jallman said:
Originally Posted by Fantasea
I have no idea, nor am I curious to know, anything about your personal relationship with the Almighty, or the lack thereof.
Perhaps my comment falls within the realm of an unintentional Freudian slip in that I find it incongruous that one who places so little value on life in the womb would, at the same time, be inclined toward a devoutness of faith.
You asked; I toldl.
However, if I have tread upon your foot, as it were, I offer a sincere apology.
No, there was no offense taken at all, but the apology is noted and accepted nonetheless, but totally unwarranted. I am not easily offended. The value I place on life is quite high though, and it comes from no religious obligation thouugh I am Catholic. The value I place on life comes from a love for this life and all the beauty humanity can hold. I have given this issue a lot of thought and did I really feel and see evidence that a human life was at stake in the first 6-8 weeks of a pregnancy, I would definitely flip sides in a heartbeat. I am far from rigid in my thinking.
Although I expressed no desire to know of your religious beliefs or lack thereof, you insist that I must be told.
Therefore, if you disagree with what follows, you have no justification to complain.
First, you say that the value you place on life is quite high, but that it comes from no religious obligation even though you profess Catholicity.
"Quite high" is not absolute and presumes occasions and situations in which you consider life to have no value. Your insistence that life, immediately after conception, may be summarily extinguished, is an instance of this.
Every practicing Catholic, in full communion with the Church, understands, accepts, honors, and respects life from the moment of conception, through all stages of pregnancy, and through all stages which follow, until natural death occurs.
To do less calls into serious question the depth and breadth of of the sincerity of one's Catholic faith. The Church extends its mantle upon those who are fully committed to the acceptance and defense of all of its teachings, not merely those teachings with which an individual may be comfortable.
The Church as made known through ex cathedra teachings that from the moment of conception, all human life is sacred and must not be interfered with in any way.
There are many individuals who, although baptized into the Church, have found themselves, for whatever reason, unable to fulfill all of the obligations required of them. Yet, since things spiritual leave no recognizable mark, they are able to conceal their true beliefs beneath the image of a masquerade, lest others may know them for what they are.
So much for the religious side of the discussion.
On the secular side, the research findings of biologists, fetologists, obstetricians, and geneticists bolster the position of the Church.
One may do whatever one wishes, ignore the Church, or ignore science. Individuals are never obliged to accept the truth; it has always been optional. At least in the temoral realm, one always has the right to be wrong.
All that being said, I have never seen any scientific or medical position that purports to justify the nearly fifty million abortions which have occurred since Roe v. Wade.
Opinion, based upon emotion and privacy abounds. However, it appears that no scientific or medical support exists to warrant this carnage.
You wrote, "I have given this issue a lot of thought and did I really feel and see evidence that a human life was at stake in the first 6-8 weeks of a pregnancy, I would definitely flip sides in a heartbeat. I am far from rigid in my thinking."
Given the gravity of the question, especially as it applies to the teachings of the Church, one cannot be faulted for wondering whether those who speak as you do are simply emulating a certain apostle whose initial was "T". One would sincerely hope that they, as did the apostle, eventually learn the truth.
How will they answer, when called to account, "When there was the possibility of doubt, what did you do to ensure that you were not in willful error?"
The days of the apostles being long gone, the only way to learn the truth is to make a deliberate, energetic, sincere effort to find it. Opining never was, never is, and never will be the way.