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To: GonzoII

I’ll take it! It is a sad commentary on the state of faith in this nation though, that seeing is believing. I think Jesus addressed this issue when he chastised Thomas. Interestingly, He did invite him to come and put his finger in His hand and his hand in His side.

I can only compare the ultrasound to that same doubting Thomas invitation. After Thomas saw, he did believe.

Sure will be great to see a decline for those of us who believed without seeing :)


3 posted on 05/21/2009 5:40:46 AM PDT by wombtotomb
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To: wombtotomb
"It is a sad commentary on the state of faith in this nation though, that seeing is believing."

Also on the state of reason.

5 posted on 05/21/2009 5:47:05 AM PDT by GonzoII ("That they may be one...Father")
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To: wombtotomb
I think it's less a matter of "seeing is believing" than about "out of sight, out of mind". It's easier to rationalize and fool yourself when you can't see the baby than when you can because we're more emotionally distant from strangers and people we've never seen than people we know and have seen. The ultrasound turns an anonymous stranger into a person you've seen and know exists.

It's not a bad thing that we care more about people we know than strangers that we've never met because we'd go insane if we cared about several billion people with the same intensity with which we care about our own families and friends, but that emotional distancing can be abused to allow people to do terrible things, which is why almost every large scale atrocity involves dehumanizing the enemy.

You can find a good article about how emotional attachment and closeness changes the way people make moral decisions in this article. Basically, see an ultrasound changes an abortion from a utilitarian decision about the fate of an anonymous stranger into an emotional decisions about the life of a person you've seen and know about. It shifts the decision from abstract to personal.

8 posted on 05/21/2009 6:02:03 AM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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