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Where is Liberty and freedom? Will it someday become extinct?

shmogie

Well-Known Member
[Q: 19325"]Bull! God KNEW that Adam and Eve had no choice but to eat of the Forbidden Fruit, having deliberately placed its succulence right in their path. But why is another story, one you Christians don't understand.[/QUOTE]
Christians clearly understand this issue. I suspect you do not. They were totally free to choose, or refrain. If in fact there was nothing forbidden them they would have had no choice, thus no freedom.

God KNEW they had no propensity, or internal compulsion to make this choice. they were totally and completely able to cooly evaluate and decide based purely upon reason, there were no environmental or needs that would compel this choice
 

icehorse

......unaffiliated...... anti-dogmatist
Premium Member
6. Importance of concern for the welfare of others and charity, and of not hoarding wealth
7. Importance of justice
8. Essential equality of all people, including men and women though with differences in roles and therefore some rights and responsibilities
9. Importance of honesty
10. Importance of modesty

#6 Charity. A great idea, certainly not original or unique to Islam.
#7 Justice. Same as above with the kicker that the system is strikingly supremacist / us vs. them.
#8 Equality. Even if you grant the time and place and overlook the misogyny, the "equality" does not extend to non-believers.
#9 Honesty. Except this isn't so important when dealing with non-believers.
#10 Modesty. Why is this a good thing?

Muhammad attempting to create a community of believers with the above hallmarks against a background of hostility and persecution from those seeking to uphold the status quo. Justice against a background of what was considered normal at that time (not least with regards to the often precarious position of women in society, the treatment of baby girls and orphans, and criminal punishment, which sanctions were harsh by today's standards).

I'm happy to grant that Muhammad was a great politician, a great war-time general, and that he started a new community in a very hostile environment.

It seems as though you're looking at Islam through the lens of historical context, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm looking at Islam as an ideology that's in play in 2018, an ideology that I find to be dangerous and regressive.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
So if homosexuals have a poor impression of Christianity, it's because of people like me who stoke fires of hatred in defense of their dignity and social equality, and not Christians themselves, who think of them as abominations?

It's never the Christians, right? The hatred is always from without.



Except that our roles are not reversed, and the Supreme Court's values were the same as mine. It's been 45 years now, and I'm just fine with it. It's people like you with their hair on fire over it that needs to get over that.



Is your debating now reduced to this? If you had a rebuttal to what I actually wrote, you would have offered it. You preferred to attack your straw man instead. Although others are free to speculate, only you know why you felt that that was necessary.



More bad faith disputation from you. You really do aim low, don't you? Those that don't give obeisance and pay lip service to your religion must be hateful, right? This is what people call playing the Christian persecution card. People like you wave it frequently.
Some of your criticism is warranted, and I accept it.

Certainly hateful alleged Christians, totally disregarding what they say they believe say and do spiteful things regarding homosexuals. They are a minority, but those who have a particular agenda make every effort to portray them as a majority, and as representing actual Christian teaching on the matter. In the political world it is called propaganda. If those alleged Christians had kept their mouths shut, or actually learned and followed the behavior required of a Christian, the propagandists would have no fodder to fire, they would be reduced to telling absolute lies. So yes, those wearing the mantle of Christian are partially responsible for the negative views of the faith on this matter.

There is no Christian persecution card to play in this country, yet. What occurs isn't persecution. There are some rather bizarre and stupid things done in the culture wars by Christian haters, but it isn't persecution.

You say that SCOTUS has represented your position on abortion for 45 years, true. However, it represented mine for 175 years. So your lament is unfounded, if it changed once and the change was in the purview of the court, it can change back to what it was just as easily. That is the way the system works. Just as those favoring abortion worked tirelessly to get it legalized, in a fashion, we are working tirelessly to get it abolished. That is the American way. Especially since the populace is split about 50/50 on abortion in general, although the abortion side is a few points higher. Restrictions on abortion are supported by almost 80% of the population. I personally do not support, legally, the total elimination of abortion, I totally support restricting it, as most Americans do.

So, since Conservatives will be in the majority on the court for generations perhaps, be prepared for unfettered abortion to end.
 
#6 Charity. A great idea, certainly not original or unique to Islam.

No, and neither I nor the Koran claim it to be.

#7 Justice. Same as above with the kicker that the system is strikingly supremacist / us vs. them.

