I came across Exodus 21:22-25 while performing research for my rebuttal to a reply by C_Andy_3. I would like to thank C_Andy_3 for the discussion that led to my discovery of this passage.
Old Testament quote, emphasis mine (thanks to Mechon Mamre for the RaMBaM translation):
22 And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
This clearly states that the fetus was not a life. In fact, it indicates that a miscarriage could be caused without causing harm. The loss of the fetus can be compensated by mere money. After that, if there is harm, it is life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, ….
First, let me be clear. I am not joking about this. I am being as serious as an atheist who believes that real sin lies only in harming others can be on the subject. For religious readers, if I have any, I hope this encourages thought and dialog. I welcome all serious responses regardless of whether we agree on the topic.
So, here are my points about why I believe abstinence is sinful from both a biblical standpoint and more importantly to me why abstinence only education and the encouragement of abstinence pledges and the like are inherently sinful.
At last, we finally know why God is too busy to stop wars and solve hunger. It’s not just because He is too busy creating droughts, floods, extreme storms, wildfires, and all the rest. It’s because he’s busy interfering in the fair competitions of sporting events. Instead of allowing sporting events to remain fair, the Lord God Ruler of the Universe feels the need to get involved on the field and choose the winner.
At least, a quarter of Americans feel that this is what He is doing.
Why can’t humans dream up a god who is superior to us? What’s the point of creating an imaginary friend to whom one can pray for the temporary suspension of the laws of physics if said imaginary friend is no better than we are?
For the record, count me among the small number who disapprove of the expressions of faith mentioned in the article. I disapprove for the same reason I disapprove of thanking god for rain after a drought. Why not blame god for the drought in the first place?
What the fuck is going on these days? Women, why are you allowing this? Why are these products selling? Is this all part of the repugnican war on women? Are women now allowing themselves to be subjugated in the way that repugnicans want, even down to the products they buy?
I’m sure many who read my blog have been convinced for a while that I’m somewhat of a fear monger with respect to climate change and overpopulation. Perhaps. Before you make up your mind, read this:
The figures come as one of the world’s leading environmentalists issued a warning that the global food supply system could collapse at any point, leaving hundreds of millions more people hungry, sparking widespread riots and bringing down governments. In a shocking new assessment of the prospects of meeting food needs, Lester Brown, president of the Earth policy research centre in Washington, says that the climate is no longer reliable and the demands for food are growing so fast that a breakdown is inevitable, unless urgent action is taken.
Good thing climate change is just a hoax. Dig hole in sand. Insert head. Fill in hole. Ignorance is bliss.
“Armed aggression is no longer the principal threat to our future. The overriding threats to this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages and rising food prices,” Brown says.
One could debate the ethics of a doctor having an affair with a patient. The answer is likely that it depends on the case. No one is suggesting that this case was anything but consensual. In this case though, it’s just a start. This shithead then went on to pressure the woman he impregnated to have an abortion. IMNSHO, women should be free to make that choice on their own without undue influence. But, that’s not bad enough. This Republican member of congress claims that abortion is murder. He fights against abortion rights. Well, he does unless it’s his illegitimate fetus.
Can one get any more hypocritical than this? Is it possible?
250 million years ago, this planet suffered the greatest mass extinction of multicellular life in the long history of the planet. The ocean conveyor current stopped. The ocean became anoxic, meaning it had little or no oxygen. Fish died; sulfur producing bacteria thrived. As the anoxic layer of the ocean reached the surface, hydrogen sulfide gas was released into the atmosphere in toxic quantities. The sky turned green. The mass extinction was brought onto land.
95% of all species on the planet died. This was due to global warming.*
I should note that I am specifically responding to this quote from the FFRF blog post, not the one about the pill and cancer:
Midway through the rally, a glassy-eyed man with an infant came up to me, held up the baby, and solemnly told me: “Contraception would have killed her.”
