The conversation involving Dr. Condic, Dr. Giesting and Schmitt turned to the complexities of the nation’s debate about abortion. That debate engages a mix of biological facts (which may or may not be probed in the full context of updated knowledge), personal experiences, and deeply held principles, positions, and emotions including authentic sympathy for the circumstances in which pregnant women find themselves. Although providing scientific insights is a crucial advancement of the debate because people deserve to have comprehensive information, the laying out of certain biological facts alone will not necessarily change minds, Condic said.
In many cases, much of the public presentation of the abortion controversy dividing people is manufactured, but there is room for honest discussion on particular grounds. We each can play a part in adding to human understandings in this controversy. People evolve their judgments on the wide scope of the debate incrementally over time.
But the search for a full overview is complicated; indeed, Dr. Condic referred to difficulties she and her brother Samuel Condic encountered (different vocabularies, etc.) in compiling their book Human Embryos, Human Beings. The book aims to bring together philosophical and biological insights about human life at its beginning. In short, the abortion debate requires us to spend more time in listening to each other, asking questions, probing the basis of people’s stances, and less time in simply lecturing, she said.
Paul talked about his experience with identical twins in his family. Twinning is a complex arena for understanding “who you are,” raising core questions with biological and philosophical implications. Our discussion around the microphone extended to research on the topics of compaction and chimeras. Condic has written a book that delves into the complexities. Untangling Twinning is scheduled for publication this summer.
There are also biological phenomena complicating an understanding of our human nature in sexual terms. There can be complex factors differentiating between one’s genetic sex and one’s hormonal sex, Condic said. A very small segment of the population has genetically compound sexual identities. Intersex disorders can occur in a variety of ways, although in the vast majority of cases questions of a person’s gender identity are not grounded in physical causes, Condic said. Studies in some areas raise questions within the LGBTQ community itself. Among many, endeavors focusing on a “gay gene” that would undergird a statement that “I was born this way” have been diminished by a view that gender identity is fluid or is driven by non-genetic factors.
Episode 111 - A Catholic Teacher – Dear Old Golden Rule Days
Episode 110 - To Solve Big Problems: Let’s Get Small!
Episode 109 - Psychology & Spirituality of Crisis
Episode 108 - Masks, Science, Novelty, and Conservatism
Episode 107 - Dick Garrett on Kids, Schools, and Teachers
Episode 106 - Beyond Heisenberg, the Principal Uncertainty
Episode 105 – Dick Garrett: The Kids Are Smart Enough
Episode 104 - Scraping Facts Online: If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Datum
Episode 103 - Richard Doerflinger on Covid-19, Commercial Confidence, and Imperfect Science
Episode 102 - Diverse Isolation Stories Could Bring Us Together
Episode 101 - Pandemics as a Science Problem; Skepticism in a Diseased World
Episode 100 - Hemispheres Playing God
Episode 099 - Secular Franciscans on World’s New Views, Old Values
Episode 098 - Uncertainty Principles, Principled Uncertainty, and Science in Times of Catastrophe
Episode 097 - Social Distancing and Loners in the American Psyche
Episode 096 - How a Strong Nest Can Lift Society Higher, with Darcia Narvaez
Episode 095 - Bridges Built by Song, with musician Micki Miller
Episode 094 - Maureen Condic (rerun, full interview)
Episode 093 - The Great Divorce between Philosophy and Science
Episode 092 - Scientists and Religion with Dr. Tom Ryba
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