Bryan Fischer
Response to Rick Warren on AIDS
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, author of the outstanding book, The Purpose Driven LIfe, accused me in a recently released statement of believing in "quack science" for expressing my agreement with one of the world's leading virologists, Peter Duesberg of UC Berkeley, that drugs and promiscuity, and not HIV, are the causes of AIDS.
In Duesberg's scientific judgment, HIV is harmless passenger virus. Literally millions of people, for instance, have HIV but do not have AIDS (does the name Magic Johnson ring a bell with anyone?) Killing off HIV thus wouldn't do thing one to slow down the spread of AIDS. According to Duesberg, it is the intensive drug use in the homosexual culture, particularly of inhalants such as alkyl nitrites, that is the culprit. We know for a dead certain fact what these drugs do to break down the immune system.
But people — apparently including Warren — want to find a solution that does not require anybody to reconsider their sexual behavior.
I might add that the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Kary Mullis, is in complete agreement with Deusberg that HIV does not cause AIDS.
If Pastor Warren, whom I greatly admire, wants to accuse one of the world's leading molecular biologists and a Nobel Prize winner of "quack science," he's welcome to it.
Warren says that "ONLY people with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) develop AIDS," and "HIV is the only cause of AIDS." But as Duesberg points out, this is a tautology. There are 27 different diseases that are part of the AIDS complex. If a patient has just one of these diseases, and has HIV, he's identified as a HIV/AIDS victim. If he has exactly the same disease but doesn't have HIV, then he's not. That's not science, that's a manufactured pre-conclusion in search of support.
If Warren took a class in elementary logic, he surely must remember that one of the classic logical fallacies is confusing association with causation. Convenient, especially when research money is entirely tied to maintaining the HIV hoax, but invalid.
It's worthy of note that Pastor Warren has been duped by another supposed scientific consensus, the one on the human causation of global warming. That hoax is being debunked virtually every single day, and former warmists are fleeing the ship like the crew of the Costa Concordia. Warren was wrong on the global warming scam, and he is wrong on the AIDS scam.
Warren correctly points out that "millions of lives are...at stake" and that an error regarding the cause of AIDS is "deadly." I couldn't agree more. That's why it's a travesty to see billions and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on trying to kill a harmless pathogen. This is money that could be spent on research that might actually help AIDS sufferers, research into rebuilding a weakened immune system. But alas, all that money is being chewed up chasing a harmless bug.
In fact, I would suggest that it is the folks who have been propagating this scam for almost three decades who are the ones in fact putting millions of additional lives at risk.
Warren knows for a fact that the only nation in Africa that has been able to dramatically reduce its AIDS rate is Uganda, which has done it by emphasizing abstinence before marriage and fidelity after. It makes perfect sense. If the cause is bad behavior, the cure is good behavior. Pastor Warren ought to be down with that, since that's exactly what the Scriptures teach.
If you want to solve the AIDS crisis, the solution is simple, and it's not found in a test tube. If you're a man, stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men, and don't shoot up. The beauty of that solution is that it doesn't require billions and billions of dollars.
But of course that's exactly why it'll never happen. It makes too much common sense, is too grounded in sexual morality, and would turn off the taxpayer-funded research tap. All that, of course, shouldn't be a problem for Pastor Warren but unfortunately appears to be.
Warren says, "It is frustrating — and frightening — for those of us in AIDS ministry to see someone like Dr. Duesberg play to people's bias and prejudices." But Duesberg is not playing to anyone's prejudices. He's just following the science of virology wherever it leads him. It is those who blindly rejecting good science who are perpetuating bias and prejudice.
"No one deserves this illness," adds Warren. This is confusing, because it seems to imply that getting AIDS is accidental and just happens to people who have no culpability. But then Warren immediately adds, "There are numerous ways to acquire the virus — sexual activity ...(and) dirty needles,"which clearly indicates that he understands that unbiblical behavioral patterns can in fact be responsible and people do in fact reap what they sow.
Warren concludes: "Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan teaches us that when you find someone bleeding on the side of the road, you don't say 'Was it your fault?' You just help them in love! Let's be very careful about what reality we deny; lives are at stake."
