NewsWatch

Protesting DEI Emphasis in Medical Training

TheCollegeFix.com, 1/11/24, “Doctors protest proposed DEI emphasis in Canadian medical school training” [Excerpts]: A draft report from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada that recommends medical schools focus more on “anti-racism” and “oppression” is causing an uproar among many in the medical community.

The report calls for “de-centering medical expertise” in favor of topics such as “decolonization,” “social justice,” and “inclusive compassion.”

“By challenging the status quo and embracing courageous actions and bold leadership, we can build a healthcare system that actively combats systemic inequities and promotes social justice rather than further perpetuating systems of oppression,” the report states.

The proposal has alarmed a number of prominent physicians, academics, and medical organizations.

“I worry for the profession,” Dr. Roy Eappen, senior fellow with the medical watchdog group Do No Harm, told The College Fix when asked about the report.

“It will put less competent professionals who will care more about ideology than patient-centered care. It will lead to worse care for patients across Canada,” Eappen told The Fix.

(https://bit.ly/48UDX59)

What News Can Make Us Miss 

IntellectualTakeout.org, 1/11/24, “Imagined Virtue: What News Can Make Us Miss” [Excerpts]: The mere volume of news outlets, encompassing written resources, news channels, podcasts, and more, makes it clear: News is a major part of most Americans’ lives.

And while it might be easy to dismiss the onslaught of current events or snappy advice as insignificant or peripheral to who we are as a society, it might also indicate Americans’ growing apathy for the world immediately around them.

Think about it this way: In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis depicts an older demon, Screwtape, admonishing a younger demon, Wormwood, on how best to diminish their “patient’s” true virtue. Screwtape tells Wormwood to focus the patient’s mind on things not in his immediate realm of experience: “Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.”

We might consider the example of American colonial theologian Jonathan Edwards, who once resolved to “as far as [he could], be concerned about nothing but [his] duty and [his] sin.” The things that we most need to concern ourselves with are the things closest to home. Our “duty” is our own daily responsibilities—what we need to do—and our “sin”—that is, our shortcomings. Both are imminent, and neither requires flicking on the TV.

(https://bit.ly/3HEsBX3)

The Dating Game

Creation.com, 12/30/23, “The Dating Game” [Excerpts]: In western New South Wales, Australia, part of a semi-arid desert has been set aside as a World Heritage area. Evolutionists believe that the site represents an outstanding example of the major stages in man’s evolutionary history.

What made the find significant was the assigned date. Carbon-14 dating (see https://bit.ly/4bU6r0S) on bone apatite (the hard bone material) yielded an age of 19,000 years and on collagen (soft tissue) gave 24,700 years.

Then, in 1999, other scientists from the Australian National University published a new comprehensive study on the age of Mungo Man. Their conclusion? Mungo Man was 62,000 years old! Bowler and Magee described this 20,000-year stretch as “commendable in intent.”

There was just one small problem. The new date meant that the history of Australian occupation would have to be rewritten. Bowler said, “For this complex, laboratory-based dating to be successful, the data must be compatible with the external field evidence.” In other words, you don’t just accept a laboratory date without question. It’s not the last word on the age of something. You only accept the date if it agrees with what you already think it should be.

And that is what we have been saying all along. That is why we won’t accept any date that contradicts the eyewitness evidence of human history recorded in the Bible. Such contradictory dates can’t be right.

(https://bit.ly/42mPOq4)