In what ways, in relation to justice?

#8 Equality. Even if you grant the time and place and overlook the misogyny, the "equality" does not extend to non-believers.

In essential ways it does. Not perhaps by today's standards, but in the basic sense.

#9 Honesty. Except this isn't so important when dealing with non-believers.

Except it is. It is only in cases of danger to life that one is permitted to hide one's identity as a Muslim.

#10 Modesty. Why is this a good thing?

Wrt modesty in dress, I believe it reduces the sexualisation of women (and men, who should also dress modestly).

I'm happy to grant that Muhammad was a great politician, a great war-time general, and that he started a new community in a very hostile environment.

It seems as though you're looking at Islam through the lens of historical context, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Yup.

I'm looking at Islam as an ideology that's in play in 2018, an ideology that I find to be dangerous and regressive.

Not necessarily. Depends how it's understood and applied in this day and age.
 

Shad

Veteran Member
Just a random thought here:

Alan Watts, the famous philosopher/spiritualist, once described one of the Chinese Emperors who had imposed so many laws about everything, that the dynasty he ruled over just collapsed. The dynasty that followed was ruled by an Emperor who imposed only a few laws. This dynasty was known as China's 'Golden Age'. I fail to recall the names of those Emperors and their dynasties. Anyone?


I suspect it was the Qin Dynasty as it promoted the Legalist system to the point of tyranny and cruelty. However it's collapse was due to a two weak Emperor that was easily to manipulate. The former was a puppet. The later was a weak leader. Although I doubt Watts had a clue regarding this subject.
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
I suspect it was the Qin Dynasty as it promoted the Legalist system to the point of tyranny and cruelty. However it's collapse was due to a two weak Emperor that was easily to manipulate. The former was a puppet. The later was a weak leader. Although I doubt Watts had a clue regarding this subject.

Did a Golden Age follow the Qin Dynasty?
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Certainly hateful alleged Christians, totally disregarding what they say they believe say and do spiteful things regarding homosexuals. They are a minority, but those who have a particular agenda make every effort to portray them as a majority, and as representing actual Christian teaching on the matter. In the political world it is called propaganda. If those alleged Christians had kept their mouths shut, or actually learned and followed the behavior required of a Christian, the propagandists would have no fodder to fire, they would be reduced to telling absolute lies. So yes, those wearing the mantle of Christian are partially responsible for the negative views of the faith on this matter.

You seem to be trying to distance the homophobic element from the church and depict it as a small, anomalous, faction. You also think that those who notice them and the harm that they do to the homosexual community is some kind of propaganda campaign designed to tarnish and mischaracterize the church's role.

Like atheists, homosexuals are a marginalized and demonized demographic slowly fighting to gain social parity in a culture that largely disapproves of both. Where do you suppose the impetus to depict both groups as immoral, undesirable, untrustworthy, and second-class citizens comes from? Is it the NFL? Are they the ones judging these scapegoated groups? How about Domino's Pizza? Maybe it's Amazon.com, or the Rotary Club, or the Red Cross, or the banking industry.

Atheophobia and homophobia are prominent aspects of American culture and have been for some time, not a recent hiccup caused by a handful of outliers getting a disproportionate amount press.
  • "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."- American President George H. W. Bush
Also, to an outsider, the church is defined by what it says and does, not what scripture says, which can be used to defend either side of many if not most moral positions. Pointing to the words of Jesus doesn't change what the church is or the public face it presents. Among other things, it's a propagandist delivering more than one bigoted message to indoctrinate a nation.

I realize how maddening reading things like that is to you, and I regret that my words do that if they do, but they are not meant to slander, but rather, to offer ideas that have been considered at length, are sincerely believed, and constructively offered. I consider this phenomenon to be a blight on the lives of millions, and I'd like to see it gone.

And I can't expect any help from you. You can't even see it, which is why you see me as hateful, and roil when I post opinions like these. That's how you view criticism of what you consider sacred, and its source - not as a dispassionate difference of opinion, but as a hate-filled attack.

There is no Christian persecution card to play in this country, yet. What occurs isn't persecution. There are some rather bizarre and stupid things done in the culture wars by Christian haters, but it isn't persecution.

Christian haters? Isn't that you playing the persecution card right there? Anti-theists like me don't hate Christians. I don't hate you or any other Christian posting on RF, and I can remember anything from anybody else that I would call hatred for Christians.

