This was a response to a comment on my Devil in Disguise post which began to take on a life of its own, so I though I’d rather put it into a post. One reader suggested:
This is the key: stick with the science. Irrespective of religious differences and/or whether or not a supreme being exists, we know as a scientific fact that human embryos are human beings. Stay away from religion-based arguments and all will be fine.
I have long thought that the cloning/ESC research argument could be won on a purely secular level, with nothing more than scientific facts and practical sense. After all, the “science” is on our side and there are many practical reasons not to pursue embryo destructive research – namely the fact that it fails to produce positive results over and over again.
However the goal of the pro-life movement is not just to stop research on embryos or prevent abortion. The goal is to help create a culture of life – a culture that values and respects human life in all stages and forms. This cannot be done by simply sticking to science. “Science”, that is to say biology, can tell us that a human being is, in fact, human and point out the different ways in which humans are different or superior to animals. But it cannot tell us why human life is unique and precious and worthy to be preserved – especially when you’re talking about an embryo in a petri dish.
“Science” alone will not move someone who looks into the eyes of a Down Syndrome child to realize that she, and others like her, should not be screened for and killed before they are born. “Science” will not open the eyes of a scientist to realize that the embryo from whom he is extracting stem cells is a unique individual human life that should not be destroyed for research. “Scientifically” abortion providers know that the child they are about to “operate on”, if you will, is a human. Yet instead of preserving that human life they end it, often very violently by dismemberment, salt poisoning or by sucking its brain out in partial-birth abortion.
Again, science tells us that a human being is human. Which then leads to the question of what does it mean to be human and how shall human life be treated. For that we look outside of the realm of strict “science” and are lead to our own moral philosophies about life, many of which are religious in nature, though they don’t always lead one to belief in a higher power per se. Science (and here I mean biology or natural science) and religion (or theology, a science), science and philosophy (also a science), can, and should, coexist peacefully because they all have their own shortcomings separately and therefore compliment each other when working together.
Despite popular belief, secularism is not the answer to all of our problems or conflicts. It is precisely because we have removed God from the equation that many of the problems we have exist.
One Comment on “Stick With Science”
Chelsea, I think you may have misunderstood my position. My point is that our side — the side in favor of protecting the lives of fetal human beings and embryonic human beings — often “concedes” science to the opposition: referring to scripture when we should be quoting from the science textbooks that make it clear that these embryos and fetuses are nothing less than human beings.
This should be our Point #1., especially because those on the other side of these issues tend to liken us to Stone-Age Luddites who think the radio works because there’s a little man inside spinning records. That’s perhaps the most frustrating thing about this issue: science textbooks tell us that fertilization brings about a new, unique human being, and then we’re told to stop injecting “religion” into the debate.
Now, once we all understand that these embryos are human beings, THAT’S where our morality comes in. For some, morality comes from their religious beliefs; for others, it doesn’t. Regardless, once we know what, or rather WHOM we’re dealing with here, we then must realize that these young human lives deserve protection…not because they’re “made in the image of God” (though it’s perfectly fine to believe that they are), but simply for the same reason that it’s wrong to kill homeless people, or prison inmates, or ANY human beings, for the purpose of medical research.
The point of my post is NOT anti-religion in the least. It’s simply making the point that we need to use scientific arguments in concert with our basic human sense of right and wrong. Monotheists, polytheists, atheists, and agnostics must put their differences in belief aside and work together to protect the unborn, who, according to SCIENCE, are human beings.