Originally Posted by mytmouse57

My religion teaches that the soul identifies with a particular human life and potential personality at the time of conception.

Furthermore, the soul is not a material thing, and therefore, has no material qualities or limitations.

Therefore, asking "where" the sould might reside -- where it is.. how we could detect or measure it.. is a bit like saying:

"Hey Fred, I think the apples on the ceiling are gettting rotten, could you please get me a Corvette so I can adjust the screws on my mother's weasle?"

The soul identifies with or is manifested through its attributes in the body. In other words, think of a beam of light reflecting off a mirror. The mirror might relfect the attributes of the light, but the light is not "in" the mirror and the mirror does not cause the light's existance. The mirror is simply the vehicle by which the light appears in that particular context.

Anyway, this is why I think abortion is a grave and serious matter. I get weary of these rationalizaions, such as "well, such and such doesn't appear until this or that stage of pregnancy."

To me, that sounds like an elaborate excuse. Almost like a four-year old who gets caught eating cookie dogh and then says, "but mommy... I didn't really spoil my supper with COOKIES.. it was just dough... and dough isn't really cookies.. it's just potential cookies... and who is to say the dough would have become cookies...a natural occourance could have prevented the cookies from ever coming out of the oven.. so, Mommy, how can you really say I spoiled my dinner with cookies?"

Yeah, right, whatever.

I'm not opposed to abortion being legal. I'm just saying that if we can admit the actual wieght of the action -- that it is, indeed, the destruction of human life -- then maybe we can finally be honest with ourselves and one another about this subject.