Paganism – ancient and current

Speaking of Rome in the 1st century:

 

Marriage had fallen into deeper and deeper contempt. The freedom of single life was preferred by both sexes. Seneca went so far as to affirm that marriage was only contracted in order that adultery might afford additional charm, and declared that whoever had no love affairs was to be despised. Unnatural vices prevailed . . . In such a state of society, even if marriages were celebrated, the children were few in number. They were not welcomed when they appeared. As there was no sense of the sacredness of human life infanticide was commonly practiced. The destruction of unborn children was even more practised than infanticide, and not only did moral disintegration ensue in the destruction of family life, but the very foundations of the state were undermined in the decrease of the native population.

David R. Breed, quoted in the Undercover Revolution by Iain Murray, Banner of Truth Publishers pp.73-74

Remind you of anywhere?

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An atheist’s self-contradiction

The Enlightenment honors life. It is not about honor after death or honor in the hereafter, as Islam is, but honor in individual life, now. It is about development of the individual will, not the submission of the will. Islam, by contrast, is incompatible with the principles of liberty that are at the heart of the Enlightenment’s legacy.

Aayan Hirsi Ali, Nomad, Simon & Schuster, 2010, p. 214

Yet Aayan supports abortion. Isn’t the abortion issue all about honouring the ‘individual life now’?

This is the problem when, like Aayan, you chart your own moral course apart from God. The end is not merely God’s displeasure, but inevitably self-contradiction.

 

the new recombinant DNA technologies indisputably prove that the unborn child is a whole human being from the moment of fertilization

a New Scientist Report states:

The task force finds that the new recombinant DNA technologies indisputably prove that the unborn child is a whole human being from the moment of fertilization, that all abortions terminate the life of a human being, and that the unborn child is a separate human patient under the care of modern medicine.

But since New Scientist, as an evolutionary magazine, is basically anti-Christian, it added:

The point at which life acquires personhood is not something biology can settle.

Dawkins and Eugenics, Carl Wieland

quoting Alison Motluk, Science, politics and morality collide, New Scientist 189(2543):8–9, 18 March 2006.

 

Wieland makes an excellent point:

Note that even if that were true that we don’t know when personhood begins, we should give it the benefit of the doubt. If you didn’t know whether a body was dead, you would not bury it; if you didn’t know that a condemned building was empty, you wouldn’t blow it up; if you didn’t know whether a movement in the bush was a deer or a man, you would be culpable of shooting in that direction. I.e. the benefit of the doubt must be given to life; the onus is on the pro-abortionists to prove that the unborn is not a person. (ibid)

I don’t think Christ said a lot about abortion or even about single sex marriage

Some of the fundamentalist Christians seem to be performing or practising a kind of Christianity that I don’t think would be recognised by Christ. I don’t think Christ said a lot about abortion or even about single sex marriage. I don’t know where all these Christian doctrines came from but that had nothing to do with what Christ ever said in the Bible.

John Cleese, comedy actor, in a BBC Radio Merseyside interview. source

Well John, try the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill’  (that covers the murder of unborn human beings). I think you’ll find that Jesus was well in favour with the commandments as a cursory reading of the sermon on the mount would make plain. As for same-sex marriage, try Jesus’ words recorded in the gospel of Matthew (19.4-5)

4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

That ‘male’ and ‘female’ thing, John, is a bit of a clue on Jesus’ view on same-sex marriage, as well as the words ‘man’ and ‘wife’.

Have you not read, John? As you said yourself, “What Christ said in the Bible was profoundly important but it doesn’t mean that I approve of a lot of the people who practise Christianity.”

The UK and abortion

In England abortion remained illegal until the Infant Life (Preservation) Act of 1929 provided that no action would be punishable “when done in good faith with the intention of saving the life of the mother.” Mr. David Steel’s 1967 Abortion Act appeared to many to be only a cautious extension of this. Two registered medical practitioners were required to express their opinion, “formed in good faith,” that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve either (1) risk to the life of the pregnant woman, or (2) and (3) risk of injury to her or her existing children’s physical or mental health, “greater than if the pregnancy were terminated,” or (4) “substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.” Whatever the intentions were of the Abortion Law Reform Association (who master-minded the Bill), it seems clear that its catastrophic consequences were not foreseen by its parliamentary sponsors. Before the Act became law, the number of legal abortions carried out annually in the hospitals of the National Health Service in England and Wales had crept up slowly to 6,100 (1966). (5) In 1968, however, the number was already 24,000, in 1973 it was 167,000 and in 1983 nearly 184,000, an increase on the previous year of about 8%. By 1983 over two million legal abortions had been performed since the 1967 Act was passed, and by 1988 around three million (6).