Agreed. Too many lives are at stake for us to live in denial about the cause of AIDS and the solution for it. The way we help the sufferers on the side of the road: enable them to stop self-destructive behaviors, and channel research dollars into learning how to rehabilitate the human immune system instead of neutralizing a harmless microbe.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
January 19, 2012
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, author of the outstanding book, The Purpose Driven LIfe, accused me in a recently released statement of believing in "quack science" for expressing my agreement with one of the world's leading virologists, Peter Duesberg of UC Berkeley, that drugs and promiscuity, and not HIV, are the causes of AIDS.
In Duesberg's scientific judgment, HIV is harmless passenger virus. Literally millions of people, for instance, have HIV but do not have AIDS (does the name Magic Johnson ring a bell with anyone?) Killing off HIV thus wouldn't do thing one to slow down the spread of AIDS. According to Duesberg, it is the intensive drug use in the homosexual culture, particularly of inhalants such as alkyl nitrites, that is the culprit. We know for a dead certain fact what these drugs do to break down the immune system.
But people — apparently including Warren — want to find a solution that does not require anybody to reconsider their sexual behavior.
I might add that the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Kary Mullis, is in complete agreement with Deusberg that HIV does not cause AIDS.
If Pastor Warren, whom I greatly admire, wants to accuse one of the world's leading molecular biologists and a Nobel Prize winner of "quack science," he's welcome to it.
Warren says that "ONLY people with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) develop AIDS," and "HIV is the only cause of AIDS." But as Duesberg points out, this is a tautology. There are 27 different diseases that are part of the AIDS complex. If a patient has just one of these diseases, and has HIV, he's identified as a HIV/AIDS victim. If he has exactly the same disease but doesn't have HIV, then he's not. That's not science, that's a manufactured pre-conclusion in search of support.
If Warren took a class in elementary logic, he surely must remember that one of the classic logical fallacies is confusing association with causation. Convenient, especially when research money is entirely tied to maintaining the HIV hoax, but invalid.
It's worthy of note that Pastor Warren has been duped by another supposed scientific consensus, the one on the human causation of global warming. That hoax is being debunked virtually every single day, and former warmists are fleeing the ship like the crew of the Costa Concordia. Warren was wrong on the global warming scam, and he is wrong on the AIDS scam.
Warren correctly points out that "millions of lives are...at stake" and that an error regarding the cause of AIDS is "deadly." I couldn't agree more. That's why it's a travesty to see billions and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on trying to kill a harmless pathogen. This is money that could be spent on research that might actually help AIDS sufferers, research into rebuilding a weakened immune system. But alas, all that money is being chewed up chasing a harmless bug.
In fact, I would suggest that it is the folks who have been propagating this scam for almost three decades who are the ones in fact putting millions of additional lives at risk.
Warren knows for a fact that the only nation in Africa that has been able to dramatically reduce its AIDS rate is Uganda, which has done it by emphasizing abstinence before marriage and fidelity after. It makes perfect sense. If the cause is bad behavior, the cure is good behavior. Pastor Warren ought to be down with that, since that's exactly what the Scriptures teach.
If you want to solve the AIDS crisis, the solution is simple, and it's not found in a test tube. If you're a man, stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men, and don't shoot up. The beauty of that solution is that it doesn't require billions and billions of dollars.
But of course that's exactly why it'll never happen. It makes too much common sense, is too grounded in sexual morality, and would turn off the taxpayer-funded research tap. All that, of course, shouldn't be a problem for Pastor Warren but unfortunately appears to be.
Warren says, "It is frustrating — and frightening — for those of us in AIDS ministry to see someone like Dr. Duesberg play to people's bias and prejudices." But Duesberg is not playing to anyone's prejudices. He's just following the science of virology wherever it leads him. It is those who blindly rejecting good science who are perpetuating bias and prejudice.
"No one deserves this illness," adds Warren. This is confusing, because it seems to imply that getting AIDS is accidental and just happens to people who have no culpability. But then Warren immediately adds, "There are numerous ways to acquire the virus — sexual activity ...(and) dirty needles,"which clearly indicates that he understands that unbiblical behavioral patterns can in fact be responsible and people do in fact reap what they sow.
Warren concludes: "Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan teaches us that when you find someone bleeding on the side of the road, you don't say 'Was it your fault?' You just help them in love! Let's be very careful about what reality we deny; lives are at stake."
Agreed. Too many lives are at stake for us to live in denial about the cause of AIDS and the solution for it. The way we help the sufferers on the side of the road: enable them to stop self-destructive behaviors, and channel research dollars into learning how to rehabilitate the human immune system instead of neutralizing a harmless microbe.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
