I am still talking to both my supervisor and the president of the congregation about my housing situation In South Dakota. Since for the first week all three of us, retiring pastor, my supervisor, and myself, will be at the church we cannot all fit into two houses. Then even after the retiring pastor moves out, they are going to remodel the parsonage. So I think the latest I heard was I will be living with the president for two weeks, in an apartment for a month, and then finally able to move into the varsonage (vicar house) for the rest of the year. It is kind of a hassle but I really do not mind and am just excited to be there. I am however going to try to enjoy every moment with Erin that I can while we are still together. We have two months together before we start our two years of long distance. The first year while I am on vicarage, she will be on clinics in Memphis and Arizona, and then finishing classes in St. Louis. Then when she graduates she will go back to Pennsylvania to work for a year while I finish fourth year here at the seminary. It will be long and rough, but I have no doubt we can make it.
My thought for the day is a bit more controversial then I tend to like to talk about. For our Genetic Science in Christian Perspective class, our paper for the class has two halves. The first half is to argue for why a fetus is a human being using only non-theological reasons. The second half is to argue for why a fetus is a human being using only theological reasons. I have the first half done and will post it on here. I am not trying to start any blog wars or major debates, I am simply letting you read the paper I wrote for class. I also want to point out that while I do believe abortion is killing a human being, I do not hate woman who have them or doctors who do them. I am willing to tell them what they are doing is wrong, but I am a sinner too and try my hardest to show everyone the love of Christ. This means that I would not walk up to any doctors who perform abortions and tell them they are wrong. I would want to ask him or her questions, build a relationship with him or her, and then try to show him or her that I do not approve their actions because it is harmful for their eternal salvation. I truly believe hate or anger does not give the Spirit a fair chance to work through you, but it is important to remember that it is the Spirit working through you. Just show everyone the love Christ showed as He is our example and pray that the Spirit does indeed work through your actions.
Before I post the paper, I want to highly recommend the book I used for most of my arguments for this paper. The book is titled The Unaborted Socrates. It is a book written by a philosopher who wrote it as if Socrates had come back to present day and used logic and the Socratic Method to bring a doctor, philosopher, and psychologist to the main issues at hand with abortion through dialogue. I found this book phenomenal and read the entire thing in one evening. If you are interested in this topic that is so prevalent in our society, I again encourage you to find a copy of this book and read it. It is a very quick read. With that said I will post my paper on here and hope it makes sense to you. It could only be 800 words so it is fairly blunt and to the point at some places that I would have liked to more fully flush out. Again, this one is the non-theological one trying to use logic and science to show that a fetus is a human being. When I finish the theological half of the paper I will post it on here too.
The topic of abortion is so highly controversial because one
side says it is murder, while the other side says it is not. The entire argument for this controversy
comes down to one issue, and that is whether or not the fetus is a human
being. If the fetus is a human being,
then abortion is murder, but if the fetus is merely property and not a human
being then abortion is not murder.
This topic, even though it comes down to one
main issue, is still so highly controversial because this issue of what exactly
a fetus is, is not an easily proven
issue. There are many arguments for both
sides that try to prove that it either is or it is not a human being. In order to try to answer this core issue one
must look at these arguments and decide what the truth of this issue is.
I do not
want to bring theological arguments into this article because I want this
article to purely look at the scientific and logical understandings of the
fetus. It is much easier to look at the
reasons for why a fetus is not a
human being.
The first argument
for a fetus not being a human being is because some claim that it is part of
the mother. If this is true, then the
fetus is the property of the mother with which she may do what she
pleases. It would be no different then
if she wanted to remove a wart from her body.
However, if a fetus is part of a mother, then the fetus’s parts are the
mother’s parts. This means once the
fetus develops feet the mother now has four feet. Also, if it was part of the mother, the DNA
would match the mother’s DNA. However,
the fetus has its own genetic code in its DNA, which means it is its own
individual part, not part of the mother.
These two logical reasons prove the fetus is not part of the
mother.
The second
argument for a fetus not being a human is that it is a potential human. A fetus starts out as a tiny group of cells
that is not developed. For the first
portion of its existence it does not even look anything like a human. However, a child is not fully developed
compared to an adult, so how developed must one be before it is a human
being? Where do prematurely born babies
fit into this category? Also, even as
an adult, a human being is still just a group of cells, just billions more in
larger form. Additionally, is not
potential energy still energy that is just not being used? So if a fetus is a potential human, does this not mean that the fetus is still a human that is not being used? How is a potential
human not a human? Others include in this category that the baby
must be able to live on its own in order to be a human. If you give birth to a fetus prior to
viability, it cannot survive outside the mother and therefore must not be a
human being. All the same though there
are many infants and adults who cannot live on their own with medical or
parental support. Does this mean that a
person whose lungs have collapsed or who has a fake heart valve and could not
survive without medical technology are merely potential humans because they are not living completely on their
own?
The third
argument is asking the tough question of when does a human become a human. Even if it is as a fetus, at what point
during its time in the womb does it become an actual human. Is it when it looks like a human in
form? However, there are many babies
born without arms or legs or the definite form of a “normal healthy”
adult. Is it when it is viable? Again
the argument above refutes that by the use of adults who are not viable. Is it at conception? This is when the sperm cell and the ovum cell
come together and the new cell has its own unique genetic code.
My final
point of this article is that the exact moment that a human becomes a unique,
individual, actual human being has not been answered scientifically to an exact
point. However, because it is not
answerable to an exact point, is it not better to be over protective and claim
it is a living human too early versus too late?
If we cannot be a hundred percent certain that a fetus is a human from conception, is it not
better to say it is and protect its life versus saying it is not and kill
it? My prayer is one day every person realizes that a fetus is a human being that should be brought to life. We live in a present evil age where sin flourishes, but we cling to our faith knowing one day in the new creation sin, death, and the Devil will be no more. While we live in this present evil age, we try to live a life in the faith and through our faith that is an example to others and stands up for those who cannot protect themselves, including fetuses.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Every child is a blessing from You, please help to remind us of the wonderful gifts they are. Please be with and protect all children still in the womb, and help those who are considering abortion to hear Your word and know what precious blessing you have given them. Please be with all women who have had an abortion. Let them know the fullness of Your forgiveness, that they may know through Christ all sins are forgiven. Remind us all that through You all things are possible, even the end of abortions. Use Your faithful children to be beacons of Your light in this dark world and let all we do be for Your names sake. In the name of Christ who died and rose to make death no longer an enemy, Amen.
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