I generally like reading Athroize magazine, an on-line Furry rag.  In this  issue’  Kris Schnee  guest writing for the Down the Rabbit Hole column launches  on a tirade in  advocacy for science to create “anthro-people “.

 

  

Lux the Raccoon floated aboard the space colony, grinning. Since he’d stopped being human, his cybernetics let him in on everything that was going on. The interstellar expeditions, the terraforming, the gengineering that was curing the last major diseases and uplifting a dozen new species—he felt like he could understand it all.
   And then suddenly, it all went away…

   “Do you dream of a future with anthropomorphics in it? If so, your dreams are in danger. This community spins exotic visions of worlds that have never been, but some of them might become real in the future. Bringing some of those ideas to life is going to take more than wishes. We need wealth, science, and freedom to do that. All of those things are under assault. Unless this community is willing to help fight for the future it wants, it may well find that everything it hopes for is nothing but a fantasy.
   What’s this alert about? Consider the usual speculation about how anthro-people might one day get created. We would need genetic engineering, nanotechnology, cybernetics, or some other technology not yet imagined. But technology doesn’t pop into existence from nowhere. Realistically, it comes from some combination of entrepreneurs, scholars, and other people whose business it is to study reality. All branches of that coalition are under attack. From one direction is the easy target of religious extremism. In America there is an ongoing movement to replace science with fundamentalist Christianity, especially to get rid of evolutionary theory.” 1.

Essentially the argument is a Red herring Instead of giving evidence how Fundamentalist Christianity impedes science, he launches into attack of Intelligent Design and the Discovery Institute. Both have very little say about creating athro people.  Then he launches into a quasi objectivist argument for Capitalism. For the most part the average Christian Fundamentalist is ambivalent about genetic engineer except concern of destroying living embryos for stem cells or abortion.  Furthermore Genetic engineering and nanotechnology is in it infancy and my not even be feasible use to create or transform individuals into athros.

The Biggest problem is, the same science and technology the author thinks can produce  real furries can also prove it impossible. (Thanks to a good friend)

“Animal-human clones don't work, U.S. company finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers who tried to use mouse, cow and rabbit eggs to make human clones said on Monday the effort failed to produce workable embryos but added that they showed human cloning should work in principle.

 

Mixing human and animal cells does not appear to program the egg properly, said Dr. Robert Lanza of Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology.

Several teams have tried to make animal-human hybrids as a source of embryonic stem cells, the master cells of the body. Because human eggs are scarce — it requires a surgical procedure to get them from a woman — some scientists came up with the idea of using animal egg cells” 2.

The failure of the Advanced Cell Technology could even make the case for an integral concept of intelligent design: Irreducible complexity.   Behe defines it: A single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. (Darwin's Black Box p39 in the 2006 edition). In order to create ah Human-animal hybrid, the DNA sequence need to be changed by add and subtracting proteins. In the experiment the Removed Human nucleus is remove and place into an animal egg. The problem is by removing the human nucleus, certain genetic mechanism is left behind or the animal egg lacks the genetic mechanism to produce a viable human embryo.

Simply, religion is not MR. Schnee problem but like perpetual motion machines, turning lead into gold, real athro raccoons are a scientific impossibility.

 

 

1.  http://anthrozine.com/clmn/clm.geusz.15.html

2. http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5114RS20090202?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true

 

A little added note for the Discovery Institute teachers packet.

 

Should Public Schools Mandate Intelligent Design?

 

No. The priority of the ID movement has long been focused on

developing the theory of intelligent design through scientific

research, scientific publication, and other forms of scientific

discussion and does not seek to push ID into schools. In today’s

politically charged climate, attempts to mandate teaching about

intelligent design only politicize the theory and will hinder fair and

open discussion of the merits of the theory among scholars and

within the scientific community. Furthermore, most teachers at

the present time do not know enough about ID to teach about it

accurately and objectively.

 

So much for MR. Schnee’s argument.

All the time; I might go out with others perhaps once or twice a year.
The only restaurants I do not go out to alone are restaurants where the food is served communal style like Moroccan. I always take reading material with me.