What anti-theists object to is things like the bigotry, the anti-intellectualism / anti-scientism, and the selfishness of the church including its anti-Americanism evidenced in its incessant effort to penetrate the cherished church-state wall and impose Christian values on everybody. We believe that Christianity is for Christians, and should not bleed into the lives of unbelievers where it is probably unwelcome.

When the American church, which is losing cultural hegemony every decade, takes it place beside the other religions in America unable to inform public policy or opinion, then it will cease to be of any more interest to humanists than say the Wiccans or Hindus in America, and what you call hating Christians will disappear.

Conservatives will be in the majority on the court for generations perhaps, be prepared for unfettered abortion to end.

Perhaps so. If so, be prepared for a lot of unwanted babies to be born, young mothers forced to drop out of school and and become waitresses, those that can afford it to go abroad for safe abortions, and a bunch of back alley abortions.

I recently watched the Netflix documentary on Gloria Allred, a prominent American feminist activist and attorney, who was raped at gunpoint at age 25. She was asked if that was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. She answered no, it was the back alley abortion she needed because of the rape (pre-Roe v Wade). She began hemorrhaging and developed a fever of 106 degrees due to infection. She nearly lost her life.

And why?

Because some people think that abortion offends Jesus, and all Americans should be subject to that belief whether they share it or not - that those who defy the church on this matter should expect the state to treat such people as criminals on its behalf.

That's the selfishness of the church to which I referred. Freedom of religion to such people means freedom to obey their religious precepts or go to prison.
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
[Q: 19325"]Bull! God KNEW that Adam and Eve had no choice but to eat of the Forbidden Fruit, having deliberately placed its succulence right in their path. But why is another story, one you Christians don't understand.
Christians clearly understand this issue. I suspect you do not. They were totally free to choose, or refrain. If in fact there was nothing forbidden them they would have had no choice, thus no freedom.

God KNEW they had no propensity, or internal compulsion to make this choice. they were totally and completely able to cooly evaluate and decide based purely upon reason, there were no environmental or needs that would compel this choice[/QUOTE]

What happens in a child's mind when you tell him NOT to do something, a something that not only appears harmless to the rational mind, but is also inviting to the senses, like 'Don't eat that ice cream, OK?' The child, in that moment, has subjugated 'reason' to desire, and is ruled by desire. In fact, he 'reasons', directed by his desire, that it is OK to do what he has been told NOT to do.

Is there a difference, in terms of crime, between putting a nice looking 'bait car' in the ghetto where poor people of color primarily live, and putting the same car in the white man's affluent downtown?

What you fail to understand it that God wanted A&E to eat of the so-called 'Forbidden Fruit', a reason you will not understand due to your indoctrination as an orthodox Christian. Only the Christian mystic will understand the true meaning of this allegory.
 
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godnotgod

Thou art That
No need for the condescension; people just use the word “spiritual” in many different ways, so I can’t tell what you mean by the world until you tell me which meaning you use.

But it seems you’re using the “impairment of the parts of the brain that generate our sense of self” meaning of “spirituality;” fine... but what does that have to do with freedom? Are you trying to describe these sorts of experiences as “spiritual freedom?”

Sorry, no condescension intended. Either you know or you don't; that's all.

No, I am not referring to what occurs in the brain as the source of the experience. Because you answered as you did, it appears to me you are one of those who see all human experiences as originating in the brain. I disagree, but this is not the place for that discussion. I am referring to an experience that comes from outside the brain; outside of Reason, Logic, or Analysis. Where we differ, I am sure, is that you most likely think that consciousness emerges from the electro-chemical reactions within the brain, aka 'Emergent Theory', and I see all materiality, ie 'the Universe', as emerging from consciousness. What we call 'mind' and 'I' and 'self' are the product of a sculpted consciousness. I am talking about consciousness as it exists in its unconditioned state, prior to any sculpting. This unconditioned consciousness is none other than the spiritual experience. It is accessible when sculpted consciousness, ie 'the mind', is completely subdued. So no, spirituality is beyond self; it is, in fact, selfless.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Christians clearly understand this issue. I suspect you do not. They were totally free to choose, or refrain. If in fact there was nothing forbidden them they would have had no choice, thus no freedom.

