Human Nature

I don't think I can top Jude's marathon postings from the weekend, so I'll keep it short. I wanted to point everyone to Human Nature in Slate. Lots of interesting bits of news today including circumcisions in Africa to prevent the spread of HIV and Tanning salons marketing to high school girls = tobacco industry. Here's something I think is encouraging for Catholics:

The Vatican is considering whether to condone condoms as AIDS prevention. The church opposes condoms as contraception and thinks promoting them to stop AIDS is counterproductive because it encourages promiscuity. But a leading moderate cardinal says the church should allow condoms within marriage when one spouse has HIV, and the pope has asked his health department to consider whether this might be acceptable as a lesser evil.

I don't have a problem with the Church refusing to allow condoms, but I do have a problem when the Church actively works to misinform the public about the risks of condom use as we have seen recently in Africa. We all know that the Church is slow to change, but maybe in the new century with more information available to more people more quickly, the Catholic Church will have an easier time adjusting to a changing society. Also this might aid Pope Benedict's image as he is usually seen as a hardline conservative.