ericmurphy
Posts: 2460
Joined: Oct. 2005
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[quote=thordaddy,April 05 2006,18:33][/quote]
| Quote | | Actually, I said there is no evidence to suggest that consciousness emerges anywhere other than at conception. If you have evidence to the contrary, please present it. |
This statement implies that you have evidence that consciousness emerges at conception. Of course, you have no such evidence. If there's one place between conception and the age of six that consciousness definitely does not emerge, it's at conception.
| Quote | | Secondly, I have no problem stating that an egg and sperm are "alive." I do disagree that they represent a human life. I have seen no evidence of either an individual sperm or individual egg individually transitioning to a zygote and then an embryo to a baby. Have you seen such transformation? |
And for the millionth time, I will reiterate that you're making a distinction without a difference. There's nothing particularly special about conception even from a scientific perspective; there are other developments in the process from meiosis to birth that are vastly more significant. There is absolutely no significance to conception from a legal perspective, which in the context of the abortion debate is the only relevant perspective.
| Quote | | So if the sperm and egg represent your beginning then you must continue back into the past because each sperm and egg were actual products of other sperm and eggs. You are claiming to be an mere individuated outgrowth of one very large and very old single entity. Is that what the science tells you? |
Yep, pretty much. I am indeed part of one very large and very old entity, just as you are. The technical term for such an entity is a "universe."
From a scientific standpoint, my view is at least as valid as yours, and from a legal standpoint, neither view is of the slightest import.
| Quote | Either you had a beginning or you didn't.
If you didn't have a beginning then you are either an eternal being or YOU sprang from nonlife.
If you had a beginning it was either before conception, at conception or after conception. |
What did the quote I posted above have to say about this sort of worldview? But for about the two millionth time, I will say once again that the answer to any of these questions is entirely meaningless within the context of the abortion debate, something that no matter how many times you're told, fails to sink in.
| Quote | | At conception means I have presupposed for lack of any credible evidence to say otherwise. |
The truth is, Thordaddy, that you're going to believe whatever you want to believe, no matter what the evidence says.
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2006 MVD award for most dogged defense of scientific sanity
"Atheism is a religion the same way NOT collecting stamps is a hobby." —Scott Adams
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