Weekend Egnorance: The Babe Unborn
G.K. Chesterton:
The Babe Unborn
If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale,
If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.
In dark I lie: dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.
Let storm-clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.
I think that if they gave me leave
Within that world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.
They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.
:)
ReplyDeleteThe wife hit full term yesterday. Waiting on that magic moment. Just read her the poem.
Very opportune, Dr Egnor. Thanks :)
Sadly, this wonderful poem will remain unknown to 50 millions aborted babies this year!
ReplyDeleteWorldwide abortions this year
Why is that sad, Pepe? At least the souls of the aborted fetuses will go to heaven, unlike those of their evil baby-killing parents. Had the fetuses been carried to term, the influence of their evil parents would probably have condemned their souls to eternal torture. Is that what you want? Why do you hate them so much?
ReplyDeleteToo bad there are massive, global organizations who oppose any mention of contraceptives, who oppose any research into better methods of birth control, who fight distribution of birth control technology or education about family planning. Too bad that some of the major religions of the world are so sex-obsessed that they cannot permit the love and joy of sex without the burden of pregnancy and childbirth. Too bad so many of the world's men who believe the decision is theirs, and theirs alone, who will bear children and when.
ReplyDeleteNobody enjoys an abortion. Nobody takes pleasure from terminating a pregnancy. But with so many wealthy, powerful organizations aligned in opposition, humanity has been unable to give most women the choice of when to get pregnant and when not to.
If not for the influence of Islam and Catholicism (which prevent women from making choices prior to pregnancy), there would be a fraction of the abortions we see today.
@troy & RickK
ReplyDeleteHave a look at this video and then come back to comment intelligently!
180 Movie.
Pepe, saw the first 3 min of that movie. Says more about the pathetic level of education in the US than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI live in Europe, I'm from a Jewish family that lost relatives at the hands of the nazis. What's your point?
@RickK:
ReplyDelete(If not for the influence of Islam and Catholicism (which prevent women from making choices prior to pregnancy), there would be a fraction of the abortions we see today.)
The Pill became widely available in the US in the 1960's. Have abortions decreased, or increased, since the availability of the Pill?
Don't you have the slightest respect for evidence?
@RickK:
ReplyDelete[Nobody enjoys an abortion. Nobody takes pleasure from terminating a pregnancy.]
Yea. Planned Parenthood doesn't even charge for them.
Mregnor challenged: "The Pill became widely available in the US in the 1960's. Have abortions decreased, or increased, since the availability of the Pill?"
ReplyDeleteAbortion wasn't legal before 1973 in almost all of the U.S. So you're right, women chose to carry unwanted pregnancies to term rather than go to jail. Which makes your challenge absurd.
Abortion rates are in fact dropping steadily since the 80s.
" it's likely a combination of factors such as better contraception, greater awareness about teen pregnancy and even welfare reform."
Now, if you REALLY thought the soul entered the fetus at conception, and that we should be saving all those babies, you wouldn't focus on human-caused abortion. You would instead focus on the causes of miscarriage. As many as 50% of fertilized eggs are aborted spontaneously without the mother being aware. You're a doctor, you know this.
If you REALLY were trying to rescue all those souls, you'd be outlawing anything that increases the risk of miscarriage. You wouldn't be fighting against condoms and contraceptives designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place.
But by fighting contraceptives you ARE removing choice from women and increasing the risk associated with sex. In that you're in good company right along with the people who oppose the HPV vaccine because it removes the threat of cervical cancer as a deterrent to sex, people who would oppose an HIV vaccine because it makes sex less risky, and Muslim fathers who kill their daughters if they have pre-marital sex. If your goal is to join all these people I've just listed in a global campaign to subjugate women and stigmatize sex, then your opposition to contraception is right on target.
@RickK:
ReplyDeleteSo much hand waving, so little data.
What measure of sexual health and social health (abortions, unwanted pregnancies, teen pregnancies, sex crimes, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce rates, etc) have improved in the interval 1959 (before pill) to 2011(after pill).
No hand waving, no ideology, no "you're as bad as a Muslim" shit.
Just facts. What objective measure of sexual health has improved with contraception?
