An Atheistic Examination of the Culture of Death
God the Abortionist - Fri, Dec 13, 2002
Time to take a break from controversy and discuss something fun and easy like abortion. The Raving Atheist finds the religious left's trivialization of the issue to be not only intellectually and morally irresponsible, but downright repugnant.
The first, central, and indispensable issue regarding abortion is whether the fetus is a person. Issues regarding the woman's "choice" or other such euphemisms need not, and cannot, be considered until the fetus' status is resolved. If the fetus is nothing more than a wart, tumor or similar aggregation of cells, there is no moral question involved. Nobody disputes a woman's right to remove the growth under those circumstances, and it would be silly to frame the debate in terms of "choice" if that were all that were involved. However, if the fetus is a person, then the woman's "choice" is restricted in the same way it would be were she considering the killing of any other person: an abortion would be permissible only if her life was endangered. Plenty of people place emotional and physical burdens upon our lives, often in excess of the nine months of the average pregnancy, but we do not get to kill them unless they are trying to kill us.
But the issue of personhood gets short shrift from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Consider one of the brochures offered on their website: "Abortion: Finding Your Own Truth" by Corrintha Rebecca Bennett. For Ms. Bennett, abortion is merely a matter of "expressing your spirituality." Indeed, she says, "[i]ncluding your spirituality in your decision-making can enrich and enhance this experience in your life . . . [m]aking a choice about your pregnancy can be a gift of learning and growth . . . [i]t is an invitation for you to develop a larger vision of yourself and to practice compassion and loving kindness toward yourself."
After noting that spirituality has many names (God, Greater Truth, Higher Power, Voice Within, Inner Light, Infinite Wisdom), she expresses her own preference for "Truth, or the voice of Truth" -- the name she's going to use for it in the various "exercises" she proposes for making the abortion decision. First, she announces, you must find the "voice of Truth" which "resides in a place within you that is wise and loving, and knows when you choose to honor it." It speaks to you from your "dreams, imagination and intuition" and through "physical reactions to thoughts, images and actions." She recommends that you close your eyes, relax and practice deep breathing, all the time "listening to your body and noticing its reaction." Other exercises include lighting a candle, dancing your feelings, drawing and painting.
Bennett does recommend that you consider certain questions during this trance, none of them having to do with the status of the fetus. Rather, you must "[l]isten to the wise and loving place inside you as you ask yourself these questions: What Truths do I live by? What is sacred in my life? What are my beliefs about life and death? What do I know to be true about myself? What are my beliefs about abortion? For what reason do I believe this pregnancy occurred? For what reasons would I consider abortion?" This drivel goes on for three pages before concluding with a little hint:
Rituals are important aids for expressing spirituality and can be used a bridges to connect with your Truth. If honoring your Truth means choosing abortion, you may want to say goodbye to the pregnancy and send the spirit of that life on its way with love.
Another brochure, "Clarifying What You Believe", offers similar theological meat. The uncredited author, who prefers the name "God" over "Truth," notes that "[y]our pregnancy may be a call to discover God's intention and love for you" and offers the following helpful advice:
Only you can decide what is right for you. God has given us the gift of free will and blesses decisions that are made prayerfully. Be assured that, no matter what you decide, you are a person who is loved and valued by God.
Que sera, sera. Any decision about anything is fine with God, as long as you pray a little. However, God does express a little preference now and then:
Contrary to popular belief, God does not will the beginning of all new life or that all pregnancies must continue. Consider that one out of every three pregnancies ends naturally in a miscarriage.
Consider also, I suppose, the number of children between the ages of one and ten whose lives end naturally from leukemia and other diseases. Infanticide, anyone? The biblical advice suffers from a similar slant:
It's also important to know that sincere people of faith interpret passages of the Bible differently and disagree about what's right. For instance, the Bible does not mention the word abortion. Yet some scholars interpret passages to mean abortion is not a sin, and other scholars interpret the same passages to mean abortion is a sin. No matter what you believe, do not be afraid that God will punish you for having an abortion.
No matter what you believe? What if you believe that God punishes sin, and that abortion is a sin? To further insure that you consider these weighty questions carefully and make the right choice (abortion) the brochure recommends that you talk to someone "non-judgmental" and "avoid those you feel will not be supportive."
The site offers other articles devoted to biblical and religious analysis, all containing logic of the same quality. One of them, "The Fetus Is Not a Person," actually concludes that "[t]he Bible is silent on the subject of abortion." Another, under the misleading heading "Personhood," again refers to natural spontaneous abortion and asks "[i]f every beginning is so precious that we may not choose to deny it birth, why does God make reproduction work this way?"
Elsewhere, the Coalition provides a long list of position statements from churches and other religious organizations which support abortion. Not one offers a serious discussion on the question of the personhood of the fetus; those that mention it at all dismiss it as an irrelevancy in view of the woman's "choice."
I sought refuge, to no avail, at the site of the atheistic Freedom from Religion Foundation. They promote a book, Abortion is a Blessing and, amazingly, offer the same biblical advice offered by the Coalition. The whole question of personhood ultimately gets trivialized like this:
Belief that 'a human being exists at conception' is a matter of faith, not fact. Legislating antiabortion faith would be as immoral and unAmerican as passing a law that all citizens must attend Catholic mass!
But whether the fetus is a person is a factual, not a religious question. Fetuses exist in this world, not in some imaginary heaven.
The religious right, of course, correctly identifies personhood as the central issue but analyzes it, again, as a question of God's will. Where is a good atheist to turn?
(Top) —Posted by: The Raving Atheist in Abortion · Permalink · 2 Comments
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The Raving Atheist » Comments on: God the Abortionist
If you woke up one day and found yourself, through miracles of modern medical technology, to be the life support system of another person, with various attendant inconveniences and risks but not including your impending death, you might reconsider whether you should be given a choice as to whether to remain in that state -- even if the situation came about through your own action but one that you had misestimated the result of.
Since your absolutist claim ``if the fetus is a person, then the woman's "choice" is restricted in the same way it would be were she considering the killing of any other person: an abortion would be permissible only if her life was endangered'' doesn't at all take into account the special physical circumstances, it isn't possible to credit you as a careful or honest thinker on this subject, especially when you carefully select straw(wo)men who do not represent the majority of those who consider themselves "pro-choice".
"Not one offers a serious discussion on the question of the personhood of the fetus"
The first link for a google search of personhood and abortion yields http://www.rcrc.org/religion/es3/es3.html
"Personhood, the Bible, and the Abortion Debate"
Any claim that that is not "serious" is absurd.
"whether the fetus is a person is a factual ... question"
No, it most certainly is not. As a matter of law, a fetus is not a person. As a matter of empirical science, the question isn't valid outside of sociology.
A clear discussion of the issue of personhood can be found at
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_when.htm
That page makes it clear how uninformed, silly, and downright intellectually dishonest the raver is when he writes "Fetuses exist in this world, not in some imaginary heaven." Of course they do, but this has absolutely nothing to do with the question of whether fetuses are persons, a question of subjective attribution.
[Edit] July 20, 2003
"honestly" is truly confused. sounds like more of the mish mashed bilgewater from the RCRC. a fetus is a living human being with a unique set of chromosomes and often posesses more ability than some human beings that live outside the womb. this is FACT. gestating children are what they are, not at all subject to your personal interpretation. you sound like one of the slavery-supporters of yesteryear insisting that african americans aren't human beings "because the law says so". grow a forebrain and read a jr. high science text. abortion ends the life of a living, growing human being. support it all you want, but for criminy's sake stop lying and fess up to what you're REALLY advocating. if you can't be honest about what you uphold, perhaps there's something amiss with your cause. sheesh. no wonder the atheist is raving.
[Edit] March 16, 2004
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