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 037 - Jill Pasteris: Christian scientist
Bonus Episode - Nicolaus Steno
Episode 036 - Anne Hofmeister on Galactic Rotation, Math, and Glass
Episode 035 - Anne Hofmeister Shakes Up Earth Science
Episode 034 - Stephen Barr on Why to Be a Religious (and Catholic) Scientist
Episode 033 - Stephen Barr on Lemaitre-Hubble Law and the Society of Catholic Scientists
Episode 032 - Science and Saints
Request for Feedback
Episode 031 - Br. Guy Consolmagno: Teaching Science and Human Nature
Episode 030 - Br. Guy Consolmagno: Galileo and Carl Sagan
Episode 029 - Geological Awe
Episode 028 - Absolute Geologic Dating
Episode 027 - Relative Geologic Dating
Episode 026 - The Rejection of Young Earth Creationism in the 19th Century
Episode 025 - Geology after Steno: Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and Fideism
Episode 024 - Geology after Steno: Diluvialism, Neptunism, and Vulcanism
Episode 023 - Clericalism, Sex Abuse, Addiction, and Hope
Episode 022 - Nicolaus Steno (Niels Stensen) - The Protogeologist
Episode 021 - Hypocrisy and Geology: Battlegrounds Between Faith and Science
Episode 020 - Bill and Father Spitzer Talk Intellectual Culture and Education
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