Undermining Abortion: How the Christian Right Undermines the Right to Abortion
Sunday January 4, 2009
The most important issue for the Christian Right is criminalizing abortion. There is disagreement on the penalties for abortion (few want to treat it as murder, despite the rhetoric) and whether there should be exemptions (like for rape, incest, or the health of the mother), but there is agreement that abortion must end. There is no prospect of a total ban any time soon, so in the mean time they work on undermining it and hindering women's ability to actually obtain an abortion.
Read Article: Undermining Abortion: How the Christian Right Undermines the Right to Abortion
Comments
My intentions are not to offend anyone, please try not to take this personal, these are just my thoughts and philosophy on life. I feel everyone should at least hear me out. I really appreciate everyone who will read this with a mature and open mind. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this.
Do u believe that your ALIVE after you DIE?
That should be a simple question and it should receive an obvious and simple answer, but we are still in the age of time that this answer is usually answered wrong. few people genuinely understand this question.
The idea of god is an abdication of human reason and justice, it enslaves people, whoever believes in it should have no childish illusions about the matter but bravely renounce his humanity and freedom
There are good things about religion but there are far worse things about it.
Because the idea of god and religion primarily offer comfort and a sense of security to people that “Choose” to join they’re church- most people are born into a religion and religious family so they don’t necessarily get to choose but some people do became “Born” again Christians. But because of the fact that it comforts people and it requires that people take a leap of faith, the idea of god has helped a lot of people overcome things like drug addiction, emotional personal problems,but never has god done anything for anyone like he supposably did for ancient people during the bible era.
Religion sometimes brings families closer together but that’s usually only around the time that the children are very young, once they start growing up they will start to realize certain things about life and start having questions about why they are here. During their teen years they are in a sense going through an emotional roller coaster but my point is that religion in homes have torn a lot of families apart as well, especially if they happen to have a gay son or daughter in the family that happens to build the courage to tell his religious family that he or she is gay. Some parents actually tell they’re son or daughter that they are going to hell, some try to “Fix” this “problem” with therapy and prayer.
The fact is that religion makes a lot of people ashamed of themselves. No one on this planet is perfect, and no one is going to be 100% satisfied with they’re moral standards, some never meet they’re moral standards. The fact that we are not perfect and never will be means that we should accept ourselves for who we are and admit a certain degree of ignorance because we are not super people, look at our history and you should know this. We are not superior to other animals and species like religious and spiritual people think we are, we are no different from these creatures, the only difference is that we are more intelligent, we have the ability to learn and advance. Religious people think that animals are nothing more than animals- which is true- but the same goes for humans. They think that they are going to heaven and these animals are not because they don’t have spirits. That’s ridiculous.
Religion creates a lot of shame in families and homes. But not only in homes and families, individually it causes a lot of confusion even with adults, especially when things don’t go your way people tend to really wonder why god hasn’t been there.
I go to AA meetings with my dad once a week and I’ve heard a lot of stories from people who truly felt like god had taken away their short comings and depression- when they first started the program- but then all of a sudden a couple months later the depression and problems come back and they don’t understand why. I’ve seen a lot of sad and confused faces talk about their experiences and its unbelievable how these people don’t realize that there is no god. I think that some of them do but it’s the fear inside of them that keeps them in line, the fear of god, the fear that god will be upset and make your life a living hell. The fact that they’ve lived their whole lives believeing that there was someone that loved them and cared for them somewhere out there, and to try and question whether he’s there or not leaves you with the fear of what he could do and the fear of loneliness.
When I became atheist I was depressed for 2 months everyday. And that’s because it is depressing knowing that when your dead your dead, and that this is the only chance we get to live. And that your never going to see your dead relatives again. That realization was sad for me but I faced and accepted the truth, the fact that there is no reason or evidence to believe in god, and that science is on my side. But for these people that are close to questioning the idea of god its going to be very difficult for them if they actually do it. because that spot in your mind and heart that has always been filled with comfort and hope will go away and it will feel as if you were stranded on an island with a friend for years surviving, and all of a sudden your friend fell off a cliff and died, now your all a lone and that’s very depressing, these people that believe in god will have no one to pray to when they’re having problems, the all mighty powerful god who can do anything that we claim to be impossible. According to the bible god has murdered mass people but at the same time cured a lot of people that were sick ( yet religions require donations, they ask you for your money in order to actually make a difference for the sick and poor). This God that they’ve known their whole lives and learned to love in a mysterious way will no longer exist and for the people that are much older and closer to the end of their lives it would be much harder to realize the truth as I did, it took me 17 years and it was hard then, I cant even imagine being 70 years old and realizing that you’ve been living a lie your whole life, I’m almost positive most people in older generations will deny it until death. But for the new generations like my generation I hope you do the right thing and face the facts and accept them.
