Abortion
I recently had my buttons pushed by a Reader's Letter in the local newspaper, Roe v. Wade is legalization of murder. The author went on to discuss the obvious evil of abortion as anyone who believes in god must know and went on to say "The atheists are saying all the religions are a lie and the Bible is a lie. I'm sure Satan, the prince of liars, is very happy with them. But we have free will. . . blah, blah, God intended for husband and wife to make love and make a baby. Fornication, blah blah (1Cor: 5:18) blah blah I pray to blah blah Roe v. Wade does get overturned.
I responded with this . . .
Recently, NDN printed a letter where a person (I'm assuming it was a child) wrote an opinion that "abortion is murder." The author built the case for this statement with vague quasi-religious statements and seemed to lay the blame for the issue on atheism.
I am an atheist and I believe that abortion is wrong. Abortion is a messy and inefficient means of birth control and I oppose abortion on those grounds. However, human beings engage in sexual activity and often the consequence is pregnancy.
I am tempted to point out how much more real and provable the phenomenon of pregnancy is compared to supernatural white guys with flowing white beards and kindly twinkles in their eyes but, I stopped believing in Santa Claus before I learned that the Coca Cola company created him to sell soda. It's difficult for me personally to believe in God because I've seldom met anyone who claimed to believe in Him that wasn't trying to sell me something that I don't think I need.
I do not believe that abortion should be illegal. Similar to the way that making prostitution, robbery, murder, etc. illegal has not solved those problems; making abortion illegal will not solve the problem of abortion.
The deeper problem is that as a society, we don't deal with human sexuality and unwanted pregnancy very well and as a consequence people suffer on both sides of the abortion issue. I think that the only decent way to approach the issue is with an open heart and an open mind. Compassion, love and understanding are the only effective tools when dealing with difficult issues like abortion.
Slogans and general statements like, "abortion is murder" is divisive and counter productive. Blaming abortion on atheism, then equating atheism with amorality is unfair, just like blaming the holocaust on christianity and equating christianity with genocide would be unfair.
Atheists can be good and moral members of our society just like christians. Please do not blame atheists for society's ills. In general, I think the word atheist ought not be used to describe an amoral person, nor should the word christian be used to describe a moral person. There is no causal relationship between someones religion and their moral behavior. People do good or evil regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof.
I wasn't comfortable enough to actually sign my current name to my reply. They printed it today after confirming with my wife that I was a real person. Judge Alito was confirmed. Let's see what happens next.
I responded with this . . .
Recently, NDN printed a letter where a person (I'm assuming it was a child) wrote an opinion that "abortion is murder." The author built the case for this statement with vague quasi-religious statements and seemed to lay the blame for the issue on atheism.
I am an atheist and I believe that abortion is wrong. Abortion is a messy and inefficient means of birth control and I oppose abortion on those grounds. However, human beings engage in sexual activity and often the consequence is pregnancy.
I am tempted to point out how much more real and provable the phenomenon of pregnancy is compared to supernatural white guys with flowing white beards and kindly twinkles in their eyes but, I stopped believing in Santa Claus before I learned that the Coca Cola company created him to sell soda. It's difficult for me personally to believe in God because I've seldom met anyone who claimed to believe in Him that wasn't trying to sell me something that I don't think I need.
I do not believe that abortion should be illegal. Similar to the way that making prostitution, robbery, murder, etc. illegal has not solved those problems; making abortion illegal will not solve the problem of abortion.
The deeper problem is that as a society, we don't deal with human sexuality and unwanted pregnancy very well and as a consequence people suffer on both sides of the abortion issue. I think that the only decent way to approach the issue is with an open heart and an open mind. Compassion, love and understanding are the only effective tools when dealing with difficult issues like abortion.
Slogans and general statements like, "abortion is murder" is divisive and counter productive. Blaming abortion on atheism, then equating atheism with amorality is unfair, just like blaming the holocaust on christianity and equating christianity with genocide would be unfair.
Atheists can be good and moral members of our society just like christians. Please do not blame atheists for society's ills. In general, I think the word atheist ought not be used to describe an amoral person, nor should the word christian be used to describe a moral person. There is no causal relationship between someones religion and their moral behavior. People do good or evil regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof.
I wasn't comfortable enough to actually sign my current name to my reply. They printed it today after confirming with my wife that I was a real person. Judge Alito was confirmed. Let's see what happens next.