Trump and Harris on abortion

I watched the Trump and Harris debate tonight. I think Harris did better than Trump. I think Trump missed a lot of opportunities. I think the moderators got too involved by participating in the debate, correcting Trump and arguing with him when that was Harris's job, not theirs.

Speaking of missed opportunities, Harris articulated her pro-choice views very clearly. She thinks the right to abortion is rooted in a woman's right to decide what to do with her own body. Trump, however, did not articulate his point of view very clearly or respond to Harris' argument, and so missed an opportunity. This is what I think he should have said in his two minutes:

If abortion were justified on the basis that women have the right to decide what to do with their bodies, then abortion would be justified through all nine months of pregnancy. However, most people, including pro-choice people, do not think abortion is justified through all nine months. Consistency demands that abortion is not justified on the basis that women have the right to decide what to do with their bodies.

Why is it that even pro-choice people are against late stage abortions? It's because the more developed the unborn become, the harder it becomes to honestly deny that it's a living human being. The fact that it's a living human being is the reason even pro-choice people oppose abortions in the third trimester in spite bodily rights. That means whether it's a living human being is the real issue, not bodily rights.

There is no stage of development in which something that is non-human turns into a human. The unborn is human through all stages of development. It's alive through all stages of development, too, because otherwise there would be a miscarriage. That means it's a living human being through all stages of development. If we oppose abortion in the latest stages of pregnancy because it's a living human being, and if it's a living human being through all stages of pregancy, then to be consistent, we must oppose abortion through all stages of pregancy.

I don't know whether Trump is really pro-life or not. I've never seen any evidence that he really understands the issue. I get that same impression with a lot of republicans who claim to be pro-life. I think they claim to be pro-life because they think they have to in order to get elected. Fewer of them are doing that these days because the tides are turning.

I have thought for a long time that pro-lifers needed to focus more on the moral question of abortion rather than the legal question. I've expressed this point of view to a lot of pro-lifers who have disagreed with me. Since Roe v. Wade got overturned and a few states have banned or limited abortion, there has been a huge backlash. There are more pro-choice people now than there were before. I think this is owing to the fact that the law was changed before hearts were changed. The law was changed before moral points of view were changed. I think I was right that pro-lifers should have focused on the moral question before the legal question and that the moral question should have had the greater emphasis. I said more about that here.

Questions for God

If you could interview God and ask him anything, what questions would you ask? Here are some things I'd like to know. Feel free to leave a comment sharing your own view, even if speculative.

1. How big is the universe?

2. Are there other universes?

3. How much life is in the observable universe?

4. How much life is in our galaxy?

5. How much intelligent life comparable to our own is in the universe/galaxy?

6. Where is the closest extraterrestrial life?

7. Where is the closest civilization of beings comparable to us?

8. What is the most intelligent being in the galaxy/universe?

9. What is the most advanced civilization in the galaxy/universe?

10. What is the biggest sentient being in the galaxy/universe?

11. Is there a limit to how intelligent a physical being can get?

12. What is really going on in the quantum world?

13. How do general relativiy and quantum mechanics actually fit together? What is the correct theory? Is there a theory of quantum gravity? If so, what is it?

14. What is dark matter?

15. What is dark energy?

16. What's going on inside a black hole?

17. What is the correct theory of time? Is it static, dynamic, or something else?

18. What was the universe like in its earliest stages? Was there an inflationary period? If so, what made it stop?

19. How does the soul interact with the brain?

20. What's it like to be a disembodied spirit?

21. How should we interpret the creation account in Genesis? What really happened literally? How should that inform our theology?

22. What happened to Jesus' body after the ascension?

23. Who is right? The Calvinist or the non-Calvinists?

24. Who is right? The protestants, Catholics, or Eastern Orthodox? What are the major things that each of them get right or wrong?

25. Who would win in a debate between Jonathan Edwards and William Lane Craig if each were in their prime, and they were debating Calvinism vs. Molinism?