Faith has caused more fights and deaths in all human history than any other disaster, here are a couple of examples:
They have a good charity record, organized religion has a reputation for being very good at persuading people to give away they’re money in the name of god, and not always is it for charity, the church’s are a business and they need to pay themselves and of course their employees.
For people during the middle ages and other time throughout human history I truly believe that religion has helped in ONE way and that is in the sense that they gave humans a sense of morality and justice. But at the same time Religion and the idea of god has massacred and stripped away rights from millions throughout history.
The crusades were Christians who committed mass murder, it was pretty much genocide, not only did they kill Muslims in all the attempts to recapture the holy land but also killed jews and Christians as well. the crusades in the end were ultimately a failure
9/11 was an act of faith, if these people didn’t believe that they would live after they die they wouldn’t’ have flown planes into a building
“The End Of Faith and The Future Of Reason” a book written by sam Harris which I recommend everyone consider reading it. It claims that religion has no way of advancing and keeping up with modern philosophy and what poses the most danger for religion of course is science.
Religion is based on doctrine- books that were written by people who still thought the world was flat
Because its based on old books it will never evolve or have any progress, science has already evolved so much that they have already discredited organized religion, ever since Charles Darwin came out with the theory of evolution people have been leaving organized religion and individually having their own personal gods
Science will always make progress and advance, we already have the knowledge and facts to know that when you die your dead and that there is no evidence or reason to suggest that “God” or anything spiritual whether the devil or ghosts exist.Your not going to float away into the skies to a better magical place after your body drops, shuts down, and slowly rotts away.
The definition of faith is “Belief without evidence or reason”, you have no reason to believe in god because of the fact that its based off faith and personal conviction, which I know is comforting but the truth isn’t always comforting. If you were a cancer patient in the hospital would you rather have the doctor tell you the truth that you have cancer? or have him lie to you and tell you that you don’t just so your happy, relieved and comforted? Or maybe you would rather have him tell you that you do have cancer but that its not that bad and your going to survive when he knows that your going to die in a month because the cancer has spread all over your major organs? I think you would want the truth.
In this case your scared of death just like our ancestors were when they became curious enough to come up with the idea of gods, which it’s a fact that they had many and there’s been many throughout human history. Your scared of death and the idea that your going to continue living after you die is comforting, the idea that your going to see your dead relatives or friends afterlife is very comforting, but that doesn’t mean its true. science has already advanced enough for us to know that when your dead you dead, and there is no such thing as a spirit, this idea of god was created by our very very ignorant ancestors and because of fear, curiosity without reasonable accurate source of information to turn to and the fact that we were raised since birth believing in god its hard for us to let go, but its inevitable that we will eventually let go in the future, science will continue to evolve and make people more liberal and rational and discredit the idea of god even more, even though it has already discredited enough.
In 100 years kids in school will be in history class and they will be learning about 2001 9/11, and the teacher will tell them that people used to believe in god back then and that’s why these guys flew planes into buildings, and these kids will laugh and be amazed just like we used to laugh and be amazed when we heard about ancient people doing stupid shit in history class
like when they used to believe in and burn witches or believe in slavery.
Even though slavery is not funny, neither is burning “witches”.
The future is atheism.
you can have beliefs but its too danger to have faith, I have “faith” in people but because I have reason to believe in them, I have faith in myself too but the fundamental difference is that my beliefs/ theories, and other atheists and scientists beliefs are based on reason.
-like evolution or the big bang theory.
Even maybe parallel universes. but like I said to have faith “belief without evidence or reason” is going to cause things like the crusades which was genocide in part of Christians, the holocaust- against jews, 9/11 2001, people like my mom almost dying from cancer because she chose to put her faith in god instead of doing what the doctors recommended and taking modern medicine. Also people getting their rights taken away - like gay people not being allowed to marry because the majority of people and religious people don’t believe in it and try to force their views upon everyone else.
The fact that people are raised in a society and with parents that believe in god and the fact that traditions are mostly tied to religion causes everyone to believe in god, everyone grows up not questioning in the existence of a god because religion builds a wall in front of it that blocks any kind of rational argument or criticism against it because it has no rational argument that it can use to defend itself because all religion has is personal convictions, they have no reasonable evidence to proof that there is such thing as spirits. Society teaches us not to question or ask about others religious affiliations in public, we are taught not to speak of religion in public period. We are taught to keep religion behind doors, safe away from reasonable criticism.
