Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00767)

Daniel:

If your intent is to offer a position, and make an appealing
case for that position, you need to present your ideas in a
form that invites discussion. Extremist language invites
people to react to you in an equally extreme fashion.

>Planned Parenthood is a organization bent on performing
>millions of abortions for one reason "MONEY".

You cannot attribute motives to other people. You can
guess at motives, but the final authority on why someone
does something is the person themselves. It is true that
Planned Parenthood may charge money. Churches also collect
money, often in the form of offerings and pledges. Are
they solely in the business of making money? Or do they
consider themselves as performing a public service, and
find it necessary to charge a fee in order to meet
expenses?

>Pro-Choice?
>99.9% of all preganancies were determined by prior
>choices. You make the choice when you lay down.

Often there is some attempt to not get pregnant, where
some form of birth control is used. Then the pregnancy
is by chance, an accident, and not intentional. When
we drive a car, we try to avoid crashing into other cars.
If we're involved in a freeway accident, did we *intend*
to crash, because we were on the road and slightly at
risk, despite our best efforts to drive safely?

>Selfishness is the arm behind the sword on this one.

Is it selfish to drive on the freeway when you know there's
a slight chance of an unavoidable accident?

>When is a baby a human?

The soul has been human for countless lifetimes. The
process of coming into incarnation again starts before
conception. If the birth into one particular family fails,
the soul can try again, or try other parents.

>Is a zygote human?

Is your fingernail human? It's an outer aspect of your
life, but *you*, the inner person, are the Ego, which
survives many lifetimes, each with its own body and
personality. When you lose a body, if it is premature
and early in life, you may simply start again.

>The answer is soooo simple. Answer this question.
>When is the DNA formed to create the unborn?

It is formed by the interaction between the soul seeking
incarnation and the physical process going on. This is
much in the same way as thought, in the mind, influences
the brain, rather than simply being a byproduct of
neural activity.

>DNA determines what type of life will be formed
>and DNA is formed immediately during conception.

It does not *cause* us, it is the physical mechanism by
which our *pattern* for the new lifetime is maintained,
so that we can maintain a certain appearance and certain
disposition over that lifetime.

>The genes are permanent. The natural choice is life.

I recall reading in "Turbulent Mirror" a reference to a
situation where a creature changed its genetic structure
in adaptation to a hostile external environment. (This is
an individual creature, not a species, over multiple generations.)
If it's true, and can happen, it shows that it's possible to
change the personality/body structure that we make for ourselves
at the time of physical conception.

>Wake up...

You're calling us to wake up to a problem that is not as
serious as you seem to think. Your concern comes from an
incomplete philosophical grasp of what is happening.

>A third tri-mester abortion is gruesome.

Any form of death is gruesome. It's not something that would
be considered lightly. Certainly if an abortion has to be done,
it should be done earlier, except in perhaps extreme circumstances.
The question for a particular case is: Why was it done? And we
have to realize that the soul that was denied birth will still
get its nearly-immediate repeat chance at human life, with perhaps
new parents.

Situations in life are never so clear-cut that you can apply a
single moral prnciple, like "don't kill" and apply it with
qualification. Why is this? Because there are many moral principles
that come into play in a situation, and sometimes they are in
conflict, where we make a choice based upon which action has
the most overall good to it.

>SHOW me one unwanted baby and I will show you
>one hundred wanting parents.

True, there are many infertile parents in America seeking babies,
and unable to have them. But is also a single factor to weigh in
making a decision, and not a deciding factor. Perhaps the same
soul will be happer with different birth parents that want it, which
it may achieve through the abortion, than being put up for adoption
and never knowing its birth parents? We cannot make a general rule,
based upon a single factor that enters into our decision.

>ABORTION is MURDER. And abortionists should be put to death.

I hope that this is just rhetoric where you're using extreme language
in order to make a strong emotional impact. Otherwise, someday you
may find yourself in jail if you take these words too literally, and
act on them.

An appeal to emotion is not helpful, though, since you then give
people the impression that you lack the necessary logic and
rational arguments to support your position.

One thing that we learn in Theosophy is that false, but sincerely
held beliefs is the biggest obstacle that we face in following
the spiritual path. We are taught to continually review what we
believe in, to look it over and freshly rethink our positions.
In this case, I think that you can learn from us. This is something
useful for all of us to do -- including you -- and it is not
done often enough.

-- Eldon