tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post114092460404191413..comments2024-03-25T17:35:02.238-04:00Comments on Debunking Christianity: Jonah, Evidence and the Superstitious PastUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-1147082297332126782006-05-08T05:58:00.000-04:002006-05-08T05:58:00.000-04:00I am against abortion in principle (as in ad hoc, ...I am against abortion in principle (as in ad hoc, "oh yes, let's do it whenever we feel like it"), but have to admit to being curious how, in particular, evangelical Protestant Christians with their view of the Protestant Bible as the inerrant word of God, answer the question you have put forth?<BR/><BR/>I personally don’t know of anywhere where abortion is specifically mentioned in the Bible (none of the surviving Canons I know of anyway), in fact Exodus 21: 22-23 has no like for like punishment for the killing of an unborn, instead focusing on the severity of damage to the mother. This fits in with the currently existing Jewish view that a foetus becomes a full life at the moment of birth – the spirit is believed to enter the body as the head emerges from the womb. Thus in Jewish understanding a foetus is a part-life or potential life, containing only a Nephesh or soul, not a spirit. Jews also allow access to abortion for mothers if permission is granted by a panel of Rabbis.<BR/><BR/>From the 5th Century CE and beyond the following Christian fathers views are interesting:<BR/><BR/>St Augustine of Hippo: Believed ensoulment occurred only when the baby was completly formed, thus abortion before this would not constitute murder.<BR/><BR/>St Jerome: Believed that the foetus started off with a vegetable soul, developed an animal soul before finally gaining a human soul at 40 days (in girls 90 days).<BR/><BR/>To my understanding more modern Christian conceptions of life can be traced to a series of debates which culminated in the following declaration from the Catholic Church:<BR/><BR/>Pope Pious I (1869) “Life is formed at conception.”<BR/><BR/>However, it is worth noting that The Didache (or Teachings of the Apostles), a Christian text from the early 2nd century CE condemns the practices of abortion and exposure (apparently some Christians would go around adopting babies left out to die, which was allowed under Roman law). Such a condemnation seems to have come from a respect for life and the teaching of love and non-violence towards fellow humans that many early Christians advocated so strenously.<BR/><BR/>The Didache does appear to have been considered scripture by some of the early Christians, so perhaps it can be used to justify an anti-abortion stance for an inerrantist Christian, but most would probably either not know of this text or would not consider it to be scripture.<BR/><BR/><BR/>For anyone particularly interested, the following evangelical site goes through 10 reasons as to why abortion is wrong:<BR/><BR/>http://www.desiringgod.org/library/topics/abortion/ten_reasons.htmlJoshua Luke Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14883452580117905856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-1147031611993062992006-05-07T15:53:00.000-04:002006-05-07T15:53:00.000-04:00Nice point. Just like in my covenant post, Christ...Nice point. Just like in my covenant post, Christians/Jews/etc. can only make it "work" if they twist the plain meaning of the words.<BR/><BR/>...<B>classic <I>ad hoc</I></B>nsflhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04129382545589470620noreply@blogger.com