George Bush, "Live Strong" Bracelet... (Page 3)

Well, that raises the question of why it is wrong to treat someone in that way.

The consesnsus in 1688 was that slavery was justified. The consensus in 1968 was that institutional racism was not justified. Was it the change in consesus that made it wrong?



Well it ain't easy, let me tell ya. At least the pro-life atheist Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice is a good ally.

I was staunchly pro-choice for many years. What changed things for me was taking a good hard scientific look at when life begins.

It's clear that human life (being biologically a human being) begins at conception. What's less clear is when human personhood (possesing things like unalienable rights) begins.

What I found was that I could not pinpoint, with one hundred percent certainty, when that was. The only point I could be absolutely sure about was in the moment precisely before conception.

It then seemed to me that when I made a claim that human life (personhood) began at birth, or human life (personhood) began at the development of the brain, I was making a claim akin to the theological claim of St. Thomas Aquinas who said that human life began at quickening.

In otherwords, I found that in making the claim that human life began at any point other than the moment of conception I was making a religious claim. It requires a leap of faith that is metaphysical and is not based in science or reason.

The only non-religious claim would be to hold that life begins no sooner than conception. I could still maintain that human life (personhood) never begins, claiming that we are merely biological organisms, but I could not maintain with certainty that it begins at a particular point after conception.








Edited by dontracy 2005-07-22 2:24 PM

...anytime someone puts "George Bush" (or for that matter "Liberal" or "Hillary Clinton" or "Karl Rove" or "conservative" or any other devisive person/term/issue) in a subject line, they're just itchin' for a fight.

Sorry but I will have to disagree I was not "itchin' for a fight". Been gone for a couple of days, and "wow" what happened!! Anyways, Thanks Hawkeye for the help.

My $.02:

If life begins at conception, should I actually have been able to start drinking when I was 20 and 3 months years old?