I'll wager that none of my colleges on the other side will tell us when life begins.
See, here's the thing.
Life doesn't begin at birth.
It begins somewhere along the lines of 3-4 billion years ago if I recall correctly.
Babies are not abeogenic. They are produced by other living things. Life began once, and then simply perpetuated itself ad infenitum. Sexual Reproduction exists to take the genetic code of two parents and re-combine them as a way of preventing disease, and also creating a new immune system capable of withstanding adaptive diseases. This is because nature shows that Asexual Reproduction can cause very quick population growth, but is easily subject to massive population loss from genetic disease as well as regular disease which can propagate through each individuals identical immune system.
This isn't a "checkmate, theists" moment. In fact, it's implication is far more conservative and traditional recognition of reality.
David Starkey talks about how each person is a continuation in the "great chain of civilization". Life, itself, is like that but broader.
You are a great chain of life itself. Life neither begins, nor ends with you, at all. We choose to see you as an individual. Nature has identified that the survival of life requires the propagation of itself. 2 billion years ago you would have been a clone of your father, or a clone of your mother, simply occupying a different place and time. This has become unacceptable for most animals for survival. So, you are a literal continuation of your mother and your father through time, as they were a continuation of their mother and their father, and so on and so forth. Each iteration of life seeks to survive and propagate itself through a harsh environment, taking the most fit parts it can with it.
Perhaps the truth is that abortion is not murder. It's suicide.
See, here's the thing.
Life doesn't begin at birth.
It begins somewhere along the lines of 3-4 billion years ago if I recall correctly.
Babies are not abeogenic. They are produced by other living things. Life began once, and then simply perpetuated itself ad infenitum. Sexual Reproduction exists to take the genetic code of two parents and re-combine them as a way of preventing disease, and also creating a new immune system capable of withstanding adaptive diseases. This is because nature shows that Asexual Reproduction can cause very quick population growth, but is easily subject to massive population loss from genetic disease as well as regular disease which can propagate through each individuals identical immune system.
This isn't a "checkmate, theists" moment. In fact, it's implication is far more conservative and traditional recognition of reality.
David Starkey talks about how each person is a continuation in the "great chain of civilization". Life, itself, is like that but broader.
You are a great chain of life itself. Life neither begins, nor ends with you, at all. We choose to see you as an individual. Nature has identified that the survival of life requires the propagation of itself. 2 billion years ago you would have been a clone of your father, or a clone of your mother, simply occupying a different place and time. This has become unacceptable for most animals for survival. So, you are a literal continuation of your mother and your father through time, as they were a continuation of their mother and their father, and so on and so forth. Each iteration of life seeks to survive and propagate itself through a harsh environment, taking the most fit parts it can with it.
Perhaps the truth is that abortion is not murder. It's suicide.