ruusverd:

archosaur-automaton:

fictional stories involving cloning and the “moral dilemma” of whether a cloned human should be considered a person are so fucking obnoxious to me, like from the earliest possible age it never made sense to me why people would hand-wring about the personhood of a clone. that’s just a human being baby, don’t be so weird about it

“but do they have SOULS???”

good question but here’s a better one, are you hungry for a knuckle sandwich

My favorite rabbit trail to drag the “life begins at conception! The moment the sperm meets the egg, a new soul is created!” crowd down is to start theorizing at length about identical twins, naturally occurring clones that divide… after fertilization. It always takes them off guard and completely derails the rant.

Does each twin have half a soul? Is there one full-souled twin and one soulless twin? Did you know that in a lab you can cut a freshly fertilized embryo in up to eight pieces and they will all develop completely? Would this produce seven extra lab-created soul or one lab-created Lord Voldemort split seven ways?

And then we move on to the opposite problem: what about naturally occurring human chimeras, a pair of fraternal twins that collide and merge into one organism with the DNA of both… after fertilization. Does a chimera have two souls? Two half-souls that don’t match? Does one soul kill the other? Both sets of DNA survive, so what determines which soul lives and which dies? Does that make the surviving soul a murderer before it even develops a heartbeat, let alone awareness?

And given that both identical twins and human chimeras are psychologically indistinguishable from anyone else, what does a soul actually do? What are the theological implications, if your theory of soul-at-fertilization requires drastic soul weirdness when confronted with biological reality, but that soul weirdness ends up producing… no effect whatsoever?

(via samwisefamgee)

10 months ago  /  36,977 notes

marten-blackwood:

“Immature people crave and demand moral certainty: This is bad, this is good. Kids and adolescents struggle to find a sure moral foothold in this bewildering world; they long to feel they’re on the winning side, or at least a member of the team. To them, heroic fantasy may offer a vision of moral clarity. Unfortunately, the pretended Battle Between (unquestioned) Good and (unexamined) Evil obscures instead of clarifying, serving as a mere excuse for violence — as brainless, useless, and base as aggressive war in the real world.”

Ursula K Le Guin at it again, being right as always

(via noroithecurse2005-deactivated20)

1 year ago  /  58,375 notes

cunkusevmedi:

(via gewoehnlicherstalker)

2 years ago  /  25,718 notes

sensualites:

SIX LESSONS ON LOVE:

1. Never hide your warmth; simply learn to be more selective about sharing it with anyone else.

2. Understand that you cannot force another person to love you or see your worth. Learn to walk away.

3. Take heed of a person’s actions. It is the truest indication of how they feel towards you.

4. Cultivate an unbridled confidence in yourself, your looks, and your character. You are worth it.

5. Be firm with your standards. Never compromise yourself to appease. That is the highest betrayal.

6. Relationships are an integral part of personhood, but you cannot connect with any other person if you have not met yourself first. There is no substitute.

(via angel1137)

2 years ago  /  12,981 notes