Two scientists and two nominations

President Obama has nominated Francis Collins to be director of the National Institute of Health. Collins led the project to sequence human DNA. He is an outspoken evangelical, though he is also a theistic evolutionist. Click the link for an interesting discussion of his ideas and the controversy he elicits from all sides.

Then again, President Obama’s nomination for the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, John Holdren, has written a book, entitled Ecoscience back in 1977, in which he argues for the following:

— Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
— The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;
— Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;

— People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
— A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.

Mollie Hemingway, to whom I am indebted for this information, asks, after some very interesting discussion, why is the media presenting Francis Collins as a controversial pick for being an evangelical Christian (though one who is pro-evolution, pro-stem cell research, and pro-abortion) but not John Holdren?