[For the uninitiated: Theomorph is an atheist lexivore and Jerry Nora is a Catholic MD/PhD student with penchant for bioethics. – Funky]
A week ago, Theomorph posted some thoughts about cloning on his blog. Below I have the questions that he poses in bold and his own answers in italic, and my own counterpoints are in plain text.
Tuck in, and happy debating!
"Ales Rarus is out [of my list of notable Pittsburgh bloggers]. I just find his prattling about the nuances of his fantasy belief system to be really uninteresting….[H]is site is just about as interesting as someone who writes about Hobbits everyday or the Great Pumpkin, which is to say not interesting at all." – Philip Shropshire
At least that’s what my favorite troll said a couple months ago. It seems he just couldn’t stay away, though.
"Searching for a respectful eulogy [of John Paull II]? Then I would look at choir boy faced Ales Rarus (He’ll ban your contraception but, hey, he’s a guy who talks to God so he knows best lil’ ladies…). Here’s a predictably glowing excerpt praising God’s top personal assistant:"
He goes on to mention a papal post on another Christian blog, Unspace, for which he has considerably more respect. It struck me as pretty balanced, fair, and respectful, especially given that it’s written by a non-Catholic. I’ll have to take a closer look at Unspace and see what it’s all about and why Mr. Shropshire likes it so much.
I must confess I have ulterior motive for investigating Unspace as well. Later this week, Rob and I will be participating in a blogcast hosted by Mike at Pittsburgh Webloggers. Stay tuned for details….
Theomorph, our resident atheist, has asked an astute question in a comment to yesterday’s post about Terri Schiavo.
"If suicide or murder are wrong because they contravene God’s alleged desires for the course of a life, how can you not apply the same reasoning to technological attempts to extend a life in the face of otherwise insurmountable difficulties? I.e., if a person would die without medical intervention, how is medical intervention also not a contravention of God’s apparent desires? If "rights come from God and God alone," then the right to live also comes from God and God alone, does it not? How does one ascertain when God has removed that right, beyond which point all human efforts to maintain life are in opposition to the will or desire of God?"
How do we reconcile God’s sovereignty with modern medicine? Are those who renounce medical and pharmaceutical technology in favor of healing by prayer actually right? How do we decide the will of God? When do life-saving techniques stop being appropriate efforts and start being contrary to God’s wishes?
What say you, Christian readers of my blog?
Wow. This message from a former Christian provides a lot of food for thought. It’s far too long to adequately excerpt it here, but I’ll give you this snippet to whet your appetites.
"Finding Christianity’s truth began to appear to me more like having to tilt your head and squint and stand back far enough, until you began to see how the claims of Christian apologists ‘matched’ what scant partisan evidence there is in the N.T. In the end I found myself standing back so far that I was outside the fold."
It’s well worth reading and I’d be very interested in discussing it here. After you’ve read it, please come back here and answer these questions.
Christians: Do statements like Ed’s challenge your faith? If so, how? If not, why?
Atheists/Agnostics: Do stories like Ed’s remind you of your own? Explain.
Somestimes I just have to scratch my head and say, "Huh?"
I mean, contrast the Unspace (moderate/conservative Christian who sings the church choir) on the Dobson attack against Spongebob vs.crazy Funky Dung’s defensive take that there is a homosexual conspiracy that needs to be fought and the criminals killed, by implication I guess. (Read this for more on this kind of pathology logically extended…)
Do I or did I ever believe that there’s homosexual conspiracy? Did I ever imply that the criminals ( I assume he means homosexuals and their co-conspirators) be killed? Would I ever suggest such a thing?!?
No. I merely suggested that people should dig through caches and archives in search of the evidence Dr. Dobson spoke of. If it’s there, that’s news. If it’s not there, it’s still news. Apparently, it’s there. That doesn’t mean I think their’s some kind of conspiracy (a pink scare, if you will). It does mean that WAFF has some explaining to do.
Now who’s the paranoid? BTW I won’t be linking to this bizarre critic of mine. "I just find his prattling about the nuances of his fantasy belief system to be really uninteresting."