And... Life Begins!

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 

and before you were born I consecrated you; 

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

-- Jeremiah 1:5

When does life begin?  Well, any intelligent person would assume that life has to be measurable and self-sustaining, like plants and animals.  But are we taking in all of the theological and philosophical arguments when we try to define when life begins?  As a spiritual, God fearing human, I would think we'd pay some modicum of attention to the killing of innocence.  Hell, even the National Right to Life Committee would seem willing to ignore the question of theology:

The question of when life begins is not an issue of theology or philosophy; it can easily be answered by elementary biology. For more than 100 years, medical science has known conclusively that every individual's life begins at the moment of fertilization.

-- National Right to Life Committee, "When Does Life Begin"

Okay, even a unicellular or single celled organism is considered to be alive.  On the first day of conception, when the sperm joins with ovum to form one cell smaller than a grain of salt, do we not consider this to be alive?  As small as it is, this cell already has 46 chromosomes and contains the genetic instructions needed for human development.  How does this differ from any other unicellular organism?  I would think the mere fact that it has the complex genetic blueprint in place and already working hard to make it more than what it is should give it priority status, above the other unicellular critters, in the definition for life.  So, let us assume it is alive.  But, is it self-aware and does it have a soul?

In 1637, René Descartes put forth a philosophical proposition which he later restated in his 1644, Principles of Philosophy: 

"While we thus reject all of which we can entertain the smallest doubt, and even imagine that it is false, we easily indeed suppose that there is neither God, nor sky, nor bodies, and that we ourselves even have neither hands nor feet, nor, finally, a body; but we cannot in the same way suppose that we are not while we doubt of the truth of these things; for there is a repugnance in conceiving that what thinks does not exist at the very time when it thinks. Accordingly, the knowledge, I think, therefore I am, is the first and most certain that occurs to one who philosophizes orderly."Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum" ("I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am").

Even in 1637, philosophers were already finding "repugnance in conceiving that what thinks does not exist at the very time when it thinks."  I'm thinking we can take a lesson from the Principles of Philosophy and consider that awareness and a soul exists the moment the brain turns on, which would be about 40 days into the pregnancy, or a little less than six weeks.  So we should feel perfectly at ease terminating the pregnancy before this time, right?

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

-- Psalm 127:3

I suppose it depends on your system of moral and ethical beliefs.  Personally, I'd hate to piss of the Creator and then have to answer for it while I'm making my argument for salvation.  Just saying.  But for those activists, and our fellow citizens with few, if any, moral or ethical backbone, it is easy for them to accommodate the murder of unborn innocence for a mistake due to their repeated lack of morality, the furthering of science... or the almighty buck.  It is interesting to follow the correlation of "money to be made" to the "definition of life" arguments.  It seems when new discoveries require the definition to be bent, the arguments reemerge as to the viability of cells concerned in the research of the day.

Personally, I have no problem with cloning if you keep the body alive artificially, and do not endow it with an operating brain.  As a matter of fact, best if a brain just isn't part of the mix.  If it is just a body, it is just a collection of duplicate cells.  Throw a brain into the mix and there is the remote possibility the brain may activate.   The minute that happens... viola!  There may exist the real possibility for thought, self-awareness,  and a soul?  But, what do I know?  The military in me plans for the unforeseen consequences of dumbass decision making that comes down the pike, usually from people with more education than good sense.

Regardless of argument, you simply can't murder a fetus in utero just to harvest research material.  How very Nazi of us.  How very Godless of us.  Anyone that says they have an excuse for abortion has no relationship with God, and no respect for life.  Chances are very good they are not religious, or spiritual, and if they say they are, they are the worst of hypocrites.

I can't help but come back to my favorite question, "Why?"  The mere fact we have this discussion to define life for the purpose of excusing murder is, in itself bothersome, ghoulish, perverse, and sociopathic.  Why would any civilized society consider a debate concerning when they are "allowed" to terminate unborn human life?  Why do we presume to speak for God on this?  Why do we think, even for a moment, that this is not an evil deserving of God's wrath?

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

-- Matthew 19:14  

 We live in a society where we no longer teach morality to our young women, nor do we teach respect to our young men.  Our society is all about getting what you can, having fun, and screwing till the cows come home.  Damn the little torpedoes, full speed ahead!  Don't worry about birth control; we'll simply abort the innocent fetus so we can harvest the cells.  After all, it isn't really life, right?

