1
“Righteousness exalts a
nation; but sin is a reproach to
any people.”
Proverbs 14:34
“The wicked shall be turned
into hell, and all the nations
that forget God.”
Psalm 9:17 (emp. added)
Just a few short days ago:
An article appeared in the Journal
of Medical Ethics titled, “After-Birth
Abortion: Why Should the Baby
Live?”
“Both a fetus and a newborn certainly
are human beings and potential
persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in
the sense of ‘subject to a moral right
to life.’ We take ‘person’ to mean an
individuals who is capable of of
attributing to her own existence some
(at least) basic value such that being
deprived of this existence represents
loss to her.”
“This means that many non-human
animals and mentally retarded human
individuals are persons, but that all the
individuals who are not in the condition
of attributing any value to their own
existence are not persons. Merely
being a human is not in itself a
reason for ascribing someone a
right to life” (emp. added).
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man
in Our image, according to Our
likeness; let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle,
over all the earth and every creeping
things that creeps on the earth.’”
Genesis 1:26
“The alleged right of individuals (such as fetuses and
newborns) to develop their potentiality, which someone
defends, is over-ridden by the interests of actual people
(parents, family, society) to pursue their own well-being
because, as we have just argued, merely potential people
cannot be harmed by not being brought into existence.
Actual people’s well-being could be threatened by the
new (even if healthy) child requiring energy, money, and
care which the family might be in short supply of” (emp.
added).
“These six things the Lord
hates. Yes, seven are an
abomination to Him: a proud
look, a lying tongue, hands
that shed innocent blood.”
Proverbs 6:16
“If criteria such as costs (social, psychological,
economic) for the potential parents are good enough
reasons for having an abortion even when the fetus
is healthy, if the moral status of the newborn is the
same as that of the infant and if neither has any
moral value by virtue of being a potential person,
then the same reasons which justify abortion should
also justify the killing of the potential person when it
is at the stage of a newborn.”
Not a baby at
7 months?
Biology: A Journey Into Life
Arms and Camp, 1991, p. 557
This account implies
that it is not even
pro tanto morally
wrong to kill patients
who are universally
and irreversibly
disabled, because
they have no abilities
to lose.
Journal of Medical Ethics, January 19, 2012
Opposing Worldviews
“We are the fortunate
mistakes of countless
biochemical morons.”
VS.
“Let Us make man in Our
image, after Our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26
Naturalistic evolution would logically put less value on human life.
This is just a taste of
what happens when
you remove God
from a society.
Where does man get his objective
basis, or standard, for right and wrong?
Originate from man
Originate from God
Evolutionary worldview teaches that
there is no God.
So which man gets to
determine the standard
of right and wrong?
How does an evolutionary
worldview affect the way
we view moral issues?
Infanticide
Cheating
Euthanasia Murder
Rape
Bestiality
Pedophilia
Assault
Assault
Drunk Driving
Abortion
Lying
How do we teach
MORALS
and
CHARACTER
without an
absolute standard
– without God?
Benjamin Rush
Signer of Declaration of Independence
“The only foundation for a useful education in a
republic is to be laid in religion. Without this
there can be no virtue, and without virtue there
can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and
life of all republican governments….”1
“Without religion, I believe learning does much
mischief to the morals and principles of
mankind.”2
Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical
(Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford, 1806, pg. 8
1
Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush, L.H. Butterfield, editor
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951) p. 294
2
Why does this matter?
A person's philosophy of human life
and his origins will inevitably
determine sooner or later what he
believes concerning his destiny. It
will shape what he believes about
the meaning and purpose of his life
and will therefore affect his behavior
in the present world.
Noah Webster
Founding Father
“The moral principles and
precepts contained in the
Scriptures ought to form the basis
of all our civil constitutions and
laws…. All the miseries and evils
which men suffer from vice, crime,
ambition, injustice, oppression,
slavery, and war, proceed from
their despising or neglecting the
precepts contained in the Bible.”
Noah Webster, The History of the