Live data from Hacker News

They Think It's Murder

richarddawkins.com

11–20 of 170 posts

Re: They Think It's Murder

#11
The article completely fails to mention that religious people tend to believe that humans have a "soul" and animals don't, which seems to me to be a massive oversight. Of course Dawkins doesn't believe in the soul, but it's hard to see how his arguments are going to move anyone who does believe.

The other problem with the argument is that, on the other side, many vegans believe that killing animals for food is wrong.

Re: They Think It's Murder

#12

In religions that believe in hell based on life choices, the ultimate smart move would be all fetuses aborted. The chance of heaven is 100% that way. What chance of heaven do we get if we are actually born? Maybe 10% at most? Billions are being condemned to eternal damnation if the fetuses are allowed to be born and live a life for at most about 100 years. That seems incredibly selfish and silly and short-sighted. We…

The vast majority of Christians in the United States believe in salvation by faith alone, not by works.

Re: They Think It's Murder

#13
I strongly agree with one of Dawkins’s most important points, the effectiveness of the reductio ad absurdum as a rhetorical strategy.

If you want to persuade people, then you need to meet them where they are and adopt their way of thinking. Accept their premises and worldview, and show that it leads to bizarre, false consequnces.

Re: They Think It's Murder

#14
If you don't know, or can't prove, when personhood establishes, then there's at least some chance you are, in fact, killing a person. In my estimation the abortionist doesn't care about the possibility of killing a person because there are no consequences for it.

Re: They Think It's Murder

#15
Dawkins says that we "need to persuade" them.

But he's wrong. We're the majority. They managed to change the law, even though they are a minority. This cannot stand.

If they want to change the law, then THEY need to persuade US. That's supposed to be how it works.

Re: They Think It's Murder

#16
My only issue with the staunch anti-abortion stance is that there have been women who have died because the doctors couldn't decide quickly enough whether an abortion was medically necessary, or outright refused anyway. There have been politicians who have espoused the opinion that ectopic pregnancies also have a "right to life" even though it is physically impossible for them to be viable, and cannot be implanted into the uterus to the best of my knowledge. It also opens the possibility that women who have a legitimate miscarriage may be scrutinized as if they were criminals, adding to their trauma.

There is no easy answer there. I will say this - in no other situation is it even tenable to force a person to use a part of their body to keep another person alive. Even corpses have autonomy - if the person decides when they're alive that they don't want to be an organ donor, we cannot in good conscience then take their organs anyway. Should pregnant women have less autonomy than a dead body?

Re: They Think It's Murder

#17

If you don't know, or can't prove, when personhood establishes, then there's at least some chance you are, in fact, killing a person. In my estimation the abortionist doesn't care about the possibility of killing a person because there are no consequences for it.

Holy fucking ignorance. As if you walk into a clinic, they wave a wand across you and you're done. It's mentally and physically traumatizing.

Re: They Think It's Murder

#18
post #9

It is murder, simple as that. The moment a sperm fertilizes an egg, a new unique genetic material is formed, which is damn near the closest thing we have to an objective standard of when a new human life is started. Embryo is a stage of development in a human being (and many other life forms on this planet). Maybe it's not synonymous with baby, I could grant that, and allow for baby to represent a different and later…

[deleted]

Re: They Think It's Murder

#19

If you don't know, or can't prove, when personhood establishes, then there's at least some chance you are, in fact, killing a person. In my estimation the abortionist doesn't care about the possibility of killing a person because there are no consequences for it.

And how precisely did you arrive at your little "estimation"?

How many so-called "abortionists" did you interview? How did you gather your data on what they "care" about?

Did you interview condom manufacturers, too?

Re: They Think It's Murder

#20

In religions that believe in hell based on life choices, the ultimate smart move would be all fetuses aborted. The chance of heaven is 100% that way. What chance of heaven do we get if we are actually born? Maybe 10% at most? Billions are being condemned to eternal damnation if the fetuses are allowed to be born and live a life for at most about 100 years. That seems incredibly selfish and silly and short-sighted. We…

Well hell awaits for the killers. So there's that
Post reply on HN