26. What did the dinosaurs really look like? What colour were they? What sounds did they make? How did they hunt? (Hopefully God would show me some picures or a video or something.)

27. How did life begin on our planet?

28. What role did you play in the evolution of life, especially human life?

29. How massive is the most massive black hole in the universe, and where is it?

30. What's the best design for a fusion reactor that could actually be useful to humans?

31. Why does the New Testament give the impression that the second coming of Jesus was right around the corner when it still hasn't happened after 2000 years?

32. Are there any Dyson spheres in the galaxy/universe?

33. Why do you allow there to be so much suffering in the world?

34. What's the longest a human could live given optimum conditions but without altering the current genome?

35. What happened to that pocket knife Glen gave me?

36. What should I do with the rest of my life?

37. What are the top ten most important theological truths?

38. What should I know that I haven't asked?

39. What's something I would find really interesting but that I haven't asked about?

40. What's the best way to treat cancer?

41. Besides earth, where is the most habitable planet for humans in terms of atmospheric composition, gravity, etc.?

42. What is the oldest organism in the universe that has ever lived?

43. Who is the smartest human besides Jesus who ever lived?

44. Who is the smartest human currently?

45. How smart is the smartest creature in the universe?

46. What's the best economic system?

47. What does the healthiest diet consist of?

48. Who wrote the gospels?

49. Who is right--Mike Licona or Lydia McGrew?

50. What's the best Bible translation?

51. What will things literally be like once the resurrection and judgment have happened?

52. What are the most fundamental laws of physics? What is the most fundamental physical stuff?

53. What role does the brain play in our conscious experience? How does the brain store memories? How do those memories manifest themselves from the physical brain to our conscious experiene of them?

54. Where is the best place for me to live?

55. What does it mean that we are created in your image?

56. Where is the earliest surviving fragment of any book in the New Testament, and what is it?

57. What happened to the Ark of the covenant?

58. What is the biggest animal in the galaxy/universe that can fly?

59. What happened to the Roanoke colony?

60. What happened to the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon?

61. What was the last original autograph of any book in the New Testament, and what happened to it?

62. What is the expansion rate of the universe, and why are astrophyscists getting different results depending on how they try to measure it?

63. What was the original ending of Mark's gospel?

64. How will the universe change after everything happens in the eschaton? Will the laws of nature be the same or altered?

65. How was the tetragrammaton originally pronounced?

66. What became of Jesus' brothers and sisters? Are any of their descendants around today? Who are they?

67. When and where did the Shroud of Turin come from, and how was it made?

68. What is the answer to the Fermi paradox?

69. What is the real solution to the Twin paradox?

70. What's the best solution to the health care situation in America and everywhere else?

71. Why did David Crocket, James Bowie, and William Travis decide to stay and defend the Alamo?

72. Is it wrong for Christians to join militaries and fight in wars?

73. Is there anything inexplicable about the applicability of math to the physical world that I'm just not seeing?

74. Are there any animals besides humans that believe in God, gods, or any sort of spirits or ghosts?

75. What is the correct view of epistemology when it comes to foundational beliefs, especially synthetic a priori beliefs? How is knowledge ultimately justified?

76. What is the best chess opening if you are white? What is the best response to that opening if you are black?

77. Are there brute facts? If so, what are some examples?

78. Where did Robert Harper come from, and who were his parents?

79. How much total gold is in earth's crust?

80. Where are the most well-preserved dinosaur remains, and what kind of dinosaur is it?

81. Where is the biggest naturally occuring gold deposit in the solar system?

82. Where is Planet 9 (formerly Planet 10), and why is it so hard to find? What is it like? Does it even exist?

83. Are there any civilizations that are alien to each other but who have made contact with each other? If so, where are they? What's their story?

84. Are space and time quantized? If so, what is the smallest unit of space and time?

I may add to these later.