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 091 - Christian Communication
Episode 090 - Deacons and Communication
Episode 089 - What Could We Do?
Episode 088 - The End of the World (As We Know It)
Episode 087 - Fr. Robert Spitzer and Intellectual Culture (rerun)
Episode 086 - Indianapolis Gold Mass
Episode 085 - Albert the Great, the Medieval Synthesis, and a Faith That Works
Episode 084 - Gold Masses, Politics As Religion, Jordan Peterson
Bonus Episode - SCS and Gold Masses with Jonathan Lunine
Episode 083 - Astrobiology and the Search for Life with Jonathan Lunine
Episode 082 - Extraterrestrial Life and Biosecurity with Jonathan Lunine
Episode 081 - The Exoplanet Revolution with Jonathan Lunine
Episode 080 - The Culture of "Science vs. Religion" with Jonathan Lunine
Episode 079 - Conversion and Witness with Jonathan Lunine
Episode 078 - Fr. John Hollowell
Episode 077
Episode 076 - Megan Levis, part 2
Episode 075 - Megan Levis, part 1
Episode 074 - Karin Oberg
Episode 073 – Jonathan Lunine
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