in response to #56:
" Actually, Rise, the ultimate and final authority of my life is God."
I figured that much! :) I suppose you are a Christian ... there are Christians who actually condone abortion, but they're in the minority, I guess. That's besides the point, though, as you clearly don't. I hadn't created this thread with the agenda in mind to change somebody's opinion, just wanted to hear you guys out, and it has been a very entertaining read so far (I say that in a sincere, non-sarcastic tone)
Now to answer your question, and I'm outta here!
"Why, then, do we have laws and courts? Then if this is the case, if someone murders someone else, he can tell the judge "Yeah, well, I had a great reason for doing it." And, the judge should have no authority to punish the murderer, because his motive seemed 'good' to himself."
Courts and judges only have so much authority as the people around them grant. We established such institutions to break with the archaic principle of 'Might is right' (which still holds true to a certain amount, but we're not living in despotism right now so it works). If someone invades my house in the middle of the night and I'm lucky enough to have a gun at my place, I believe my reason for defending myself would be good enough after I presented the corpse to the police. Some might even argue about that ... "the burglar had emotions, ambitions and his whole life ahead of him, and you killed him! Murderer!!!" It's up to a neutral judge to decide on these day-to-day cases.
I view the act of sexual intercourse as one of the centerpieces of the human species. It brings great pleasure --- a woman's whole life shouldn't be ruined because of five minutes of harmless fun. The fetus doesn't even really qualify as a human being in those early stages of development, it's a non-sentient lump of cells, and whoever is eager to argue about that is more than welcome to do so, but I've made my point. I believe that is a good enough reason to get rid of the fetus, simply because I feel sympathy with women in such situations. Abortion used to be prosecuted here, but laws happen to change over time, ... or do you, as a Christian still persecute witches or stone homosexuals, even though it's unambiguously mentioned in your Holy Writ? Kind of a rhetoric question, but honest-to-god, aren't you glad yourself that we moved on from these dark times and employ our intelligence instead of blindly following ancient rules? Why must we now punish deplorable SLUTS, aah scratch that, why must we now punish human beings for having had unprotected sex? It makes no sense to me.
" Actually, Rise, the ultimate and final authority of my life is God."
I figured that much! :) I suppose you are a Christian ... there are Christians who actually condone abortion, but they're in the minority, I guess. That's besides the point, though, as you clearly don't. I hadn't created this thread with the agenda in mind to change somebody's opinion, just wanted to hear you guys out, and it has been a very entertaining read so far (I say that in a sincere, non-sarcastic tone)
Now to answer your question, and I'm outta here!
"Why, then, do we have laws and courts? Then if this is the case, if someone murders someone else, he can tell the judge "Yeah, well, I had a great reason for doing it." And, the judge should have no authority to punish the murderer, because his motive seemed 'good' to himself."
Courts and judges only have so much authority as the people around them grant. We established such institutions to break with the archaic principle of 'Might is right' (which still holds true to a certain amount, but we're not living in despotism right now so it works). If someone invades my house in the middle of the night and I'm lucky enough to have a gun at my place, I believe my reason for defending myself would be good enough after I presented the corpse to the police. Some might even argue about that ... "the burglar had emotions, ambitions and his whole life ahead of him, and you killed him! Murderer!!!" It's up to a neutral judge to decide on these day-to-day cases.
I view the act of sexual intercourse as one of the centerpieces of the human species. It brings great pleasure --- a woman's whole life shouldn't be ruined because of five minutes of harmless fun. The fetus doesn't even really qualify as a human being in those early stages of development, it's a non-sentient lump of cells, and whoever is eager to argue about that is more than welcome to do so, but I've made my point. I believe that is a good enough reason to get rid of the fetus, simply because I feel sympathy with women in such situations. Abortion used to be prosecuted here, but laws happen to change over time, ... or do you, as a Christian still persecute witches or stone homosexuals, even though it's unambiguously mentioned in your Holy Writ? Kind of a rhetoric question, but honest-to-god, aren't you glad yourself that we moved on from these dark times and employ our intelligence instead of blindly following ancient rules? Why must we now punish deplorable SLUTS, aah scratch that, why must we now punish human beings for having had unprotected sex? It makes no sense to me.