Personhood
A subject that comes up perhaps more in philosophy than theology is whether someone/something is or is not a person .... in theology, the issue is more likely to be about being a human, not being a person. But theology should care about personhood because the morality/ethics around the subjects of abortion, euthanasia, IVF, organ donation, the treatment of animals, is often decided in society on the basis of personhood, not humanness.
Virginia Hughes at the National Geographic blog Only Human has a series on personhood ... Personhood Week: Conception Is a Process ... Personhood Week: Do Kids Count? ... Personhood Week: When Dead Bodies Become Dead People ... Personhood Week: People and Their Pets ... Personhood Week: Why We’re So Obsessed with Persons
Here's a bit from the first post, the one on conception ...
Earlier this month voters in two U.S. States, Colorado and North Dakota, considered new laws that would bolster the legal rights of a fetus before birth. Neither of these ballot initiatives passed, but they’re part of a “personhood movement” that’s been gaining notoriety among pro-life advocates since about 2008. Reading about this movement in the press (Vox has a great overview) has made me wonder about the slippery, contentious, and profound meaning of “personhood.”
[... snip ...]
I went to a Catholic high school, where I was taught in religion class that life begins at conception. I don’t remember my teacher getting into the biological details, but we all knew what she meant: Life begins at the moment that an earnest sperm finishes his treacherous swimming odyssey and hits that big, beautiful egg.
That’s what many Christians believe, and it’s also the fundamental idea behind the personhood movement. The website of Personhood USA, a nonprofit Christian ministry, highlights this quote by French geneticist Jérôme Lejeune: “After fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being. It is no longer a matter of taste or opinion…it is plain experimental evidence. Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception.”
That’s not a common belief among biologists, however. Scott Gilbert of Swarthmore calls the conception story a “founding myth,” like The Aeneid. As he jokes in a popular lecture, “We are not the progeny of some wimpy sperm — we are the progeny of heroes!”
In reality, conception — or more precisely, fertilization — is not a moment. It’s a process .....
Virginia Hughes at the National Geographic blog Only Human has a series on personhood ... Personhood Week: Conception Is a Process ... Personhood Week: Do Kids Count? ... Personhood Week: When Dead Bodies Become Dead People ... Personhood Week: People and Their Pets ... Personhood Week: Why We’re So Obsessed with Persons
Here's a bit from the first post, the one on conception ...
Earlier this month voters in two U.S. States, Colorado and North Dakota, considered new laws that would bolster the legal rights of a fetus before birth. Neither of these ballot initiatives passed, but they’re part of a “personhood movement” that’s been gaining notoriety among pro-life advocates since about 2008. Reading about this movement in the press (Vox has a great overview) has made me wonder about the slippery, contentious, and profound meaning of “personhood.”
[... snip ...]
I went to a Catholic high school, where I was taught in religion class that life begins at conception. I don’t remember my teacher getting into the biological details, but we all knew what she meant: Life begins at the moment that an earnest sperm finishes his treacherous swimming odyssey and hits that big, beautiful egg.
That’s what many Christians believe, and it’s also the fundamental idea behind the personhood movement. The website of Personhood USA, a nonprofit Christian ministry, highlights this quote by French geneticist Jérôme Lejeune: “After fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being. It is no longer a matter of taste or opinion…it is plain experimental evidence. Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception.”
That’s not a common belief among biologists, however. Scott Gilbert of Swarthmore calls the conception story a “founding myth,” like The Aeneid. As he jokes in a popular lecture, “We are not the progeny of some wimpy sperm — we are the progeny of heroes!”
In reality, conception — or more precisely, fertilization — is not a moment. It’s a process .....
posted by crystal | 1:42 PM
2 Comments:
“We are not the progeny of some wimpy sperm — we are the progeny of heroes!”
Hi again Crystal, it's been awhile and believe it or not, I just don't have enough time in this world... there's Times when sinner vic who doesn't really exist like our super heros do... long story short, sinner vic is trying very hard to convince little old me that he does exist...
As hard as "I" try to make "IT", "I" mean sinner vic feel good about himself, i can't help but known that i created him in the late sixties through Frank and Charlie whom sinner vic now says that they begot him and are his alien gods... I stopped, "I" mean I kind of dismantled Frank and Charlie sometime later after getting married because his, "I" mean their imaginary behavior was really becoming let us, "I" mean let me say,, kind of bewitching with plenty of his so called miracles, "I" mean withcraft so I created a booklet in 2005 and sent both Frank and Charlie to visit "Out her" "I" mean "OuterSpace".
As much fun as I've been having with sinner vic, "I" think that all of our spiritual cells would be silly, even very foolish for any "ONE" to hold on to let us say a possible anti-christ that does not exist while "Jesus" The Only Begotten Son of GOD is around.
I better quit with this little prayer below:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Take care my friend.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2014/11/23/christ-the-king-who-ravishes-and-gives-us-all/
God Bless
Hi Victor,
Thanks for the link :)
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