In some cases, people really do seem to think that not conceiving a child is the same as killing one. Somewhat humorously, they do not seem to make the same claim about abstinence in general, or more specifically about the priests and nuns who disobey God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.” (Actually, this may be a mistaken translation. I believe the original quote was “be useful and multiplex.”)
However, pointing out hypocrisies like priests, nuns, and religious murderers who let their own children die rather than use modern medicine to treat obviously treatable conditions like diabetes will only be a sidebar to this discussion.
The real point will of this post is the obvious fact that every person ever born has died or will die. No one gets out alive. Therefore, 100% of all human deaths have as the root cause conception.
Contraception prevents death.
For the purposes of this post, I am going to assume that those who mistakenly claim that contraception rather than conception causes death are the same induhviduals who believe life begins at conception. It seems a fair assumption. So, for those folks, I would point out not only that about 80% of all fertilized eggs “die” without implanting in the womb, but all of the others die as well. Every fertilized egg is a death waiting to happen, some will merely take longer than others.
So, to you religiose wackos who believe that contraception kills, I say this. Contraception has been preventing deaths since 1850 BCE. Contraception is the only means humanity has ever found to prevent death. Fairy tales won’t do it. Prayer won’t do it. Contraception succeeds where prayer fails.
Prevent death. Get a vasectomy or tubal ligation today. Not ready to make a permanent commitment to preventing death? Try contraception. Many types are quite effective at staving off the grim reaper. Ask your doctor which method is right for you.
I love the somewhat misanthropic tone of this as well as the obvious corrections on these misconceptions.
2 things I’d add:
1. Lemmings often over breed in good years only to be followed by very successful predator breeding as they feast on the lemmings, making it appear that the lemmings died en masse and possibly creating the myth about them.
2. Dodos did not die because of their behavior but rather because of ours. We humans killed them all.
When Population Connection posted this on their official Facebook page, they warned of strong language. If 4 shits and a fuck are too much for you, you’ve come to the wrong blog. The cursing is neither particularly offensive nor in high enough quantity to detract from the content, IMNSHO.
The old elephant is still hanging around the room … has been getting bigger … and is getting seriously pissed off. But, can we mention the elephant yet? For most of us, the answer is no. As usual, Mother Jones created a great cover for this one.
I don’t know that I agree with him on all points, especially about other civilizations. But then, he’s Stephen Hawking and I’m not even making mud pies yet.
A homo sapiens (though not any particular homo sapiens) is suspected in the killing of a homo neanderthalensis between 50 and 75 thousand years ago. As there is no statute of limitations on murder, the investigation continues, albeit with little hope of finding the suspect.
OK, I’m mostly joking about the Iraq War and about any murder investigation. Further, I mean no insult to Iraqis and am not implying that today’s Iraqis are Neanderthals.
Anyway, the article makes an interesting read about a case where we have reason to believe a homo sapiens did kill a neanderthal, long a question in the debate about the role of homo sapiens, if any, in the extinction of neanderthals.
Note that since the word human may be applied to any member of the homo genus, I have a bit of a problem with the Live Science headline. Though, they do get it correct in the text of the article for anyone who bothers to read more than just the headline.
Here are three very interesting articles about evolution. They are not in any other way related to each other, except that each is interesting news. The first talks about a possible split in the human species at a time when there were just 2,000 of us on the planet. *
First and foremost, I must state that this write-up is hatched out of my own little brain and is not intended to be truly scientific. It probably does not even qualify as a SWAG (scientific wild-assed guess).
That said, perhaps it will ring true through plain ordinary logic with a few facts mixed in. Please let me know where I have gone wrong on this. I have attempted to deliberately over-estimate the population to come up with what would be considered a less unpleasant number by all but the most misanthropic among us.
Also, check out the incredibly impressive Heart of the Adirondacks project in the Adirondack State Park, the largest park in the continental United States at twice the size of Yellowstone.
Posted by Misanthropic Scott 