Why do we perpetrate such evil upon ourselves?  Logic dictates that evil cannot enter our house uninvited, so we must have given evil an open invitation to our wholesale slaughter of the children of God.  We defeated the Nazis, but we continue dabbling in the sick experiments of Josef Mengele and the doctors of the Japanese Unit 731.  We were abhorred at the experiments being conducted, yet, in both cases we gave the doctors a free pass as long as they came to work for us and brought all of their research with.  We have become the horrors of our own nightmares, and no better than the insanity we fought.

I have looked in the mirror; I have seen the reflection of evil, and wept for humanity.  When I think of what we are doing to ourselves I'm reminded of one of my favorite movie quotes spoken by Jack the Ripper to H.G. Wells in Time After Time (1979):

"On the contrary... I belong here completely and utterly.  I'm home. It's you who do not belong here.  You, with your absurd notions of a perfect and harmonious society.  Drivel.  The world has caught up and surpassed me.  Ninety years ago, I was a freak.  Today, I'm an amateur.  You go back.  The future isn't what you thought.  It's what I am."

How far we seem to have fallen from absurd notions of a perfect and harmonious society.  Our children take guns to school, murder other children for fun, and we're concerned about movie ratings.  Television offers a much wider range of violence and perversion than movies ever considered.  It seems, at times, like the movie industry struggles to even keep up with the horrors of our reality.  How boring is that, and how sad? 

Having said all this, what do we do about the "innocent" rape victim?  First, I think we need to determine our definition of innocence.  Are we discussing children raped in the safety of their own homes, or women attacked by someone breaking into their house, or those women some would say are just asking for it by not using any good sense?  Women have the right nowadays to dress and act provocatively, go to a bar and get hammered out of their minds around complete strangers, take rides from male "friends," and think, in some twisted reality, that this devil may care lifestyle affords them some ridiculous  expectation of not getting assaulted, raped, murdered, or all three.  Really?  Strike enough matches around gasoline and, sooner or later, you're going to get burned or blow yourself up.  Innocent?  How can you dress like bait and assume only the fish you're after will come in for a nibble?  Sooner or later a dark predator will attack without warning and strip the line.  We make choices and have to live with the consequences.  The consequence in this case is rape, and the probable unfortunate consequence of rape is pregnancy.  Is she innocent or just naive?  I guess civilized society can argue that while their deciding the fate of the innocent life growing inside of her.  

None of what I've said negates the fact that there are truly innocent victims; those that have consciously done nothing to incite evil in others and set themselves up for the unintended consequences of their actions. But, how do we make a determination of innocence when it comes to the victim? We need to stop giving free passes to those guilty of multiple offences. Should she have been raped? No. Was she innocent? Whether she was or not, should the innocent fetus be murdered for her naivety and stupidity, and how about the next time, and the next? How many free passes does an idiot get, and how many of her innocent fetuses have to pay the price at taxpayers' expense? In our society, the number is as arbitrary as our definition of life and morality. He rapes her and she gets to commit murder of a child? This seems inequitable to me. When you think about this legally, he'll do time for rape but will she get the electric chair for murder? Morally I suppose it comes down to whose crime is more offensive? Perhaps society needs to concern itself with asking honest questions and coming up with honest answers instead of fighting court battles splitting hairs to get a leg up on solid, concrete, morality.

"But killing innocent human life is a crime, and should be recognized as such in law. Vastly more people die in abortion, day after day, than in refugee camps or crossing the Mediterranean."

-- Robert Royal, "Proof of Life"

Aborting human life is aborting the future of humanity. How many saviors of humanity from its own stupidity have we murdered for no good reason? How many great artists and sculptors, doctors, physicists, heroes, scientists, philosophers, have we murdered? How many times has Christ tried to be reborn?

Just how many abortions are we discussing? Let's put all of this into some perspective. To begin with, I invite you to have a real eye opener and visit the U.S. Abortion Clock. Off the cuff, the U.S. performs over one million reported abortions each year (some states do not release their numbers). We are halfway through 2016 and the clock shows over 15 million abortions worldwide; 410,000 of that number were donated by the United States (This something to be proud of?).  Since 1980 mankind has murdered one and one-half billion babies (for those of you that live for numbers, it would more accurately read - 1,415,035,638 and counting). That averages out to about 55.5 million sanctioned murders of innocents per year, worldwide. That just about equals the total worldwide casualties, military and civilian, for World War Two, every year for the past 25.5 years.

Is it any wonder we come up with trite excuses like, “A fetus isn't a person until viability.” Almost sounds like the Nazi reasoning, "Jews are subhuman and not worth life." We are really no better than the butchers of Auschwitz, and if you think we are maybe it's time you pulled your head out of your ass.

Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, and instructor. He is founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance and author/editor of the Congregation's official blog site, "The Path," which offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination.