Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
Best Of PoliticsBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd
Search
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Search
Best Of PoliticsBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd


The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
Answer this questionContinue to Shrewd'mThis note won't appear again
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (47) |
Author: albaby1 ✶❂🐝 GOLD
SHREWD
  😊 😞

Number: of 86256 
Subject: Re: fetal personhood
Date: 09/14/26 12:47 PM
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 5
I agree with the first part, that they think sex is reserved for procreation, and that anything else is immoral, but there's a more cynical view of that latter.

I think there's lots of room to be cynical, here. But some religious faiths have pretty consistently been opposed to abortion, like the Catholic Church since about the 1st Century:

en.wikipedia.org - Catholic Church and abortion

...and even for those denominations of Christianity that have come somewhat later to that conclusion, there's still also room to allow for our growing knowledge of human development to play a role as well. After all, that's also around the time we first began to get a good understanding of embryology and fetal development - mid-19th century or so. Prior to that, we didn't really know what was going on in there. After that, it suddenly became very possible - and very difficult - for religious leaders to deal with specific questions about what was going on inside a pregnant woman at exactly which point in their pregnancy. It becomes much, much hard to argue that human "ensoulment" occurs at exactly 40 days (or whenever) as older philosophers and traditions had held once you know exactly what's happening to a fetus at day 35 and day 45 and day 55.

But if you want to be really cynical, you might note that organized evangelical opposition to abortion really didn't get started until the 1970's or so. Which supports an argument that their opposition is more motivated by politics than money - or at least, back then. But having now firmly inculcated their supporters with a belief that human life (and ensoulment) begins at conception, many (most?) of those opponents have grown up with that belief being taught to them all their lives - and have a least come by that precept honestly.
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
Print the post
Members reply directly to albaby1 here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
This community has written 86,214 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
It's going to get worse · 33 recs · 2025
G’day Donny · 30 recs · 2026
Old Related Story · 28 recs · 2026
HCR is a national treasure · 27 recs · 2025
Fascism in America · 27 recs · 2025
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (47) |


Announcements
US Policy FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Best Of Politics | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds | Open Questions | Moving a community