God KNEW they had no propensity, or internal compulsion to make this choice. they were totally and completely able to cooly evaluate and decide based purely upon reason, there were no environmental or needs that would compel this choice

That's an odd conception of both freedom and human nature.

No restrictions, no freedom? It's the other way around, Remove the restriction of the forbidden fruit and there is one more choice, this more freedom. To misquote the poet, freedom's just another word for something else to choose.

And you think that young people with little life experience have no internal drive to explore and test limits? Have you ever been a parent.

You can talk about choice and unfettered free will, but I guarantee you that if you put a 100 pairs of people just old enough to understand that they are not to open the cookie jar in the room that you leave them alone in, that many will take a cookie anyway, and more will struggle with the urge to do so. They will not resemble what you described above - "completely able to cooly evaluate and decide based purely upon reason" - even if you don't toss in a talking snake telling them that you lied to them and its really OK to eat a cookie.

I've seen footage of children placed in such circumstances. They are very conflicted, and many take the cookie. Do they really deserve more than a slap on the hand or chastisement? Isn't the pain of childbirth, working the land, the possibility of hell, etc.a little over the top?
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
No, I am not referring to what occurs in the brain as the source of the experience. Because you answered as you did, it appears to me you are one of those who see all human experiences as originating in the brain. I disagree, but this is not the place for that discussion.
If we're talking about the sort of experiences that can be triggered by drugs or extreme physical conditions (e.g. sweat lodge, holotropic breathing) then we're talking about the effects of something physical.

I am referring to an experience that comes from outside the brain; outside of Reason, Logic, or Analysis. Where we differ, I am sure, is that you most likely think that consciousness emerges from the electro-chemical reactions within the brain, aka 'Emergent Theory', and I see all materiality, ie 'the Universe', as emerging from consciousness. What we call 'mind' and 'I' and 'self' are the product of a sculpted consciousness. I am talking about consciousness as it exists in its unconditioned state, prior to any sculpting. This unconditioned consciousness is none other than the spiritual experience. It is accessible when sculpted consciousness, ie 'the mind', is completely subdued. So no, spirituality is beyond self; it is, in fact, selfless.
So you're talking about things that you have no rational justification for.

You're also talking about things that have no apparent relation to what this thread is about: freedom and rights.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
That's an odd conception of both freedom and human nature.

No restrictions, no freedom? It's the other way around, Remove the restriction of the forbidden fruit and there is one more choice, this more freedom. To misquote the poet, freedom's just another word for something else to choose.

And you think that young people with little life experience have no internal drive to explore and test limits? Have you ever been a parent.

You can talk about choice and free will, but I guarantee you that if you put a 100 pairs of people just old enough to understand that they are not to open the cookie jar in the room that you leave them alone in, that many will take a cookie anyway, and more will struggle with the urge to do so. They will not resemble what you described above - "completely able to cooly evaluate and decide based purely upon reason" - even if you don't toss in a talking snake telling them that you lied to them and its really OK to eat a cookie.

I've seen footage of children placed in such circumstances. They are very conflicted, and many take the cookie.

you assume these folk were like you and I, they were not. They had no knowledge of good or evil, they just were. There were no intrinsic or societal pressures to make them do what was forbidden. No bad parents to emulate, no crime going on all around them, no need for anything.

Their environment and psycheś were so different from ours, the comparison cannot be made ,

Yes, I am a parent, but physically, morally, and spiritually I am not perfect and won´t
be this side of the grave, neither are my children.

These folk were absolutely perfect in that they had no physical degradation that begins for us at birth, no inherent desire to do what is wrong, no emotional rebelliousness.

The snake may be symbolic, or literal, it is irrelevant to me. The idea behind it is. There is a powerful spiritual being that can assume any form it chooses. You might say that these beings exist and function in one of the many dimensions that theoretical physicists say exist. The purpose of this being and those like it is to thwart God. Why ?

The Bible says there was major conflict among these beings, they are called angels, but the term is corrupted so I don´t use it. The issue was, interestingly enough, one of your issues, I think. Obedience to God was seen as restrictive and unfair. These beings wanted to make choices beyond obedience, and find out for themselves what was best for them.

