The Washington Post is running a blog on the issue of whether contraception is essentially abortion. This question isn’t new. The issue is related to the issue of when does a human being become a human being, which for the religiously inclined becomes: when does the individual human soul come into existence.
In his writings, the revered theologian Thomas Aquinas was quite explicit that the complete soul was not infused at the point of fertilization but developed along with the ovum, becoming a complete only in the later stages of pregnancy. If you don't believe me, check out the Catholic Encyclopedia:
“St. Thomas's doctrine is briefly as follows:
"…[T]he rational soul is produced by special creation at the moment when the organism is sufficiently developed to receive it. In the first stage of embryonic development, the vital principle has merely vegetative powers; then a sensitive soul comes into being, educed from the evolving potencies of the organism -- later yet, this is replaced by the perfect rational soul, which is essentially immaterial and so postulates a special creative act. Many modern theologians have abandoned this last point of St. Thomas's teaching, and maintain that a fully rational soul is infused into the embryo at the first moment of its existence.”
Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14153a.htm
What is remarkable about the synopsis of St. Thomas's teachings is how, it was in fact, a depiction of evolution written long before Darwin and his spiritual heir, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Yes Virginia, the soul evolves in the embryo and it evolved in the evolution of the humanity, as everything evolved, from the first moment of the "Big Bang." But the "soul" at the time of fetilization is not a human soul but a vegative soul. Careful eating those carrots.
This is not a rejection of the concept of God, the soul or immortality. It is indeed, a recognition of the grandeur, and as of yet inexplicable, majesty of existence and its Creator. "In the beginning there was the light..."
Opposition to abortion theologically is based not so much on the killing of an innocent life before there is a human soul, but on the interference with the natural law - beginning with self-abuse and continuing through birth control and on to abortion.
But in the body politic as a whole, the natural law argument doesn't really fly. It's much easier to scream murderer. It’s just not theologically - or humanly - correct.
http://johnklotz.blogspot.com
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
“This is not a rejection of the concept of God, the soul or immortality. It is indeed, a recognition of the grandeur, and as of yet inexplicable, majesty of existence and its Creator. "In the beginning there was the light..."
What can I say???
This seems so out of place in your essay.
Why, in a dissertation so seemingly open-minded, have you presupposed a Creator?
“Not rejecting the concept of God”…is not the same as accepting the concept of God.
I’m an agnostic. I do not reject the concept of God. I also do not reject the concept of “there are no gods.”
Not sure where you were heading with this…bit seemed to derail somewhere from my perspective.
Life does not begin at conception. Life is an unbroken continuum of existence going back billions of years. To say that a fertilized egg is human but that the sperm and egg that produce it are not is simply illogical. Sperm and eggs are just as alive and human as any embryo - the only difference is the number of chromosomes.
I'm having trouble understanding this natural law thing, especially as applied here. It seems to me more like Christianity sometimes uses that and sometimes uses the opposite, depending on what issue needs motivation. For example, one wouldn't need the Ten Commandments if those were things people were trying to overcome... the natural ("baser") tendancy is to want to do things, and the normal thing a lot of religion is about is overcoming natural tendancies... and yet at other times, as apparently here, we hear arguments that are based in a desire to not perturb some unwritten natural order of things. It's as if ignorance and mystery were one of the natural things we are asked not to try to rise above by appealing to science. Anyway, I'm pretty confused on this point. Any help?
Control over reproduction, whether through birth control or abortion, has been at the center of feminine independence. It is THE issue that defines our emancipation. The generations that preceded us have been slaves to our reproductive cycle. You couldn't control how many babies you had, or even the circumstances of their birth. Death in child labor was frighteningly common. In this sense we were truly subordinate to the men who we married.
It is because choice has existed in direct relation to our independence that I believe in our right to an abortion. That has nothing to do with Thomas Aquinas, or any man's opinion about the moment that a fetus can be said to have a soul.
"Life does not begin at conception. Life is an unbroken continuum of existence going back billions of years. To say that a fertilized egg is human but that the sperm and egg that produce it are not is simply illogical. Sperm and eggs are just as alive and human as any embryo - the only difference is the number of chromosomes."
This is my view. While I respect you and St Thomas, fine and good, both of you, as you are not God, are mistaken in your beliefs.
Catholic Church theology, for all its good intent, is full of such mistakes. Recently Humanae Vitae spent 70 pages trying to prove that all Protestants go to hell for using Condoms to kill their kids, while all Catholics go straight to heaven using the Pope approved Rhythm Method to kill their kids. This has to be one of the world's stupidest statements. Of course it is to provide Catholics with a loop-hole so they won't leave the Church without any members. So it is a "Providential" decision as so many are in the Church.
You are welcome to check my blog and comment, and you can be my friend if you want. I respect your learning. I'm a bit new here and don't know the ins and outs quite yet.