ChristiansUnite Forums

Some people have a hard time figuring out when a human becomes a human.
When do you believe life begins and why do you feel that way?

Life beginns at Conception, when cells start dividing. Cells are alive.

When a sperm enters the egg,
How can it not be life and grow and develop. If the fetus has no life at conception how does it have life at birth? The very development of the fertilized egg is proof of life at the moment of conception. God has not set in place physical life to come from something physically dead during the gestation period. It just does not compute.

Ollie

Sperm are alive.
I think the real question here should be - When does the soul enter the human... I agree with DW and Ollie. At conception

 The issue here is obvious. Abortion of convenience is murder.

Bronzesnake

What of an inconvenient abortion?

 I hope you're joking Reeb!  ???

 I think you are, but just in case, let me clarify.
If a woman's life is in jeopardy, then I believe God would permit an abortion. If a woman simply doesn't want to be pregnant, and decides to abort - that's murder - especially when adoption is an option.
I believe no one has a right to tell a woman what to do with her own body. I also believe no one has a right to kill the child, which is a seperate life, and not part of the woman's own body. It is "in" her body, not "her body"

What about rape? Should abortion be ok then? I don't know.
What do you think?

 Bronzesnake.

I always thought this question was covered in God 101.  ;D

Life began when God created the first living microscopic cell in Genesis.  Human life began when God breathed life into Adam, thus turning “the dust from the ground” into human cell tissue.  Therefore, an egg cell and a sperm cell exclusive from one another are technically life.  However, they are part of the host’s body (the man’s or the woman’s) until which time they become one – conception if you will.  At that instant in time a whole new human and a brand new soul begins life’s journey and deserves all the human rights denied him or her by the “Pro-Choice” (I loath that term) infanticide crowd.  

I agree that life begins at conception.

Is it ok to use birth control pills?

Call me 'chicken', but I would like to see the reasoning of a few others before I make up my mind on that one.
 :)
My knee-jerk reaction is that any type of birth control used within the marriage to prevent conception is okay...

The main way that bc pills work is to prevent conception.
However, there is a back up to the pills that will prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.
This does not always work and sometimes a baby is born in spite of the abortificant factors of the pill.
However the abortificant factors work more often than not. Therefore the fertilized egg usually will not implant, causing the woman to miscarry usually before she suspects she is pregnant.

If life begins at conception, is it ok to use birth control pills?
Many Christians seem to think that it is ok.
But I don't see how it can be ok because I believe life begins at conception.

Is the “rhythm method” and as far as that goes (let’s stretch it a bit) – “marital abstinence” birth control?  Condoms?

I notice that most are with the "at conception" idea, meaning at the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg.

What about this:
Jer. 1
"...before thou wast in the womb, I knew thee..."

Evangelist,
That's exactly what we've been waiting for you to explain to us.
 :)
(Doesn't that verse imply we were spirit before we were 'life'? Or.. does it imply God knew we were going to be born?)

When did God begin?

Life begins at conception: the conception of the human, or the conception of humans in the mind of God?

As for birth control, I never took any because it wasn't right (for me, anyway-I don't know for anyone else).

I would say, though, that even if you take it, it would only prevent "accidental" birth....those that God has planned for you (if any) would happen anyway, birth control or not.

Did Sarah not have a barren womb and God filled it?

 :)

Here is what Mr Kerry has to say on the subject.

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate discussed his views on abortion, sex and violence in the entertainment industry, and his upcoming acceptance speech at Democratic National Convention. The following are excerpts from the interview.

Peter Jennings: You told an Iowa newspaper recently that life begins at conception. What makes you think that?

Sen. Kerry: My personal belief about what happens in the fertilization process is a human being is first formed and created, and that's when life begins. Something begins to happen. There's a transformation. There's an evolution. Within weeks, you look and see the development of it, but that's not a person yet, and it's certainly not what somebody, in my judgment, ought to have the government of the United States intervening in.

Roe v. Wade has made it very clear what our standard is with respect to viability, what our standard is with respect to rights. I believe in the right to choose, not the government choosing, but an individual, and I defend that.

Jennings: Could you explain again to me what do you mean when you say "life begins at conception"?

Kerry: Well, that's what the Supreme Court has established is a test of viability as to whether or not you're permitted to terminate a pregnancy, and I support that. That is my test. And I, you know, you have all kinds of different evolutions of life, as we know, and very different beliefs about birth, the process of the development of a fetus. That's the standard that's been established in Roe v. Wade. And I adhere to that standard.

Jennings: If you believe that life begins at conception, is even a first-trimester abortion not murder?

Kerry: No, because it's not the form of life that takes personhood in the terms that we have judged it to be in the past. It's the beginning of life. Does life begin? Yes, it begins.

Is it at the point where I would say that you apply those penalties? The answer is, no, and I believe in choice. I believe in the right to choose, and the government should not involve itself in that choice, beyond where it has in the context of Roe v. Wade.

Jennings: Can you imagine yourself ever campaigning against abortion?

Kerry: Well, I don't think — let me tell you very clearly that being pro-choice is not pro-abortion. And I have very strong feelings that we should talk about abortion in a very realistic way in this country. It is a very complicated, incredibly important moral issue that people have to face, also. And if you talk to any woman, as I have, who has faced that choice or who's been raped or who's suffered incest or who's faced that kind of choice, there are huge moral implications.

I think leadership needs to honor that, those moral implications, appropriately, and I think we need to adhere to the standard that Bill Clinton, in fact, so adeptly framed, that abortion should be rare, but legal and safe. And that's the standard that I apply. But I think we should talk more about alternatives to abortion.

Jennings: If I were really skeptical, Senator, I would say that when you use the phrase "life begins at conception," you're attempting to speak to those people for whom that is a slogan, making them totally opposed to abortion.

Kerry: Not in the least. It's a belief that is a belief of mine. It's consistent with everything I've always said over 35 years of public life. It is not a new statement, but it is consistent with my personal belief system about who chooses and what happens. I do believe we should talk about alternatives to abortion. I think we should talk about adoption. I think we should talk about, I think it is responsible to talk about abstinence, but I also believe you should talk about proper education of people — sex education.

You need to have proper knowledge about use of condoms to avoid AIDS. You need to be smart about these things. So what we need to do is have an honest dialogue and not succumb to the cynicism that sort of reduces these things to simplicity. It's not simple. It's a very complicated, highly emotional, very searing decision. I don't want the government making that decision for people, and that is a bedrock belief. But it doesn't change what I believe about how life goes on.
**********************************************

Seems to me he wants it both ways.  Flip flop as usual.


The rest of it is here http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/US/kerry_interview_040722.html  That is if you really need more.

Grace and Peace!

 :-X  :-X  :-X

"Personhood in the terms that we have judged it to be in the past"?????   Not sure I understand that.  

But, if I had been aborted in the first trimester, my personhood would not be here today?   I think he is just trying to appease both sides here.

Grace and Peace!

I don't know that it implies the existence of our spirit before we were "life" in the same context and connotation that it means to the Mormon, for example.

But.....since God is omniscient, it would certainly suggest that He knew all about us before we ever attained "personhood" (isn't that a namby-pamby way of saying something?)....or life.

Because of the Mormon conception of pre-existence (and the eastern idea of the same/reincarnation), I'm not really enamored with the idea of being a disembodied spirit floating around "up there" waiting to be put somewhere.

Simply, God knows us before we are conceived.....I would then take that to mean that He knows we are alive by His definition....not the Supreme Courts.

Even the scriptures tell us at conception. Look in Jer. the first
chapter and see when the L-rd called him to preach

What methods of birth control are acceptable for couples to use?