please, pick a topic. not boring. thanks:) SHORT!

Wow! A soap box! After reading several debates on this site on the topic of abortion, I've come to some realizations I'd like to share as to why the issue is likely not to be resolved. Fundamentally, the issue hinges on God's existence. To deal with the issue of abortion, one must answer the questions "Who is Man?" and "Is the unborn child a person?" These answers will undoubtedly be based upon one's assumptions about reality and their belief in God. Biblical Worldview --------------------- - Man is made in the image of God and is dualistic in nature, having both physical body and immaterial soul - The unborn child is a person from conception In a biblical worldview the humanness of the unborn child cannot be determined by physiological development alone. It is not enough to say that certain organs must be formed before humanness is achieved, for the metaphysical soul cannot be measured. The unborn child within this worldview must be seen as human and that it has the same inalienable rights as all other humans made in God's image. If the unborn child is human, then the logic used to determine when its life is forfeit must comply with the logic used to forfeit the life of an adult. Let's examine the three common reasons why the unborn are terminated: rape or incest, threat to mother, and social. 1% of abortions are performed on women impregnated as a result of rape or incest. Clearly, this pain and trauma cannot be fathomed, and to raise a child in such conditions is something no woman would wish to face. This is the singular situation in which abortion is quickly justified amongst believers. However, if the baby is human, then its rights must not be overlooked. If the it is a human made in God's image, it must always be seen as innocent and given the same right to life as an adult. If a 14 year old boy with special needs were unexpectedly inherited by a woman, no one would rationally justify killing the boy as his circumstances are beyond his control. 6% of abortions are performed on women whose health or life are threatened by the pregnancy. Again, this is a sensitive issue, and an appeal to emotion is tempting. But such emotion should not cloud our judgement anymore than the emotion we feel towards an adult in a similar circumstance. Imagine two men on earth with a terminal illness, and only one has the medication to keep him alive and there is not enough medication for both men. In this scenario, the continued existence of one man rests on the extermination of the other. Killing the medicated man could not be justified as self-defense since the victim showed no aggression towards his murderer. In the same way, as tragic a situation as it is for the mother's health to be jeopardy, the unborn human is not aggressively and actively seeking to kill the mother. If it is indeed innocent human life, then killing it to save the mother cannot be seen as self defense. 93% of abortions are performed on women for various social reasons, or put simply, because the baby is unwanted. In this case, the argument from a biblical worldview is simple. Killing the baby due to one's poverty level is as logical as killing one's toddler for the same reason. Killing the baby because it threatens your career is as logical as killing a co-worker for the same reason. So long as the baby is a human, terminating it's life must be seen as killing a human being. Natural Worldview --------------------- - Man is monistic in nature, being only physical and having no immaterial soul. - The unborn child is a person at certain stage of development. In the natural worldview, in which God does not exist and man is only physical, the humanness of the child is determined by biological science. The unborn child is in the embryonic stage for the first eight weeks, and it's not until the fetal stage that all the organs are fully formed. In this worldview, the humanness of the unborn child is still debated, but the general consensus is that the embryo is not human having not fully developed all the physical properties of a human. The fetus, on the other hand, is seen by many as a human by that point. Despite the humanness of the embryo and fetus, from a biological perspective, the unborn child is not seen as being the same as any adult or child given the fact that it is attached to the lifeblood of the mother. Given this, rights of the mother generally supersede the rights of the unborn child. In this worldview, pregnancies due to rape and incest or pregnancies that threaten the health of the mother are quickly and rightly justified in this worldview. Abortions of unwanted children, however, are still debated in this worldview mostly in the area of sociology. Raising a child born into poverty, drug addiction, or abusive homes are a few examples of real scenarios that must be considered in the debate. In this worldview, the issue is far from resolved. While some would argue that forcing a pregnant drug addict to give birth to a drug addicted and possibly special needs baby is detrimental, there are still those in this worldview that will argue that social abortion harms society at large. Usually, the debate centers around statistics and sometimes psychology. Conclusion I hope I have shown how worldviews are pivotal in this debate. Arguing about abortion without discussing the nature of mankind is futile. Often, it seems, debaters on the topic argue past each other forgetting to spot each others' assumptions and deal with those instead. Honestly, I'm not surprised that every single abortion debate does not evolve into a debate about the existence of God. Final Thoughts Since I have a few characters left, I must express my shock at the distribution of abortions according to religious affiliation. "Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as 'Born-again/Evangelical'." It is absolutely SHOCKING to think that if Christians actually lived according their beliefs that the abortion rate in the US would be CUT IN HALF! For any debaters out there arguing the Pro Life position, I urge you to avoid the potential life argument. It is far too easy to refute. You are better off proving the embryo is a human with rights than to go this route. Christians are not Biblically justified in killing abortion doctors or blowing up abortion clinics. Okay, getting of the soap box now. Thanks for the freebie. I know it's too much to ask, but please vote according to your ideologies and not according to the content of this debate. Thank you. :) http://www.abortionno.org...