Some things are a question of faith, and some things are a matter of science. Wandering through my back yard at night, looking up at the glowing ball above me (as it whispers and beacons to lovers and wolves whom I have never met), one fact rises above the quagmire of doubt and debate to rap me smartly over the nose with a ruler of common sense: the moon is undoubtedly made of green cheese.
You may well laugh, but I ask you (with a haunted, greenish gaze): can you disprove it?
Now, ignoring for the moment that I am fanatically agnostic, I started to contemplate today the pro-life argument against abortion. The argument I most commonly hear is that a fetus is a living person with a right to life, even if that life is a miserable one. Sometimes, in the case of the pro-lifer being a Christian, this is backed up my a statement that life is a precious gift from God, and that it is a sin to cast it away, no matter what the circumstances.
What I wonder is this: If God is omniscient and omnipotent, but permissive in the sense that He wishes humans to have free will, then can we be so sure that the life of a fetus has independent value in His eyes? Before you dismiss this possibility without further thought, please allow me to expound. Continue reading