just the "Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory." It was booted out of court in Dover about 15 years ago.

    And if it is the view of Brian Cox that physics rules out the existence of the soul, that is a statement of fact as he sees it, rather than a sneer at religion. Dawkins likewise is entitled to his arguable view that God is “a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, genocidal, phillicidal, pestilential, meglomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”.

    For those who feel the bible is a book of fishermen's folktales, there is nothing controversial about this.

    It is crucial that people take the vaccine but this is not a burning bush that religion can seek to hide behind and claim persecution.

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