Some of Britain’s leading scientists have called on the government to grant a posthumous pardon to Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing. Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 after acknowledging a sexual relationship with a man. Professor Stephen Hawking, Astronomer Royal Lord Rees and the Royal Society’s Sir Paul Nurse are among 11 signatories to a letter in the Daily Telegraph. They urge David Cameron to “formally forgive this British hero”. [1]
The government of England (the former… United “Kingdom”) has already rejected another call to pardon Turing in February, when it was presented with an online petition with more than 23,000 signatures.
The “progressive” (atheistic?) England has a hard time forgiving. But when Dawkins shouted for the hypocrisy or the uselessness of Pope’s move to acquitte Galileo, many people nodded in agreement. You see, it is easy to criticize others for their mistakes (even though the Galileo case is not 100% the fault of the church – see here or here for a more detailed analysis). But it is very hard to acknowledge your own…
No matter how much science progresses, it will never reach the culmination of humanistic philosophy reached by Christianism with the “Forgive thy enemy” advice.
We all have a personal “Turing” we must pardon…
