Thread by @Stonekettle

It amuses me that a rather large number of you are currently arguing in my timeline about the moment when "life" begins.

This is the rock that this argument always founders on.

1/

The argument founders, because you're not starting at the beginning.

When, where, how, why life BEGINS is irrelevant to the debate...

... unless you first establish that life MATTERS.

2/

Now is life important? Is it?

What? What's that? Define "life?" Okay, let's see: life is a condition of biological existence distinct from ...

What?

Oh, not like that. Because obviously not all LIFE matters.

You mean define HUMAN life, right?

3/

Define human life.

Define it beyond a collections of animate cells, beyond mere biology, beyond science.

Right? That's what you're saying. Intelligence. Self-awareness. Soul. Some immeasurable, unquantifiable fraction of the Divine. That's it, yes?

4/

Humans are SPECIAL. We have to believe that, otherwise we're just ... meat quailing beneath the terrible stars, nothing more than a biologic process, then we die and they throw dirt in our faces and the worms eat us.

So, we have to define "human life" as special.

5/

Bad news: We're NEVER going to agree on that definition.

Good News: We don't have to.

We just have to agree that human life is special. Sacred. Unique. Important to the universe or god in some way. THAT'S the beginning. That agreement, right there.

6/

We just have to agree human life is special.

Aye, but that's the rub, isn't it?

Human life isn't sacred. You don't think so. No, no, don't bother. You know it's true.

AS A RACE, of all the things we humans value, human LIFE isn't even in the top 20.

7/

Our leaders, political, religious, military, tell us human life is sacred -- THEN, with not sense of irony they send us out to kill other human beings to save that life.

Whenever we talk about protecting human life, it somehow ALWAYS ends up with us TAKING human life.

8/

Hell, in nearly every religion, GOD (whatever flavor you like) wipes out human life with wild abandon. The Christian God killed every first born child in Egypt. He drowned the entire world, every human less eight.

Doesn't sound like humanity was all that special to Him.

9/

Those who shout the loudest about the supposed sacredness of human life often point to RELIGION for justification.

Ironic, don't you think? When the history of religion is so often drenched in oceans of human blood?

Maybe it's just me.

10/

And we humans put the gods to shame.

If human life was sacred, then guns would be illegal, nuclear weapons would be immoral, armies, the death penalty, poverty, disease, hunger, all of the things that kill human beings by design or accident would be anathema to us.

11/

If human life was indeed important to us as a species, as a race, as a civilization, then we'd be doing everything we could to protect ALL of it.

If we truly valued human life, then we would ensure every life had value.

12/

Repeat: If we truly valued human life, then we would ensure every life had value.

We would work to give every human life a chance to reach its maximum potential. Education. Healthcare. Opportunity. Access. Equality. Food. Clean water. Safety. LIFE.

13/

If we TRULY valued human life, then we would work to ensure that ALL human life had the best future we could offer -- and yes, among many other things I'm talking about climate change here, in topical and rather urgent example.

14/

But the truth of the matter, quod erat demonstrandum, is that we as a species don't care about human life.

We don't.

Oh, we care about the lives that matter to US, our race, our nation, our tribe, our god, our kids, but the rest of them? We don't care about them at all.

15/

So, don't speak to me about abortion, about the sacredness of human LIFE, when you don't give a damn about the future of the planet, when you prize the warrior over the peacemaker and the teacher, when you'd build walls to keep out human life...

16/

...and pull the ladder up after yourself, when you don't think all human life deserves liberty, justice, access to healthcare, clean water, adequate food, a decent place to live, education, safety, and the right to define themselves as they will.

17/

The truth of the matter is that you DON'T think human life is sacred.

You don't.

Your god doesn't.

Don't get bent out of shape. I don't either. Go to war, that'll cure you of this idea right quick.

The difference is that I'm honest enough with myself to admit it.

18/

You want to argue about abortion?

You want to argue that abortion is immoral, an affront to the human condition? You want to argue that from the position of your politics, your religion? From morality?

Please.

I have nothing for you but mockery and derision.

19/

This isn't about the value of human life.

If it was, well, then we would be living in a very, very different world.

And if you want to talk about building THAT world, the one where ALL human life has dignity, respect, and value, then I'm all ears.

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