Human Zygote
Is this cluster of undifferentiated cells a human person?
And if a believer holds that it is a person, does that individual have the right to squelch contrary views?
Thanks for your email.
Unlike Kim Davis, Thomas More was not clinging to a government job whose description contradicted "The Will of God."
Sir Thomas would have advised Her Preciousness to do The Lord's Will by quitting her government job rather than squirming to have her cake and eat it too.
Sir Thomas would have advised Her Preciousness to do The Lord's Will by quitting her government job rather than squirming to have her cake and eat it too.
King Henry VIII's one-time counselor was the target of royal wrath because he opposed the king's imposition of a religious loyalty oath, not because he was loathe to quit the king's service.
***
In your email you also wonder why there is so little conservative resistance to gay marriage...
In recent years I've become increasingly aware that conservatives are innately fearful people and that are chiefly afraid of "any change the future brings." So they "cling to the past" as an "autonomic" reaction.
But with the passage of time, even conservatives grow accustomed to what was once anathema.
Shall we marvel more at their stupidity or the irony?
Shall we marvel more at their stupidity or the irony?
George McGovern: "The Case For Liberalism, A Defense Of The Future Against The Past"
There are abundant examples of conservatives transiting from freaked-out-resistance to "unthinking acceptance" but for now I direct your attention to the development of the conservative view of government regulation as it applied to the recent transition from incandescent light bulbs to CFLs (and, more recently, L.E.D.s).
At first, conservatives were outraged by the regulatory "boot" of government and - diving into customary hysteria - they rushed to stockpile incandescent bulbs.
Incandescent Bulb Phase-Out?
Not Without A Fight
New York Times
Now - just three years later - you would be hard-pressed to find ANYONE who considers CFLs a hotly-contended political issue.
Remember Conservatives' Freakout Over Incandescent Light Bulb Ban: Now, Nobody Cares
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/01/remember-conservatives-freakout-over.html
Or consider conservatives' centuries' old migration from staunch opposition to usury to the current (capitalist-derived) assumption that usury is as normal (and necessary) as breathing.
Greed Is Good: A Dangerous 300 Year History Of The Idea That Greed Is Good
(The Role Of Usury)
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Faulty Risk Assessment And The Epidemic Spread Of Self-Terrorization
In the case of same-sex marriage, "the future" began to take shape so far in advance of "ratification" that by the time "the future arrived," almost everyone -- particularly young people -- already enjoyed numerous normal relationships with openly gay people so that resistance to this "now known quantity" (as opposed to "the closeted horror" that same-sex relationship had recently seemed) suddenly disappeared: any approach other than ratification suddenly seemed silly, fruitless and a frank insult to human dignity.
On the other hand, the life-and-death issue of abortion is a matter which (I think) people should not cavalierly normalize.
That said, I also believe abortion can be the lesser of two evils and, in our particular democracy, it must be acknowledged as "the law of the land" even if some people seek proscription by amendment or Supreme Court ruling.
That said, I also believe abortion can be the lesser of two evils and, in our particular democracy, it must be acknowledged as "the law of the land" even if some people seek proscription by amendment or Supreme Court ruling.
Notably, I am unaware of any attempt to amend the constitution, a surprising circumstance which tells me that "pro-lifers" themselves realize that the abolition of legal abortion is a political non-starter and a waste of time that not pisses into the wind but pisses vertically against the torrent of Niagara Falls.
Frustrated that abortion is now "settled law," conservatives have an understandable need to de-repress the anger that attends frustration and, predictably, they are now always uncivil, often belligerent and sometimes murderous.
Although the following "slogan" is gross oversimplification, it is still true that "if you don't want an abortion, don't get one."
That said, "any" conservative whose 12 year old daughter (or grand-daughter" were rape-impregnated by Willie Horton) would demand abortion not only as a right but as a sacrament. (God forbid this ever happen to The Thinking Housewife...)
Here's the nub...
Once an exception is made for ANY abortion, it becomes clear that reasonable people-of-conscience can "place the moral bar" pretty much where they want so long as it's on "dark side" of the birth canal.
Compendium Of Pax Posts On Abortion
Pax tecum
Alan
Alan
On Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
What is the difference between Thomas More and Kim West? In both cases it was marriage law, by the way.Comes Kim West, the Kentucky clerk, who said she answered to a higher power and could not sign the license application. But she makes a pathetic dramatic figure. And having Mike Huckabee as her promoter didn't help.1. The right wing is very strong and adamantly against abortion, showing new vigor and determination, yet they say nothing about the court decision on gay marriage --- Why the growing hostility toward abortion and giving only a cursory condemnation of same sex marriage?2. Thomas More would not do the king's bidding and paid with his life. He said he answered to a higher power, he answered to God and he could not make easy arrangements for his king. He made quite a memorable historic figure and we studied his defiance in school..
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