Comments on: All hail the partit tal-progressivi

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:28:57 +0000

Sybil:

The foetal stage begins at 9 weeks. An embryo at 4 weeks has no eyes, no brain and no heartbeat.

By: Sybil

Sybil — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:55:05 +0000

[Daphne – No, Sybil: not my opinion but fact. I work in communication, so if I describe a round-robin email that originated among America’s Christian Right as a smug and hackneyed modern-day parable that has been doing the rounds for ages, you can rest assured that this is exactly what it is. That it makes no sense at all is also a fact because it is irrational at root. That you can’t equate a real, live baby with a four-week foetus, or the mother’s emotional
response to it, is another fact. Many women don’t even ‘know’ they’re carrying a four-week-old foetus. As far as they’re concerned, their period is two weeks late. But try taking a woman’s baby away from her, and she will go at you with an axe.]

have you ever held in your palm a four week old naturally aborted foetus and spoken to the mother?

[Daphne – Sybil, are you serious? Gadzillions of women have ‘missed a period’, and most of them couldn’t be more thrilled when it’s back the next month. They don’t even think in terms of a foetus. The women you are talking about are those who are trying desperately for a baby, so of course, this kind of thing is a major disaster to them. It isn’t a major disaster to the rest, but rather the opposite.]

By: MikeC

MikeC — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:09:08 +0000

@lino

For a more comprehensive list of amswers to HP Baxters questions, I recommend the following:

http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

By: paceville

paceville — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:19:44 +0000

@ Kenneth Cassar “What, in your opinion, makes someone a human being?”

I would say that a human being is formed at about 2-3 years of age when self-awareness starts to creep in. Having said that the first traits develop in the ovum, about 30 years before conception, that is when the human “being” is first formed, however this being is not fuly developed till about 2-3years following birth. Having said that some humans , such as some autistic chldren, may never achieve self-awareness , and are therefore never fully-fledged human beings. Some monkeys are therfore more human than some people.

By: Manuel

Manuel — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:09:12 +0000

@ Corinne: Pro-choice as a term is a tragic joke, because it misrepresents a scenario where there really should be no choice other than to protect defenceless life in the womb, as one where it is is legitimate to consider other options……

By: Kenneth Cassar

Kenneth Cassar — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:45:14 +0000

@ Lino:

I hope you take this as rational debate with no intention to offend, but I would like to address a few of your replies to H.P.Baxxter.

If, as you say, faith is God’s gift, then you would probably have to believe that both believers and unbelievers can’t help being so. If God implants faith in someone, surely that someone cannot reject it, if one defines faith as belief in the unprovable. Belief is not something one chooses. Belief is the effect of one or more causes, some of which would be genetic, education, and for believers spiritual.

Regarding God speaking to you through the bible, this is not without its own problems. There are various contradictory texts which believers claim to be the word of God (Muslim, Hindu, Christian etc). This necessarily means that at least some of them are not truly the word of God, and one cannot outrightly reject the possibility that none of them are. As you would probably say, it is all a matter of faith (unprovable belief).

Regarding embryos being dust, of course they are not. However, if they were so, the world is neither just nor unjust. Nature is amoral and does not care about its individual parts.

By: Kenneth Cassar

Kenneth Cassar — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:26:35 +0000

@ Manuel:

“Kenneth I(s) sperm an individual human being distinct from its owner?”.

Sperm is as much an individual human being as a few cells one (or a few) day(s) after conception – not at all.

That was my whole point.

Let me ask you a question: What, in your opinion, makes someone a human being? Take your time before replying, since this question is loaded with implications.

By: lino

lino — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:09:05 +0000

@H.P. Baxxter
Did God ask permission? – What for? To create?
Does he need permission? – From whom?
Do I need God’s permission to believe in his existence? – Faith is God’s gift which only in one’s life one may opt to accept or refuse.
Did God ever speak to me? – The Bible
Who is God, what is God? – The acceptance of one’s humility
What God do you worship? – There’s only one God
Does God need me? – He does not need your love, He wants it
If he/she/it/feministcrap does not need me, then why was I put here? – One does not need his children; why does one procreate?
And where does it all end? In the womb, where it all began? Dust to dust? Is an embryo dust? – If it were so, it would be an absolutely unjust world.

Does one have to see to believe or believe that he might see?

By: Manuel

Manuel — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:47:14 +0000

@H.P.

I admire your sauce!

What has God got to do with the little sentence I wrote, and you are responding to? I never mentioned Him, Christ, the Bible or the Church.

My argument actually has to do with human rights: The human right – to life which every human being enjoys by virtue of his/her humanity.

3 examples of life? a plant, your dog and me slumbering on the sofa when I espy the curvaceous form of Catherine Zeta-Jones on telly.

@ Kenneth I sperm an individual human being distinct from its owner?

By: paceville

paceville — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:14:21 +0000

@Manuel “Life begins at conception. Incontestable”

Nonsense. life starts many years before conception. About thirty years in fact.