Michael,
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you provide the answer if you're so keen?
Of course, some of the measures of 'sexual health' you're listing have little relationship to contraception. For example, divorce rates.
And some are related to other factors, such as the provision of sex education and whether it's just abstinence only. Teenage pregnancies appear to be higher in students who have been given just abstinence only instead of comprehensive sex education.
Another problem is that reporting rates vary. If the rate of sex crimes are increasing with time, this may actually be a good sign, indicating that a greater percentage of sex crimes are no longer being hidden. I was tempted to mention Catholic pedophile priests at this point ... but I won't.
@troy
ReplyDelete...saw the first 3 min of that movie...
What's your point?
If you see the whole movie, you will surely get my point!
@Pepe: please summarize it in your own words. I waste enough time on the internet as it is. I have to provide.
ReplyDelete@troy
ReplyDelete...please summarize it in your own words...
Nazi holocaust < abortion holocaust
Summarized enough for ya!
Michael said: "What measure of sexual health and social health (abortions, unwanted pregnancies, teen pregnancies, sex crimes, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce rates, etc) have improved in the interval 1959 (before pill) to 2011(after pill)"
ReplyDeletePeople who take the pill have many fewer pregnancies.
People who use condoms have many fewer STDs.
Which of those statements are not true?
Abstinence-only education does neither of these things.
http://www.openeducation.net/2009/01/05/abstinence-only-sex-education-statistics-final-nail-in-the-coffin/
Now, let's return to "unwanted pregnancies". How would you measure those? How many mothers were asked in an anonymous way (in which their husbands couldn't learn the answer) in 1960 whether they wanted the baby they were carrying? Please point out those studies.
An increase in awareness of unwanted pregnancies does not equal an increase in prevalence. You understand the difference, right?
Pepe,
ReplyDeleteI don't like abortions either. But they are an inevitable outcome of religions that prohibit the use of contraceptives.
It's really that simple. Yes there are other factors, but the truth of the above sentence is irrefutable.
If society could make contraception as easy and stigma-free as taking a daily multivitamin, then you would see fewer abortions and lower incidence of STDs.
But this weird, ancient religious obsession with sex gives all these priests and mullahs the idea that they have a say over what consenting adults do in the bedroom. And Michael is right in there with them.
@RickK:
ReplyDelete[People who take the pill have many fewer pregnancies.]
Pregnancy isn't a disease, so the number of pregnancies is not a measure of sexual health.
[People who use condoms have many fewer STDs.]
Bullshit. The accurate statement is "people who engage in dangerous sexual practices who use condoms have fewer STD's than people who engage in dangerous sexual practices who do not use condoms."
People who are abstinent or chaste (engage in exclusively monogamous married heterosexual sex) have zero STDs.
@RickK:
ReplyDelete[If society could make contraception as easy and stigma-free as taking a daily multivitamin, then you would see fewer abortions and lower incidence of STDs]
We've had that since the 60's. No priest stops you from contracepting. Condoms are everywhere. BCP's are obtainable in every drugstore.
Has the number of abortions and STD's increased or decreased since the 60's?
"Bullshit. The accurate statement is "people who engage in dangerous sexual practices who use condoms have fewer STD's than people who engage in dangerous sexual practices who do not use condoms.""
ReplyDeleteAnd there you have it. Sex with more than one partner in your lifetime SHOULD be dangerous, right Mike? That way, anyone who doesn't live life according to the narrow mold you've defined has a greater chance of suffering.
Tell me, as you sit upon your high judgemental seat - have you had sex outside of marriage? I certainly have. I had several wonderful, loving, sex-filled relationships with beautiful women in which neither of us wanted to be married or have children. We used contraception, avoided pregnancy and never worried about catching or passing along STDs.
That's how the world should work. That's what children should be taught. That's what we will teach our children when they're old enough.
Too bad so much of the world is taught its morality by people like you who believe that, at least for women and gays, sex outside of marriage should be "dangerous".
"If we ban the contraceptives, then there's more chance they'll get an unwanted baby or catch a disease. THAT will teach them not to have sex!"
Please, tell us again about how you're all for freedom and personal liberty, Mike!