"Any human being — regardless of his faith, his religious practice or having no faith — any human being can reason to the fact that human life from conception unto natural death is sacred," [Morlino] argued. "Biology — not faith, not philosophy, not any kind of theology — biology tells us, science [says], that at the moment of conception there exists a unique individual of the human species."First of all, it's just slightly presumptuous — and a lot wrong — to claim that a human being "having no faith" will reason to the fact that all human life is "sacred," which is an adjective heavily larded with unproven and/or unprovable religious assumptions.
Secondly, I'm not aware that the study of biology makes any use of the term "conception." As far as I know, biologists refer to "fertilization," which is a process and not a moment, although there are obviously a series of moments inherent in any process.
Frankly, I don't see what the fuss is about. Biden is simply saying that he doesn't consider it prudent to enforce his personal religious views via the coercive power of government. It's not terribly interesting to me whether or not Morlino believes Biden is a good Catholic.
Hierarchical and fancy dress code considerations aside, it would be likewise every bit as unremarkable if Joe Biden believed Robert Morlino wasn't a good Catholic. And it's more than a little ironic that by virtue of Senator Biden's remarks, Bishop Morlino accuses him of violating the separation of church and state.
I hardly think Biden was or is acting as an official spokesperson for the Catholic Church in the United States Congress and in fact his expressed desire to differentiate between his personal religious opinions and his duties as a lawmaker is a respectable one.
That's at least the spirit of separation which, if not sacred, is certainly worth attending to and preserving.
Ah, what would life in Madison be without our beloved, blowhard bishop? Yes, the infallible church has flipped their position on this one but now they've got an oversimplification of biology on their side. Aquinas was apparently claiming to be listening to God ... pfft.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that Morlino really has a concept of what a separation of church and state is. I also can't really decipher how he thinks Biden is "confusing people about what [Morlino] has an obligation to teach," or how he thinks that somehow has anything to do with the establishment clause.
I wonder if he realizes that the UW, with one of the largest biomedical research complexes in the world, also has some really fantastic bio-ethicists. He should walk down the street sometime and have a chat with Alta Charo about how cut-and-dried things actually are.