THE difference was stark. Asked at what point human rights should be assigned, John McCain replied with confidence: “At the moment of conception.” When pastor Rick Warren put the same question to Barack Obama last month, in a live broadcast from Warren’s Californian megachurch, the Democrat presidential hopeful was less concise. “Well, you know, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade,” Obama said.
It is easy to sympathise with Obama. Many scientists and religious leaders say that it…
