{"id":1406,"date":"2012-07-06T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T12:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/06\/a-world-of-contradictions-redux"},"modified":"2012-07-06T12:59:12","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T12:59:12","slug":"a-world-of-contradictions-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-world-of-contradictions-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"A World of Contradictions: Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

For several years, I wrote and maintained a worldviews blog called Espresso Roast<\/a>\u00a0(toward the end, I invited a few friends to contribute, as well). Though I have long-since stopped writing on that blog, I do keep it online because there were a lot of things I commented on that I feel are still relevant to the world we are living in now (makes it sound like I wrote it fifty years ago). \u00a0So, I thought I’d go through some of the more important things I think we need to consider and re-post them here from time-to-time. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“A World of Contradictions” deals specifically with the topic of abortion, but more broadly about our tendency to disengage our critical thinking in order to more easily adopt logically opposing views that suit our personal agenda or flavor of “truth”. \u00a0My hope is that you will consider this example and use it as something of a template in order to evaluate other instances of this in our culture today. \u00a0The ability to recognize it leads to the ability to live consistently and rightly in a crazy world of contradictions.<\/p>\n

The following was originally posted on November 24, 2004…at 8:45 a.m. \u00a0<\/p>\n

a world of contradictions<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
although I know that it is a sign of our current times, i still never cease to be amazed at our culture’s ability to embrace contradictions. we live in what many have labeled a “culture of death” because of our acceptance of abortion. this is an issue that divides our country at every election and practically every day in between. people vehemently defend the woman’s right to choose while others defend the baby’s right to live.<\/div>\n

supposedly, the issue has been settled by the courts. the supreme court ruled that life begins at birth. well, then there comes the peterson case in which this guy is charged with murder…two counts. the fetus which isn’t yet a person is now given rights. that’s right, the right to live, and scott peterson is charged with fetal homicide.<\/p>\n

the most recent <\/span>instance<\/span><\/a><\/span> of this type of crime came out this morning in louisville, where i live. a man has been charged with killing his unborn child by beating his ex-wife. a 19 year old man was arrested tuesday afternoon for beating his 18-year-old ex-wife who is in stable condition at a local hospital. according to the report, “her 5-month-old unborn fetus died after what police said was the latest of beatings the young woman suffered.”<\/p>\n

first, it’s hard not to feel absolutely enraged by the level of brutality and cold-hearted cruelty demonstrated by this man (and i use that term loosely). i suppose this, in part, speaks to one of the prevailing attitudes: either 1. this man truly didn’t care that he could kill this child, 2. wanted to kill the child, or 3. didn’t even view it as a child. either way, we see demonstrated a devaluation of human life.<\/p>\n

then there is the whole idea of fetal homicide. exactly how can there co-exist two laws on the books, one that says doctors can kill unborn children but nobody else can? is that not completely irrational? help me here, because i don’t see it. if i’m right here, i assume that it goes all the way back to the woman’s body thing. i think what we have is that a woman who has become pregnant, for whatever reason, has been given the charge of declaring human value. it seems to me that if the woman wants<\/em> the child, even unborn, the child is<\/em> a person…a human being. if the woman doesn’t<\/em> want the child, the unborn child is not<\/em> a human being. even on this level, there is a terrible contradiction. regardless of the judgment<\/em> of the woman, the unborn is either a child or it isn’t. there cannot be, in reality<\/em> (though i often question whether many actually live in that realm), two women standing side-by-side, one carrying a non-human, potential child…a fetus, and the other carrying an unborn human being…a child, determined to be so simply because each of the women have judged them to be so. sounds crazy, but i think that’s really what is going on within our legal system, and our culture at large. i suppose this is what we get when we have a legal system divorced from a transcendent, almighty God who alone is equipped to make those judgments. we have to make decisions like this that we have demonstrated our inability and incompetence to do so intelligently…in short, we were never designed for this.<\/p>\n

so, i suppose we will continue to live in our duality, accepting, if not embracing, the contradictions we face in morality, ethics, religion, politics, and i suppose the list could go on and on. actually, i hope that is not the case. i hope those of us who believe in a transcendent, almighty and sovereign God will make our voices heard…not with a graceless condemnation on those caught up in the contradictions, but with compassion and love for a world caught up in the confusion and a message of hope that is found in the Author of life and order.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For several years, I wrote and maintained a worldviews blog called Espresso Roast\u00a0(toward the end, I invited a few friends to contribute, as well). Though I have long-since stopped writing on that blog, I do keep it online because there were a lot of things I commented on that I feel are still relevant to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,61,113,160,258,395],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-mG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1404,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/difficulty-facing-a-world-of-contradictions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1406,"position":0},"title":"Difficulty Facing A World of Contradictions","date":"July 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In my recent blog post related to the contradictory stand on the value of human life in American culture, I claimed that, according to the law of the land, a fetus is deemed human according to the desire of the mother. If the mother wanted to give birth to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apologetics\/Worldviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-new-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1406,"position":1},"title":"A New Day","date":"January 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to my new journal. You perhaps know that I operated a blog called Espresso Roast for several years that is still up and running but put on ice, so to speak. All of the posts there will be preserved and accessible, but will not be added to anytime soon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3788,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/my-gear-staresso\/","url_meta":{"origin":1406,"position":2},"title":"My Gear: Staresso","date":"July 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's one for my fellow coffee geeks. Recently, my family spent two-and-a-half weeks visiting extended family in Texas and Mississippi. \u00a0If you know my wife and me at all, you know we are kind of coffee snobs (I figured I'd just own it). \u00a0At home, I roast my own beans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Gear"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/staresso.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-deal-breaker\/","url_meta":{"origin":1406,"position":3},"title":"A Deal-Breaker","date":"September 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As a pastor, I don\u2019t officially endorse candidates. I am a registered Independent who makes every attempt to take a biblical approach to issues related to politics. \u00a0Though I try to refrain from talking about specific candidates and believe it is wrong to turn a church pulpit into a political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apologetics\/Worldviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1405,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/just-fyi-this-country-meaning-the-us-which-i-assume\/","url_meta":{"origin":1406,"position":4},"title":"Just FYI, this country (meaning the US, which I assume is where you live) is not a theocracy, which means that the laws of this country (including the laws regarding abortion) should not be based on any one religion (or holy book) in particular. So just because your religion teaches you to think that abortion is morally wrong doesn\u2019t mean a thing in terms of whether or not abortion should be illegal. So do you have any non-religious reasons as to why abortion should be illegalized?","date":"July 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, sure. 1. \u00a0Abortion kills innocent life. 2. \u00a0Killing innocent life is, by definition, murder. 3. \u00a0Murder is illegal. 4. \u00a0Therefore, abortion should be illegal. That\u2019s not religious. \u00a0","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3101,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/taking-down-the-giant\/","url_meta":{"origin":1406,"position":5},"title":"Taking Down the Giant","date":"August 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know that I have been singing a song with essentially one verse of late: Stop abortion!\u00a0 Now, you may reasonably ask, \"Are you just jumping on the anti-abortion bandwagon since that's the popular issue of the day?\"\u00a0 My response to such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture\/Pop-Culture)"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}