All of the talk in the pro/con-abortion threads is talking about; “When is it murder?” “When is it a being?”
From what I am reading, it seems that everyone is assuming that human existence, on this plane of reality, is the Ultimate.
I humbly wonder if anyone has considered that there is more than this petty little existence?
Maybe we are the lowest form of life out there, with tunnel vision, egocentricity and only a feeble, tenuous connection with the Godhead.
Doesn’t anyone believe that there are cases when it would be better for fetal tissue (or a baby, depending on what side you’re on) to die than be born into a life of abuse, poverty and neglect?
What is so bad about death? We fear it because we are attached to our egos and our bodies in the way that an infant is attached to its security blanket. We cannot concieve that any existence other than ours has any worth or could bring fulfilment. We choose to fear the unknown, rather than trying to embrace what could be a glorious transformation.
And even if there is nothing but oblivion after death, why fear what we are helpless to change?
The whole “Abortion Debate” is, in my opinion, ruled by opinion only, which may be why I’ve never been able to make any conclusion about it for or against.
My whole position is this: Abortion is gonna happen. I wish it didn’t, I wish there wasn’t anyone that wanted to get an abortion, but the reality is that there are going to be women (young and old) who will be unwilling to go through with a pregnancy, and it’s better to allow them to do this in a professional, clean, official environment, rather than forcing them to revert to shoving red-hot coat hangers up their vaginal orifice.
It’s just one opinion versus another, and I find it staggering that some people justify violence and hatred (abortion clinic bombings, anyone?) from an opinion.
I don’t think it’s pompous at all to debate things in the only context that we know of. We must govern ourselves as if this plane of existence is all that matters, because as far as we can tell, it is. You could use the same bizarre logic to rationalize anything.
Is it wrong to drop a nuclear bomb on Mecca in the midst of the Haj, since according to their religion, they’ll go to heaven? Etc.
The question of abortion is about laws that pertain to us in this universe. Speculation about unknowable events before and after life is not something that can possibly be considered in the debate. The focus of our laws is to make this life bearable for society. It would be incredibly dumb to try to take into account the entire span of a soul’s existence.
Besides, as an atheist, I believe unreservedly that this is the only life that each of us will ever have.
Is any debate about abortion pompous?
No.
It is polarizing.