When the Homily is about Immunology

Honesty is an internal battle

This story actually hits very close to home because I personally know numerous people who were involved. It's actually very old news that has just come to light for reasons explained in the article.

One thing that struck me though is found int he last few paragraphs in which an attempt is made to answer the question: Why did he do it?

Publish or perish is rightly noted, but blaming recent cutbacks is a little strange, particularly given the fact that the dishonesty dated back to more than 10 years ago. It almost sounds as if he is preparing us to learn about more falsified data and that we should expect it because of the environment created by cutbacks. I suppose there is some political issues at play here, but in the end honesty is always an internal issue and no one and no situation can force you to lie. Hello? Freewill? Fund everyone and we've no need to worry about people falsifying data?

The temptation to dress up data is ALWAYS present, as is - for some - the temptation to outright falsify data. Dishonesty is not the result of a system failure, it is always a personal failure. ALWAYS.

I have told lies in my life, often to escape something (e.g. blame, people thinking poorly of me, responsibility, doing something I didn't want to do but did not feel comfortable saying so) and I could run in circles forever trying to show how I was "obliged" to speak an untruth; compelled by cultural or political forces beyond my control to obtain that to which I had a right.

Nowadays we seem to always want to solve problems of the soul by reforming or creating institutions. We live with the expectation of personal moral failure and seek to fix it by creating an environment in which we no longer need to do things like lie, cheat, or steal. It will never happen and we'll go on letting our souls rot.

My lies are my personal moral failures.