Nicely done.JohnDonne wrote:Kind of frustrating watching that Crowder video. Not least because they keep using the term "life" as in, "when does life begin?" Life? I wash my hands of it, (literally, as bacteria and microbes will attest.) A more meaningful distinction between a blob of meaty cells and an individual having subjective experiences would be the ability to desire to live. Such an ability (one reasons) would require a brain that is in a certain stage of development, such a stage would require a certain amount of synaptic activity. What exactly that stage is, can be reasoned over, but a zygote and many things after a zygote can probably be safely determined to not be it. We can admit we don't know when sentience begins while also being able to say we can be reasonably certain when there is not sentience, for example, the penny I just found on the ground. So if Crowder is as rational as he seems to be then I think one could get him to agree that some abortions are alright given the correct parameters. And once they lose that battle, it's just a slow march to the planned parenthood from there.
The "sanctity of life" argument is a mystical one. Your "sentience" concept is somewhat scientific, but having been around newborns, their desire to live, if there is one, is only instinctual. In contrast, I use a liberty argument for abortion, which is ideological. No wonder we all come to different conclusions?