In our society today religion has made it essentially illegal to question the idea of god, or to even talk about god or religion in public, they make it very private in order to keep people from questioning it. They have no argument in the court of public opinion so they stay out of it.
They have no argument that would make sense or succeed in court, that’s why anything that has to do with speaking to god or spiritual stuff in court is considered insanity.
That’s why religion has nothing to do with science and is actually against science, because science discredits everything they believe in.
There’s 2 reasons we have the separation of church and state, the 1st reason is because we have a diverse population of people and religions in this country and because of the fact that people were fleeing Europe because of religious persecution, 2nd religion has no rational agrument in the court of public opinion, when we have real issues to deal with like wars, we cant have religious fueled people thinking god is telling them to do things, or having any kind of resentment against other sects of religions.
They take the rights away from people, especially other minority groups and religions, like Muslims and jews. it’ll be like Hitler’s Germany during the 30s and 40s. they’ll take away our freedom, and science would come to a halt. we wouldn’t advance knowledgeably or technologically.
If religion and government were together it would be considered a fascist nation. Thank our forefathers for the constitution.
Religious institutions target people with fear, they attract people by arguments that are based from they’re own personal convictions and experiences, they target your emotions and curiosity of life, they want you to fear death and want you to believe that there’s something more to life. they want to make you feel like they are the only moral people in this world. They make you feel like your not alone and that someone out there that cant be seen or heard but that is powerful and loves you and cares for you is out there watching out for you, and that if you turn against him your going to have to deal with the consequences and possibly go to hell. religious institutions are nothing more than corporations that brainwash you in to taking a leap of faith. but the modern world that has been developing has been posing a danger to its ability to recruit, attract and keep converts.
Science is causing religion problems. Another fact is that the majority of scientist which statistically I think it was around 85-90% are atheist. And religious leaders are urging their followers who are in school studying in the area’s of science and psychology to not admit to their professor that they are religious or believe in god because they wont receive their PhD. intellectuals don’t believe that people that still believe in god should be able to say they have a PhD because its an embarrassment. I personally know this for a fact because I’ve read a lot of christian right wing books and they urged their followers to not admit that they are religious because they more than likely wont receive they’re PhD.
I used to believe in god, I was born and raised Mormon. During my sophomore year in highschool I suddenly went through a phase of deep depression, I had started smoking weed and doing mushrooms and acid, the effect of these particular drugs make you think really deep and at that time I started to realize things that I had never realized before, I was thinking really deep and complex all the time, realizing things that depressed me about society and life in general, and at one point I thought I went crazy, I thought I had realized things that people shouldn’t realize because it would be too depressing and make you want to die because of what you had realized about life. I had realized that there wasn’t a god and by myself - but didn’t know it yet- I had pretty much discovered evolution, even though of course evolution had already been discovered in the 19th century. I obviously didn’t realize all the complexity and specifics of evolution but one night standing on a giant rock looking out over the whole salt lake valley, I realized how life evolved into what it Is now. It was kind of depressing.
I thought I went crazy, but I couldn’t see that what I realized was truth, its just that the Truth was too overwhelming for me because I was raised believing in other things and I was used to not questioning or thinking philosophically. So being naive as I was- because I hadn’t then at that moment actually realized that what I had realized was evolution and atheism- I decided to start praying more than usual and I did, and one day I remember that I felt like my depression went away, I felt like I was no longer depressed, and at that moment I honestly thought that god had saved me from depression and insanity. I was so convinced of that that I literally started feeling better for the next couple months, but then of course another phase of depression came a long and I didn’t understand why, I thought maybe I did something wrong and god was mad at me. Which is another bad cause of spirituality and religion, it makes people ashamed of themselves, ashamed of their own human nature and animal instincts. Which are natural.
Once I got over the depression of realizing that there’s no god and not having that idea there to comfort me whenever I thought about life, I noticed that I started to really appreciate life since I believed that we only have one life and that when its over its over. I realized that I don’t want to hurt anyone, I don’t want to break any laws, I want to get married and fall in love, I want a child of my own. I realized that you don’t have to believe in god or be religious to be a moral person of society.
Your mind is the most powerful thing in your body, I’m sure everyone has experienced confusion or being convinced about something at one point and then something happens and you realize that you were wrong and are surprised because you thought you were right but you were not. We can all become convinced very easily If we don’t base our beliefs on reason. My point is that we use 8-9% of our brain and we are vulnerable to being tricked by our own minds, and mixing faith with ignorance is dangerous. When I thought I went crazy I tricked myself, I tricked myself into thinking that what I had realized was insanity. And then out of emotional distress and depression I tricked myself into believing that god had taken away my depression, and when you believe in someone that is as powerful is god then you believe that its possible if you get right with him that he would help you, that he will do good things for you. And that what I thought happened to me, I thought he cured me, so my mind became convinced of it and since the mind controls your whole body I started to feel better, but of course that didn’t last.
