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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Our fault, dear Brutus ....
  • Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:28:29 -0700

Why, my good Watson, surely you've noticed that the people who hold steadfast to such research are those that lack a particular gene themselves. What gene you might ask, as an good inquisitive mind might. The most illusive gene of all, the common sense gene <g>

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- From: <sgian AT netscape.com>


Our fault, dear Butus, ...

... is not in our stars .. and it turns out not even in ourselves.

Not directly touching on homesteading perhaps, but several of our discussions in the past touched on this.

To the mechanistic view that the human being is an elaborate clockwork mechanism generated and determined by its genes, I have always opined that this all pervasive faith in genetics is much akin the medieval faith in astrology. As the more and more evidence comes in, turns out I haven't been far wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/health/research/13genome.html


The seminal passage in this article is:
"But with most diseases, the findings have explained only a small part of the risk of getting the disease. And many of the genetic variants linked to diseases, some scientists have begun to fear, could be statistical illusions."

The phrase "statistical illusion" is one that appears often in the writings that treat genetic research frankly.

The above linked article tries to soft sell the news by intimating that although the mapping of the human genome has yielded a plethora of insights only we haven't come up with any concrete cures based on them yet, it also includes reference to the studies that tried to predict disease based on genetic makup and found (as the article puts it) "variants turned out to have no value in forecasting disease."

The thing I discovered was this: when I discussed this article with 'genes explain everything' folks, the replies I got were "oh .. we don't see the connection between genetic makeup and disease (or behavior or wotnot) NOW ... but we WILL!" In the face of evidence that looking for a genetic etiology to explain the human condition it is getting more and more clear that it is not a matter of incomplete understanding but rather it is following a red herring, being on a rum start, barking up the wrong tree ... the true genetic believer brushes it off as if it is not germane to the discussion,

Just exactly like the religious fundamentalists ....


Meanwhile it is beginning to appear that astrology is indeed just about as good a predictor of disease and a guide to cures as genetics.



James

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