Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
Crouch: That’s right.
Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.
Crouch: Good word, good word.
If Real Life were more like Internet Forums then conservative commentators wouldn't be able to get away with breaking Godwin's Law all the time, but alas, we get statements like this and books like Liberal Fascism.
Of course, it is important to note that our modern Institutional Review Boards and our concept of research ethics are, in large part, a response to the horrors committed in the name of Science in concentration camps. Indeed, the Nuremberg Code was written in order keep such atrocities from ever happening again, and forms the backbone of all the various rules and regulations that people who are involved in human research must be versed in.
But if we're going to essentially call Charles Darwin a Nazi to invalidate evolutionary theory via reductio ad Hitlerum, then why don't we call Martin Luther a Nazi and dispose of all Protestants? Or maybe the fact that the Third Reich favored certain authors or ideas has no bearing on their legitimacy? Hmmm.
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