I'm quite ready to say that promoting abstention from vaccination because it causes autism is wrong. There is no scientific evidence for such a claim. And, if you read The Ethics of Belief, you will find that my view is completely at odds with the position of the church - I do not recognize "faith" as a legitimate basis for believing something.
I'm not really sure where you are going with a statement like "Who's to say her ideas are wrong?". It sounds like moral relativism, but I don't want to assume that is what you intended unless you explicitly say so. I assume you agree that people can have ideas that are wrong (e.g., 2+2=5, "the world is flat", etc.), and that other people are justified in pointing out that those ideas are wrong. If my assumption is correct, then you are either saying that these particular ideas are not wrong, or you are saying they are wrong but that Jenny McCarthy and Oprah should not be held culpable for promoting them. I'll assume the latter.
To be clear, I am not saying people should refrain from making any statement unless it is universally agreed upon. I'm saying that before believing something (and trying to spread that belief to others), we have a duty to investigate our beliefs and subject them scientific scrutiny. Failure to discharge that duty injures society. Given the lack of scientific evidence of a link between vaccination and autism, one must conclude that Jenny McCarthy (and by extension, Oprah) has either failed to subject her beliefs to such scrutiny, or willfully ignores evidence to the contrary. In my opinion, this does constitute some degree of culpability.
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I'm quite ready to say that promoting abstention from vaccination because it causes autism is wrong. There is no scientific evidence for such a claim. And, if you read The Ethics of Belief, you will find that my view is completely at odds with the position of the church - I do not recognize "faith" as a legitimate basis for believing something.
I'm not really sure where you are going with a statement like "Who's to say her ideas are wrong?". It sounds like moral relativism, but I don't want to assume that is what you intended unless you explicitly say so. I assume you agree that people can have ideas that are wrong (e.g., 2+2=5, "the world is flat", etc.), and that other people are justified in pointing out that those ideas are wrong. If my assumption is correct, then you are either saying that these particular ideas are not wrong, or you are saying they are wrong but that Jenny McCarthy and Oprah should not be held culpable for promoting them. I'll assume the latter.
To be clear, I am not saying people should refrain from making any statement unless it is universally agreed upon. I'm saying that before believing something (and trying to spread that belief to others), we have a duty to investigate our beliefs and subject them scientific scrutiny. Failure to discharge that duty injures society. Given the lack of scientific evidence of a link between vaccination and autism, one must conclude that Jenny McCarthy (and by extension, Oprah) has either failed to subject her beliefs to such scrutiny, or willfully ignores evidence to the contrary. In my opinion, this does constitute some degree of culpability.