it's all relative

My friend Brian wrote this, I just nodded my head the entire time. And before anyone passes "judgement" on a mom who drinks or smokes or does anything else that could harm the 'fetus' during her pregnancy, that person need to make sure they are not pro-choice. If you are, it makes no sense. The mom can end the life of her baby, but not simply harm it by smoking and using drugs? Huh? (totally a sidenote, but something I thought of the other day.) Ah, the crazy world we live in...on to Brian's comments...

08.07.07    RHETORIC SAVES

i love how rhetoric saves the conscience from conviction.  you can spin anything, neutral or negative and turn it into a positive.  abortion isn't the killing of life (whether or not you believe in the snuffing of the soul is irrelevant.  the fact stands that abortion kills life is scientifically proven).  no, abortion isn't pro-kill, it's pro choice. maybe hitler should have adopted that muzzled phrase when it came to his policy for the jews.  pro-choice.  has a guilt-free ring to it.  (i am talking about the act of abortion and the support of its practice. i realize there are people we all know and love who have regretfully gone through the procedure.  these people are no better or worse than myself and need forgiveness just like me.  and even moreso, they are more than just physically wounded but spiritually and emotionally wounded and need compassionate restoration.  i do not judge.  i empathize.  its the ongoing support of both the philosophy behind abortion and the procedure itself that is abhorrent)   

now for atheism and agnosticism - which inspired these thoughts today.
(i saw an ad on myspace moments ago directing me to their "free-thinkers" website)   the atheists and agnostics, instead of leaving their belief system bare for all to see just as they are - as those who are without a belief in God or who have an honest unsureness of God's existence, have for some reason   felt the need to sugar-coat in condescending fashion toward the 90% of us in this world who believe in a life bigger than self by calling themselves 'free-thinkers'.  this term doesn't help anyone.  its arrogant, dishonest and condescending.  i guess in order to be a free thinker, one has to free themselves from the notion of a Higher Power and instead replace God with the god of self.  it's trading one set of chains for another.  so who's really free?  i do not respect atheism in the slightest because it is either willful ignorance or outright intellectual arrogance that rests one there.  agnosticism, however, i can handle because it admits an honest human position of ignorance - to simply not know or be sure of something intangible. that is honest.  but to set yourself apart from the religious as a "free-thinker" presupposes everyone else is weak-minded.  but i guess its consistent with social darwinism.  survival of the fittest.  and in this case, the intellectually fit.  but i'm confused.  atheism asserts a meaningless material existence with no transcendent virtue and only man-made constructs for survival purposes.  yet it espouses free-thinking (that has nothing to do with survival) as a virtue? should it even matter?  anyway, this whole free thinking thing i totally disrespect because it claims a monopoly on reason and asserts through the philosophical impugning of the existence of the soul, an elitist position whereby there is an inherent discrimination against anyone religious be it Mother Theresa, Jesus or Ghandi...who i guess were intellectual slaves and therefore a virus among humanity? 

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p.s. why do we feel the need to twist our language in order to support our actions or beliefs?  is it because we recognize something incomplete or wrong with our actions that we have to convince our soul to turn a blind eye...that what we do or who we are isn't really all that bad?  i think so.  so here are a few more lies we can tell ourselves to help us keep feeding our appetites of self and social destruction:

why can't judgmentalism just be 'morally discerning'.  or how about sleeping around?  it's not adultery, it's 'sexual liberation'.  or hurting people to get something you want.  it's not selfish or rude. it's "extremely motivated".  lying?  slander?  obscenity?  no.  'free speech'.  stealing?  try 'borrowing'.  or how bout our kids being disobedient and out of control.  nah...they're just 'a.d.d.'  these are just a few examples.  the list keeps going and going...

*sidenote by me, Rachel - I KNOW someone is going to come and say, "Well, ADD is a real chemical imbalance." Yes, it can be. Just like depression can be a chemical imbalance, and other mental illnesses. Those things can be VERY real. But as a general statement, it is true that in our society we lean on these mental instabilities to excuse our actions and to make us exempt from any sort of moral conduct. Just because I am often feeling depressed does not give me the right to yell at my kids. I still know that is wrong. And there are many who read this blog who feel that I am obtuse in my views (at best). Let me offer that any sort of "free thinking", as Brian discussed, has its very own set of pitfalls and errancies. "Free-thinkers" are not exempt.

Comments

[Catherine]

Did you see the article on Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith on Time.com? A very interesting read given this particular post.

[Jennifer]

Rach:

Good post. Re: the smoking, drinking, dietary restrictions imposed on pregnant women in the context of a pro-choice culture--

This idea is one that has bothered me---our culture makes it so very OPPRESSIVE to be pregnant. It exaggerates the risks of certain behaviors in order to impress upon us how big a responsibility it is to be pregnant, which is part of the overall message of the culture of death: it is only acceptable to be pregnant in PERFECT or IDEAL circumstances and if you fall short, you'd better terminate.

If we keep raising the bar on what classifies an ideal pregnancy (now extending to lunch meats, caffeine, cheeses, appropriate levels of exercise, and over-population/global warming theory) less and less people will consider life as a feasible option and more and more will choose contraception or abortion. The evil lie at the heart of this is that it makes it seem like the culture of death emanates from RESPECTING LIFE (we respect life too much to bring it into the world except in utopic situations).

I just saw Hairspray recently---and there was an absolutely hilarious number called the 60's or something like that and it depicted various tableaux of life situations that were so common in the 60s but unthinkable today, like a whole family of young children traveling around piled on top of each other in a convertible with the seatbelts caught in the door and dragging on the road unused or--to the point of this post--urbane, pregnant young women, with flipped hair do's, blue eyeshadow, and a martini and cigarette in each hand.

Which is the point--the risks of these behaviors have been greatly exaggerated because no one trusts YOU (a woman) with life. No one trusts you to bring a life into this world using common sense and moderation and weighing risk-cost benefits. Ironic, coming from a so-called feminist position, n'est-ce pas?

I ramble...