Rael: Switzerland deserves the Guiness record for stupidity


27 Apr, 2008
 None    Philosophy

for its law about plant dignity


L "Switzerland will forever be privileged in having reached new 'Himalayan heights' in stupidity.” declared Rael, leader of the Raelian Movement, after reading Alison Abbott’s article published in the April 23rd edition of Nature regarding the Swiss ethics-committee guidelines that allegedly preserves the dignity of plants.

As unbelievable as it may sound, the Swiss federal government's ethics committee on non-human biotechnology has mapped out guidelines to help granting agencies decide which research applications deeply offend the dignity of plants. All plant biotechnology grant applications must therefore include a paragraph explaining the extent to which plant dignity is considered.

“After the Swiss banks' decades of harboring and investing money that was stolen from the Jews by the Nazis; after their terrible discrimination against religious minorities, and a court acquitting a public bar that had refused to serve a drink to a customer only because he was Raelian, Switzerland now reaches Guinness book record levels with this law about plant dignity.”

According to Abbot, the committee said that genetic modification which caused plants to 'lose their independence' would be rejected, especially when interfering with their capacity to reproduce.

Rael commented: “Is it not disrespecting the dignity of grape vines to spray them continuously with toxic chemicals, or use only cloned vines, in order to produce wine? If so, it should be the end of Swiss wines.”

He added: “Is it not disrespecting the dignity of fish to catch them in Geneva lake? If so, it is also the end of Swiss perch fillets. If they follow this logic, they should also study if the dignity of cows is respected when they milk them and use it to make Swiss cheese. Is it not disrespectful of the dignity of women if we were to milk them without their consent and use their milk to make cheese? If it applies to women it should also apply to cows. In this case, it is the end of Swiss cheese and fondue.”

Rael concluded: “ Most of all, isn't it a terrible lack of respect for the dignity of the population to have such "ethicist" politicians making such stupid decisions... if so, these "ethical committees" should all be disbanded immediately.”

Raelians of the world consider as their mission to denounce all these "Ethical decisions" which are simply the last-gasp attempts by deist conservatives and orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism, through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and new technologies. Switzerland has become one of the leading countries in that domain and it is thus no surprise to witness severe lack of respect in Switzerland towards religious minorities like the Raelian Movement for which Science is a Religion.