All things physical, including humans, were created as a different type of being, to, as the Bible says, be fruitful multiply, live good lives in harmony with God and with his love for them. The tree, symbolic or literal, was their guarantee of free choice. If purely on an intellectual level, they chose the path of knowing evil, and its antithesis good, they would first suffer the ultimate penalty for disobedience, but would also be able to do their thing as those spiritual beings were doing. The whole point being they were free to do as they chose, determine their own parameters and limitations, their own rule over themselves.m The rebellious spiritual beings said join us, we are finding ourselves, we are liberated, God no longer rules us.

Here is the most critical point. God allowed this to go forth, rather than just eliminate all that disobeyed. The only restrictions were that the rebellion would be isolated only to earth. History and todayś headlines show the result of all this individual freedom and wisdom.

For the rest of the universe and all created beings ( there are faint hints in the Bible of beings existing in the universe in the physical realm) God put himself on trial. Was he an arbitrary being suppressing freedom, or was he setting parameters in the best interest of those ordered to stay within those parameters. The greatest object lesson there could be for the universe.

We see the result. God has provided a lifeline for those who choose it, and he will ultimately clear the wreckage away, but in the meantime the experiment continues, and in millenia the results are always the same.
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
If we're talking about the sort of experiences that can be triggered by drugs or extreme physical conditions (e.g. sweat lodge, holotropic breathing) then we're talking about the effects of something physical.


So you're talking about things that you have no rational justification for.

You're also talking about things that have no apparent relation to what this thread is about: freedom and rights.

On the contrary. Spiritual freedom shows us what real freedom is at it's core. Everything else follows from that. What we have on the books is the result of intellectual understanding of 'freedom', codified. It is not the actual, living experience. You can experience flying, or write a book about it. They are not the same.

Children have been raised in cages from infancy, and have come to believe that to be the norm. They voluntarily return to their cages when playtime or mealtime is over, as dictated by the parents keeping them captive. Like these children, humans have been conditioned to believe that we are to behave and obey authority, for whatever reason, that is, until the sh*t begins to hit the proverbial fan, and authority does not match reality.

Freedom cannot be 'justified'; it can only be experienced. Trying to explain it in rational terms is like trying to explain the exhilaration of flight to someone who has never flown, or the sight of the Sun to the prisoners in Plato's Cave. Until they exit the cave and see for themselves, they will not have a clue.

What most humans experience is a state of altered consciousness called 'I', as virtually everyone has been socially indoctrinated into their culture, with it's doctrines, laws, morals, mores, taboos, etc. To overcome these conditioned factors is to re-awaken an unconditioned state of awareness that is not dependent upon self or sensory awareness, or the brain. It is this unconditioned state of awareness that is always present, that is the interpreter of all perception. You burn your finger on a hot stove and there is no thought; there is only the response 'Ouch!', which comes from consciousness. Immediately afterward, there is the thought 'I burned my finger!', which is conditioned mind kicking in as 'I'. Spiritual freedom is the release from conditioned consciousness, which stored in the brain as one's life experiences, images, titles, feelings, etc.

You distinguish the physical from the non-physical. IOW, you are still seeing reality from the POV of the subject/object split in the mind, which is a conditioned awareness. In reality, there is no such distinction in nature. The thinking discriminating mind sets up that conceptual framework, and then sees it as reality. If and when that split is healed, you will no longer see subject and object; observer and observed. Conditioned awareness as 'I' is the obstacle, as the 'experiencer of the experience', where no such 'experiencer' is to be found. It is like saying that you are watching a 'whirlpool'. No such 'whirlpool' actually exists as a thing. You are only watching 'whirling water' without a 'whirler of whirling water' called 'whirlpool'.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
you assume these folk were like you and I, they were not. They had no knowledge of good or evil, they just were. There were no intrinsic or societal pressures to make them do what was forbidden. No bad parents to emulate, no crime going on all around them, no need for anything.

Their environment and psycheś were so different from ours, the comparison cannot be made ,

Yes, I am a parent, but physically, morally, and spiritually I am not perfect and won´t
be this side of the grave, neither are my children.

These folk were absolutely perfect in that they had no physical degradation that begins for us at birth, no inherent desire to do what is wrong, no emotional rebelliousness.

The snake may be symbolic, or literal, it is irrelevant to me. The idea behind it is. There is a powerful spiritual being that can assume any form it chooses. You might say that these beings exist and function in one of the many dimensions that theoretical physicists say exist. The purpose of this being and those like it is to thwart God. Why ?