One year Later when I was a jr. in high school I met my science teacher who happened to be atheist, in that class I met another kid that I had went to school with my whole life, he also happened to be atheist, I remember being so amazed that someone could be atheist that I was telling other people that he didn’t believe in god thinking they would be amazed, and they were but didn’t seem to care that much. After a few weeks of reading little and thinking a lot, I realized what I had realized back when I went “crazy” and I realized that It wasn’t insanity I had realized reality. I became atheist.
Just remember that your mind is very powerful and you can become convinced of anything, you have to have control of you mind and emotions or your risking the chance that you’ll live a lie and be confused the rest of your life.
We humans are no different from other species of animals, the only difference is that we are more intelligent, and of course we look different, but the fact that we are more intelligent means that we have the ability to learn and be curious and want to know the truth, figure things out in order to achieve something. People that believe in god and religion have always felt superior to other species, they have always considered themselves better than other animals, they don’t believe that animals will go to heaven or that they have spirits, but the fact remains that they don’t, and that we are just like them with animal instincts, we control these animal instincts but never the less we have them, and society has always look at these instincts as animalistic and evil.
We as humans are not perfect, we all have higher standards but never fully perfect our desire to be perfect. And religion and god makes you feel bad for yourself because of your character defects which everyone has, gays are told they will go to hell, people that smoke weed will go to hell, atheist are the worst people in the world controlled by the devil supposable. Religious and spiritual people believe that they are spiritually superior and in a sense “Perfect”, and they try and flaunt that to the rest of us, religious people always pretend to be better than the other.
When you go to church all you see is old people, that is because these people are closer to death, more fear. And if you see young people its because religion exploits the vulnerable with their faith-based ideology which is far to complex for a young child to understand but to definitely be amazed by and attracted to, any child would be attracted to heaven.
The fact is that most people haven’t read the bible yet claim to believe in it and base their lives on it. I’ve started reading the bible and book of Mormon recently and I can tell you that the first 20 pages from Abraham - Isaac -Jacob, the god of the old testament is full of genocide, murder, jealousy, and vengeance. what a terrible thing to believe in in my opinion.
I will end this with that. I hope that someone got some insight from this, I hope that it was at least enjoyable to read.
I think everyone should really think about this, I think that for once in your life you should question what it is that society and your parents have taught you to believe in, just because your parents believe in it doesn’t mean its right.
Everyone should re-evaluate their lives once they turn a certain age. History has shown that the majority of people can be wrong, you chose whether you want to be ahead of your time or not.
– Jeff B Hale
RE: Jeff B. Hale’s comment
Thanks for writing! You won’t get any argument from me! (Other than for joining the forums, your comment doesn’t have anything to do with abortion)
Come back often!
Vertebrate embryos are remarkably similar in their early development. Though not a biologist, from what I read it is the activation of Hox genes in the embryo that sends it down its developmental path to being a lizard, dog, horse, monkey, human. Before that though it is genetically unique but essentially undifferentiated. Before activation of the Hox genes the embryo is more tissue than being: no nervous system, no organs, etc. During this period the thought of terminating a pregnancy would be less distasteful, however the “gotcha” is that a woman may not yet know she is pregnant before the Hox genes activate.
So rather than aborting “surgically” after the genes activate, the “morning after pill” seems a better option as a prophylaxis. I find later term abortions a gruesome thought (and totally avoidable thanks to modern contraception, if people would only use them.) That revulsion is eased if the abortion is performed before the Hox gene activation phase.
If those on the “Christian Right” believe abortion is the taking of an innocent human life, as I’m sure they do, then of course they are going to try and undermine a woman’s “right” to take that life, and they will use every means at their disposal. Wouldn’t you try to save someone’s life if you thought they were in danger of being killed?
As for the Christian Right’s most important issue being “criminalizing abortion,” I think you are wrong. I think one of their most important issues is bringing an end to abortion.
I find it amusing that so many atheist can blame the woes of society on Christians.And the blatant lie spoken by Jeff B. Hale, that the church is full of “old people” awaiting death because of fear.The church is full of young people willing to serve and believe in God and his creation. Human beings period has screwed up society with war and broken peace treaties etc.Man can sign a peace treaty with another country,then turn around and drop a bomb on them.Look at history.We do believe by faith and not fear,it’s a choice, like you have the right in not to believe.