John Stott

Hippocratic Oath and abortion

I will follow that method of treatment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly drug to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to procure abortion.

Hippocratic Oath (fifth century BC)

The Declaration of Geneva (1948) updated it but still including the promise: “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception.”

Sanctity of Life

For my part I believe that there is no life so degraded, debased, deteriorated or impoverished that it does not deserve respect and is not worth defending with zeal and conviction … I have the weakness to believe that it is an honour for our society to desire the expensive luxury of sustaining life for its useless, incompetent, and incurably ill members. I would almost measure society’s degree of civilization by the amount of effort and vigilance it imposes on itself out of pure respect for life.

Jean Rostan, the French biologist, quoted from Humanly Possible by C. Everett Koop at the beginning of his The Right to Live; the Right to Die

Abortion

Four million abortions have been performed in Britain since the passing of the Abortion Act in 1967. There is now one abortion for every four live births. The typical woman having an abortion today is single, under 25 and in her first pregnancy. In 98.6% of cases the justification given is ‘risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the mother or her existing children’, amounting in the majority of cases to little more than failed contraception, social inconvenience or unwanted pregnancy. Only 1% are performed for fetal handicap and 0.013% ‘to save the life of the mother’.

All these abortions are performed by doctors, in spite of the fact that the Hippocratic Oath forbids abortion and the Declaration of Geneva (until amended by the World Medical Association in 1983) requires that we ‘maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception; even under threat’.

CMF, 1997

Abortion

The Romans got rid of unwanted pregnancies in three ways: strangling newborn babies, abandoning babies by the roadside (where they either died or were taken as slaves), or aborting the fetus (with poisons).

David Bercot, Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up?

Abortion

More than one in five pregnancies in Britain ends in abortion…says the Office for National Statistics.

Its report said 36 per cent of all pregnancies in women under 20 were terminated, a figure that has continued to rise despite the widespread availability of contraception and the “morning after” pill.

Among women of all ages, 23 per cent of pregnancies were terminated in 2000.

The report suggested that many women wanted to delay their families until they were married or financially secure.

But often the delay was detrimental and – despite the huge rise in the number of multiple births over the past 10 years as a result of fertility treatment – the birth rate is at an all-time low.

Patrick Cusworth, a research spokesman at Life, Britain’s largest anti-abortion charity, said: “The abortion statistic is devastating.

“It’s tragically ironic that while 600 babies a day are aborted, only 300 a year are placed for adoption despite growing requests from would-be parents who cannot have children naturally.

“There is no question that we now have abortion on demand in this country. The law supposedly places certain obligations on the part of doctors [to sanction them], but there is very little debate with regard to the fact that many of these requirements [for abortion to take place] have just become boxes that need to be ticked.

“We have dealt with thousands of women who have regretted their decision to have an abortion.”

Tony Kerridge, of Marie Stopes International UK, a pro-choice family planning agency, said: “I don’t think there is any real evidence that women are using abortion as a method of contraception.

“Some women come to our centres who have had repeat terminations but we always discuss contraception with them. The vast majority of pregnancies are the result of unprompted and unplanned sex acts, maybe where contraception was not available.”

He refuted suggestions that the abortion law needed to be tightened. “The legal requirement is that you need to seek the permission of two doctors. We think it is patronising and paternalistic to expect women to justify their decision. Individuals should be allowed to make choices about their health.”

A spokesman for the FPA, formerly the Family Planning Association, said: “Half of all pregnancies in Britain are unplanned and we would like to see a reduction in that and more information and advice on contraception available.

“Abortion is an essential part of fertility control.”

Daily Telegraph, 31st March, 2004