I must first start off by saying that I do not believe in God. People who read the title will obviously become confused, however, what I will try to conduct here is a thought experiment. After the recent death of Barnes George R. Tiller, a doctor who provided late term abortions, I thought it was only appropriate to contemplate, if there were a God, what would He do?
Of course there is no real way of knowing what God would do in a situation where he was confronted with people who performed, or had, an abortion. This is because God doesn't come down and speak to people personally. He has never been spotted on the corner of 42nd and 3rd handing out information on what to do about people who believe in the right to life over a person's right to choose. So there are a few ways, as an atheist, and an amateur philosopher, to hypothesize, what might be going through a hypothetical creators mind when events such as the death of Dr. Tiller occurred.
Just a small point to make, I will be focusing on a hypothetical God as outlined in the bible. The rules and demeanor I would assume for this God come from the actions of the God Yahweh in the bible. The reason I have chosen this God's views as the hypothetical God to focus on in this post is because:
1. He is the God most people are familiar with and
2.He is the God that most people think have the power to do something about he abortion issue.
One hypothesis may be that supporters of "God" are closest to him, and know his will better than anyone, so they must know what "God's Will" must be. When I see articles like the recent one in the LA Times, it is obvious this hypothesis is false. God, being all powerful, all knowing, and all loving wouldn't perpetuate the killing of babies with the killing of adults. Of course I am only talking about the God of the new testament, who commonly spoke of loving ones neighbor and turning the other cheek. The God of the old testament was worst than Hitler, killing off thousands of people and civilizations in the name of the Jewish God. Because He had promised the Jews so much land that he would commonly tell them to go into a village and kill every living thing in it.
This is seen even in the times of Moses, when he came down the mountain with the ten commandments and saw God's people worshiping a golden calf. God swiftly had his people killing each other in an attempt to purify themselves.
And when the God of the old testament wasn't telling people to kill each other, he himself was doing the killing. In the story of Noah's Ark, God plays favoritism and chooses Noah to build an Ark. After the Ark is built and all the animals are saftely upon it, God quickly starts a huge storm which kills everyone on land, who was not in the Ark, and every living creature on land who was not in the Ark.
We again see God commiting genocide in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah. Again God plays favoritism and decides to save one person in these Villages, Lot and his family. Lot's unfortunate wife turned around to look at the destruction of the exploding city, and was transformed into a pillar of salt. Of course, Lot was one of those cool guys who don't look at explosions.
So perhaps the God of the Old Testament would kill off people because of their abortionist views, but the God of the new testament certainly wouldn't. It is also important to note that the God of the Old Testament was the same God that gave the commandment Thou Shalt Not Kill. In this sense, the people doing "God's Will" and killing off these abortion clinic doctors would never be graced by God enough to enter the "Kingdom of Heaven". But of course, because there is no God, and there is no heaven, all we have are a bunch of murderers and dead bodies (not to mention the mothers that may desperately need abortions without any safe place to turn to).
Of course the God of the new testament was a cool guy. Jesus often hung around prostitutes, and murderers. He often forgave people for whatever they had done in the past and was loving to everyone. I believe that if Jesus was here he would be on the side of pro-choice. The reason is because Jesus thought there was a righteous way to live, but he also believed that whether you lived that way or not was your choice. I never heard of Jesus killing anyone because they did not believe in God. So if we want to be just like Jesus, we should all be pro-choice.
However there is another hypothesis I am neglecting. The hypothesis that God IS doing something about the pro-choice movement. He certainly hasn't come down from heaven and made any great announcements, but he has said something by NOT coming down and making a great announcement. He is basically saying that he doesn't exist or he doesn't care. In which case pro-lifer's should not shout in the streets that it is an abomination to kill a zygote.
If the only excuse you have for being against abortion is your religion, then you need to look closer at what God really wants. Do you not think that if God had something against a woman's right to choose that he would do something about it? And don't you think that if God were going to do something about it that it would be more peaceful, and loving than anything a person could come up with? Of course many religious people are extremely uncivilized so when letter's are produced that threaten people because they perpetuate the right to a woman's choice, then I can only say that this is what we have come to expect.
Of course there is another argument that does not rely upon a persons religion for why we should be against abortion. That argument is that all life is precious. That the pain a fetus (or zygote) receives when it dies is enough to stop abortion in it's tracks. Of course I have to disagree. A fetus would need a fully developed nervous system to feel pain. In the case of abortions, a date could be set on when it is thought a baby has a nervous system advanced enough to feel pain. Of course, if the argument is that living things shouldn't feel pain, then the pro-lifer's should also be strict vegetarians, as I am sure any fetus given an injection to die slowly feels far less pain than a cow does when it's throat is slit. They should also campaign for the rights of chickens to live (I am not sure at what level a young chicks nervous system is formed, but I do believe that eggs are still okay).
However the pro-life movement for some reason stops at humans. It does not consider any other species right to life. This is not surprising because these are the same people who go hunting every summer. They believe (and the argument becomes a religious one again), that God gave people a special right upon this earth. This is sad, for what they do not see is the more we kill the things around us, the less likely we will be able to persist in the future.
Now, my argument seems one sided, but I am not calling pro-lifer's evil. I am not saying they are stupid or that they deserve to die. As an atheist I have strong moral standards against demeaning people, and against resorting to ad hominem attacks. Every LIVING person has the value of their mind. And because of this value, I will give a link to some pro-life advocates views on why abortion is bad.
It is my hope that you see this list, and see their hostility towards the other side.
In my opinion it is not anyone's business to dictate how individuals live their lives. Nor how they treat the lives of the parasites within them (and yes, babies are parasites in the literal sense of the word). I think this is the biggest civil rights challenge of the 21st century. Dealing with people who believe they can impose their views on others. I think the focus should come off from pro-choice and pro-life arguments. It should come off from pro-gay and anti-gay marriage arguments. It should come off from an atheists rights to be free from religion vs peoples rights to have freedom of religion. All these groups - Woman's activist groups, pro gay marriage groups, and pro atheism groups, should work together on a new and bigger campaign. Perhaps it could be called - If you don't like what's going on in my house than stop being so damn nosey, campaign. Or the freedom to live life according to your own views campaign.
In this way the only right that can be taken away from people is the right to tell other people how they should live. This would make everyone happier, even the anti-gay marriage, antiabortion, anti-atheism crowd. The only reason they get so upset is because they are out protesting in front of abortion clinics, and in front of places where gay people marry. Jesus believed in spreading the word of God, but he did not believe in hating people who had a different opinion than he did. For some reason people seem to have forgotten what the word love means. We should all be loving our neighbors no matter who they are. If they happen to be gay, and your anti gay, then try your best not to see them, or move. You have no right to protest in front of their houses, or to tell them how to live. If "protesting" behavior continues, then I would love to see homosexuals in this country set up an anti-straight campaign. If straight people have the right to tell gay people how to live, then it should go the other way around too.
Atheism is also included in the argument. Luci, who replied to one of my blog posts said "Becoming an atheist means committing social suicide; you are now being judged more than a criminal is judged." Of course I am not a criminal, I am an American. Unless some new thought crime law was enacted that I don't know about, I have no reason to believe there is a God. And people should stop judging me because of this view. We should get together sometime, atheists, homosexuals, and abortionists. We can form an organization (another name for it might be AHA, Atheists Homosexuals and Abortionists). We have power in numbers and our main goal should be that no matter what your views are, as long as they do no harm to any living person (who is already born), then you have the right to live your life free from people who believe they have the right to dictate how you live. Until such a law is enacted American soil will be in a perpetual state of unrest.
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