Before we determine if we can kill something, we need to know what “it” is. Is the unborn alive? Is it human? And, is killing wrong?
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Hello, and welcome to Unapologetic, a podcast about defending, not apologizing for, our Christian convictions. Today we’re going to talk about abortion, and one small segment of how we can contend for the life of the unborn. Today we’re just going to simply establish, is the unborn something that’s alive? And human? All too often, people want to say, “the unborn isn’t alive or it’s not an actual human.” So we need to be able to deal with those objections.
(0:33) Abortion involves killing something that is alive. Most people would say. So before we can applaud it or condemn it, we have to know what that something is. Now, some people want to say it’s just non-viable tissue mass. It’s a potential human being, or maybe it’s a human that’s not a person. Or it’s just a fetus. But if the unborn is just any of those things, then no one needs to give any reason for why it can be disposed of. However, if the unborn is in fact a genuine human being, then there is no possible reason good enough to allow for the institutionalized mass-murder that is occurring today to continue.
(1:14) So, as you can see, the issue of abortion really comes down to one question: what is the unborn? Is it alive? Is it human? These are the questions we’re going to answer.
(1:25) So, is it alive? Well, the unborn is the product of a living sperm joining with a living egg that then creates what, by all accounts, looks to be a living zygote, which is a fertilized egg. Which then grows, by getting bigger, by adding cells to itself. So, how would you get a living cell, a sperm, that combines with a living cell, an egg, that combines to form something that is not alive? That doesn’t make any sense. And how would that not-alive thing be adding to itself by taking in nutrients and expelling waste? By any reasonable standard, that’s something that’s alive.
(2:05) Now, if that, for some reason, is not alive, then at what point does a baby become alive? So, at some point, it’s going to come out of its mother. It has been birthed and it’s considered alive at that point. So when did it gain its “alive” status? When it went 7 inches down the birth canal? See what doesn’t make sense is that the baby comes out alive, but it’s not alive when it’s insider her. What changed? What was growing that whole time? How did two alive cells come together to make something that was dead? None of these questions make any sense, unless the unborn is actually alive!
(2:43) So, we’ve looked at some easy lines of thought, to prove and demonstrate that the unborn is alive and it’s just, frankly, silly to say that it’s not. So we’ve established that the unborn is alive, or reestablished, maybe. But we still have to answer the question “what is it, what is it that’s alive”? Is that it an actual human being? Well I think we’ve made this question way too complicated in our society for some reason. I’ve a good friend named Reagan, who, when he was in college, was in a conversation about abortion with a classmate. And this classmate was saying that the unborn is not a human. And Reagan very good natured guy, said, “it’s not a human, well, what is it? Is it a turtle that’s growing in there? Are we not sure?” Well, Reagan’s reply gets to the silliness of this situation. Because what could possibly be growing in there if it’s not human? What do two humans come together and mate to reproduce? Another human.
(3:48) With any other species, people have no trouble here. Two dogs come together and make a dog. Two alligators make an alligator. Two of any species come together and make another member of that species, but when it comes to humans, we’re suddenly not sure what two humans coming together creates. Who knows? It’s up for grabs, we’ll have to tell when it comes out. But 100 of every 100 births have resulted in a human child. So I think we’re very justified in saying that what comes out is human and it doesn’t suddenly become a member of the human species when it comes out of its mother. It’s not a turtle inside and then becomes a human outside. So where does it gain its human status? Once again, when it comes down those 7 inches of the birth canal? Well that doesn’t, that seems very artificial. Right? That seems like someone just made it up, that it’s a human when it’s outside, but it’s not a human when it’s inside. Because those are dog puppies inside of its, mother; they don’t suddenly become dogs when they come out.
(4:51) So we shouldn’t apply odd reasoning to the unborn human child just because it’s popular today to kill them. No, the unborn is alive, as we’ve demonstrated, and it’s also human. What else could it be that is the product of two human parents?
(5:10) The third question we’re going to deal with is, “is killing wrong? Is it wrong to kill the unborn?” So it’s a human child, ok, some people have admitted that recently, and they’re still in favor of abortion. So we need to establish, is it wrong? Well any discussion about the value of life needs to be in the context of an objective standard. If you remember, objective standards are features of reality. They don’t really have to do anything with my opinions or my preferences or my thoughts. So it’s not like the best flavor of ice-cream, which is subjective. This is objective.
(5:42) Well, a good objective standard is the Bible. And from the very beginning, the Bible has had a great track record on human rights. Now, all God-followers have not had a great track record on human rights. But the Bible and what God has communicated to us can not be faulted for that. Because in the very beginning, God created humankind in His own image. ‘And in the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them.’ So killing is wrong because it takes innocent life without proper justification. Any time we take the life of an image-bearer of God, that is a gravely important issue. And we can’t do it indiscriminately. The classic definition of murder is, ‘the unjustified taking of innocent life.’ Well, what could be more innocent and defenseless than the unborn child inside of its mother’s womb?
(6:38) So in future weeks, we’ll consider if there’s proper justification ever to take the life of the unborn, but what we have to say is that it’s a human life, so it should be treated like all other human lives when it comes to the issue of life and death matters. The most fundamental right is the right to be human. I mean, how is it consistent to say, “we shouldn’t discriminate against black people” (for instance), if it’s ok to murder them before they’re born? And don’t be confused, the media doesn’t often talk about this, but the African American population of the United States is about 12.6% of the total people. But, abortions of black children account for 35.4%! That’s a huge number! And if you factor in the abortions of Latino women, that’s another 30%. The majority of the children aborted in this country are minorities. The majority aborted are minorities.
(7:38) How is this not a human rights issue? If we’re supposed to not discriminate based on race when you’re born, how come we get to discriminate based on race when you’re not born? Human rights should apply from the moment you become human, which as we’ve seen, is the very moment of conception.
(7:58)Well I hope you’ve now learned some simple and powerful lines of thought to show that the unborn is alive and that it is human. And that murder is the unjustified taking of innocent life and what could be more innocent than a child? We always say, “the innocence of a child,” and a lot of times we’re talking about someone who’s three or four. But how much more innocent is the unborn child?
(8:23) In future weeks, we’re going to talk about if it’s ok to kill the unborn because of its’ smaller size, or the fact that it’s less developed, or that it lives in a different environment, or has a higher degree of dependency. We’ll also talk about tough cases, like rape and incest and what women would be forced to if abortion were illegal. We’ll talk about all of those in future weeks on UnApologetic.
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