For love will conquer fear any day.Having fear is the sign of wisdom, for even a child needs to be taught not to put his hand into the fire. For he doesn’t fear what he doesn’t know.God exist,I see his production,when I breathe the air,and look at the sun, moon,stars and the changing of the seasons, and so forth. And he posses an unquenchable fire that will never die out.It is the “evil” that all men do,regardless of a belief system in God. The difference is,atheist believes they have all the answers by acting as “little” god’s within themselves.And have leaned unto their own understandings…
Like the scriptures say,
“For the fool has said in his heart,there is no God”..And the scriptures has been written centuries ago,and it’s prophesies are being fulfilled everyday..It’s a truth that can’t be trumped, by the limited wisdom of the human kind. Mr Hale, I’m not offended by your thoughts, and I hope, you’re not offended by my thoughts…
Happy New year to ya sir..
Nowhere in the article do I express surprise that they are trying to undermine abortion rights; instead, I try to explain all the different tactics they use in order to do this.
If that were true, then they would support measures that would reduce the number of abortions — like comprehensive sex education, increased distribution of contraceptives, and increased reproductive services for women. Since the Christian Right doesn’t just fail to support these things, but in fact actively opposes them, the conclusion must be that criminalization of abortion for the sake of increasing oppression of women is the actual goal.
The truth is that church attendance increases dramatically as age increases. Many churches have had to close because there are too many old people dying off and too few young people bringing in new money and new blood.
Perhaps you should first reveal whether or not you firmly believe the rest of the verse you only partially quote above.
Sorry, Dennis Mitchell, but Christianity is a failed religion. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and very clearly said that it would come soon, to the generation then living. The Kingdom did not come then or ever.
It’s over. Give it up.
Paul said (Sorry, Dennis Mitchell, but Christianity is a failed religion. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and very clearly said that it would come soon, to the generation then living. The Kingdom did not come then or ever.)
The way I understand it,the Kingdom coming has always been Imminent, it is Imminent now, and it always will be. Sorry Paul
In reply to Jeff B Hale, the bible is simply a collection of metaphors. It is up to the individual on how the choose to interpret them. I will definitely agree that some people take the readings too literally and these people can do a lot of harm to themselves, other peoples view of their religion and others. Basically the Christian Church WILL accept anyone, whether they are gay, have had an abortion, drug addicts or alcoholics. The main issue in dealing with these problems is that God created man and woman for a reason, they are made for each other and made to reproduce. In the catholic church there are some rather harsh views on homosexuality which are against the ACTION of gay sex. Being gay is one thing, but practising it is completely different. Personally i think that society has evolved so much so that some parts of the bible are extremely outdated. However the principle remains the same. Love your neighbour and treat others the way you would like to be treated.
The catholic faith is supposed to follow Jesus as a role model, and there is a reason Jesus was put on earth, other to prove the existence of a “God”. Jesus was a human being. And a good one at that. He was loving,forgiving and had rock solid morals. whether or not he was sent by ‘God’ in a way is irrelevant. He was a good man and others should aspire to be more like him. Jesus did make mistakes, he displayed anger and hurt people. All these things really brought home the fact to others that it is ok to make mistakes. Jesus made mistakes. Jesus was afraid. How he dealt with these issues was more the point.
Nobody really knows what actually happens after death, however i think you will find that almost everybody has certain beliefs regarding it. The christian belief of Heaven and Hell is just one of those. By the way, we dont actually believe taht you will go to this place called paradise and wear pretty white dresses and be surrounded by angels. It is more a state of bliss for the soul.
I just think that it is unfair to group all Religious people into one crazy category and leave it at that. I think you would be amazed at how ‘normal’ some of us are.
Being a rebellious teenager i still sometimes lash out at my parents for going to church on easter, christmas and believing in some of the seemingly ridiculous rituals. But when i actually look deeper and think about it, the idea of there being a God is almost undeniable. God is not necessarily the Big Man in the Sky like we were taught in religion, but a part of yourself and the world around you.
Even if there isnt a god i say be kind and let people think there is, if it makes them happy and inspires them to do good things for others, who are they hurting?
This world needs more people who are happy to do good things for others, wheteher it be in the name of religion, or just because that is who they are.
In the case of wars caused by religion, using the example of the wars going on in the eastern world, the religions that are fighting actually follow the same basic principles. So i think that fighting over religion os simply an excuse. Im sure that if their religious issues were solved, they would find some other terrible issue to fight about pretty quickly.
GV