The Bible says there was major conflict among these beings, they are called angels, but the term is corrupted so I don´t use it. The issue was, interestingly enough, one of your issues, I think. Obedience to God was seen as restrictive and unfair. These beings wanted to make choices beyond obedience, and find out for themselves what was best for them.

All things physical, including humans, were created as a different type of being, to, as the Bible says, be fruitful multiply, live good lives in harmony with God and with his love for them. The tree, symbolic or literal, was their guarantee of free choice. If purely on an intellectual level, they chose the path of knowing evil, and its antithesis good, they would first suffer the ultimate penalty for disobedience, but would also be able to do their thing as those spiritual beings were doing. The whole point being they were free to do as they chose, determine their own parameters and limitations, their own rule over themselves.m The rebellious spiritual beings said join us, we are finding ourselves, we are liberated, God no longer rules us.

Here is the most critical point. God allowed this to go forth, rather than just eliminate all that disobeyed. The only restrictions were that the rebellion would be isolated only to earth. History and todayś headlines show the result of all this individual freedom and wisdom.

For the rest of the universe and all created beings ( there are faint hints in the Bible of beings existing in the universe in the physical realm) God put himself on trial. Was he an arbitrary being suppressing freedom, or was he setting parameters in the best interest of those ordered to stay within those parameters. The greatest object lesson there could be for the universe.

We see the result. God has provided a lifeline for those who choose it, and he will ultimately clear the wreckage away, but in the meantime the experiment continues, and in millenia the results are always the same.

These are religious beliefs that I don't share It seems peculiarly convenient to describe Adam and Eve as not like us in order to blame them for the fall, but if they aren't like us, why are we paying for their sins?

What makes us think that such creatures would be human if they are so alien from us? In what sense are we made in God's image if we're noot even made in the image of the earliest human beings?

And why aren't we like them and they like us? Have we evolved entirely new psyches? Entirely new instincts and proclivities? 'm pretty sure that human children have been willful and disobedient since there have been human beings.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
These are religious beliefs that I don't share It seems peculiarly convenient to describe Adam and Eve as not like us in order to blame them for the fall, but if they aren't like us, why are we paying for their sins?

What makes us think that such creatures would be human if they are so alien from us? In what sense are we made in God's image if we're noot even made in the image of the earliest human beings?

And why aren't we like them and they like us? Have we evolved entirely new psyches? Entirely new instincts and proclivities? 'm pretty sure that human children have been willful and disobedient since there have been human beings.
¨These are religious beliefs that I don¨t share¨, OK. They were perfect humans, we are flawed humans, still human, still in the image of God. Sigh, If you have had none of the environmental and genetic influences that we have had, of course their psycheś would be different. New instincts and proclivities based upon environment and the knowledge of evil as well as good. Human children, yes
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
The legal standing of personhood, and the the status of human aren;t the same.

Using this definition, "personhood", I continue to point out the casualness of how this term is used. In a very specific and often used finding with a huge amount of case law to support it.

In most states, if not all, If I, plan to, then kill my pregnant wife, I will be charged with TWO murders. How is that possible if I didn't kill two people ? Why aren;'t all these double murder convictions overturned ?

Could it be that the definition of person ( and Blacks in in error, a newborn is a person, but cannot take up any responsibility) is strictly used ONLY for the purpose of abortion as was enumerated in Roe ?

I assure you it has been used as a defense in the double murder cases I cited, but those laws have never been found unConstitutional as far as I know.

NOTE: SECOND REQUEST FOR A RESPONSE:

I have provided a legal definition of 'person' via Black's Laws, which you rejected. But you have yet to provide one which is acceptable to you.

'Human' is a status? I thought it was a species.

An unborn fetus cannot speak, think, or act upon its own. It cannot navigate in the physical world; it is totally dependent upon it's mother for its life. It knows nothing of interpersonal relations with any other, other than its mother, which it is unaware of as another person. In fact, even after birth, the infant does not develop a sense of self until around 14 months. It's identity is given to it via social indoctrination and direct experience with the world it interacts with. It is not born with an identity, let alone having one as an unborn fetus. It has no sense of 'I'-ness. Where is 'person', either in the legal or non-legal sense?

As I pointed out, none of the Supreme Court judges allowed the term 'person' to be applied to the unborn fetus, which goes beyond abortion as a limiting factor.
 
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