Miscellanea Agnostica

By now you probably have heard about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s remarks this Sunday on the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings about when life begins. I won’t even begin to address the idiocy of a member of Congress making Catholic doctrinal declarations. I will say, however, that she had a valid point. As the Washington Post reports:

On the news show on Sunday, Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Catholic who supports abortion rights, said that the question of when life begins has been a subject of controversy in the church and that over the centuries, “the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.”

On this at least, she is technically correct, and demonstrably so. Even though the RC Church likes to tell everyone that its position — that life begins at conception — has never changed in all of Christian history, this is simply historical revisionism. In fact, the current RC doctrine is only as old as Apostolicae sedis, a bull issued by Pope Pius IX in 1869. Prior to that, positions had varied considerably, from Church doctor to Church doctor, and over time.

To set the stage: Prior to Christianity, one of the most common views was that ensoulment occurred only at the point where the fetus physically resembled a human being (of course, this an indefinite boundary and can be subjective; moreover Aristotle, one proponent of this view, complicated it by saying that males were ensouled at 40 days and females at 80). Some of the Church Fathers, such as Tertullian (late 2nd century) asserted that ensoulment occurred at conception, and some others agreed with him. St Augustine, however, veered back toward the classical Greek view, and it became common after him to consider ensoulment as occurring at “quickening” — the moment when fetal movement is first noticed. The “ensoulment at quickening” was confirmed by many, including Pope Innocent III and St Thomas Aquinas.

Although this idea vacillated a bit, it was not until the 19th century that RC doctrine was officially changed to what it is now.

The Catholic Church frequently claims its doctrines are eternal, or ancient, when they are not; for instance, celibacy for priests and matrimony as a sacrament are both late-medieval notions and unknown for over half its existence. So it’s not unusual for the Church to attempt revising history — it’s reflexive for them. As it turns out, historically the most common Roman Catholic doctrine is not the modern “conception ensoulment,” but the “quickening ensoulment.”

For more information on the history of ensoulment doctrine in Christianity, I suggest this page on the Religious Tolerance Web site.

It’s fashionable these days to knock conventional medicine (also known by the adjectives “western,” “occidental,” or “allopathic” — I think a better description is “evidence-based”). People love to spout tired canards like “it doesn’t treat the whole person,” as if that makes any sense … ever seen a conventional doctor cure a broken leg by amputating it, knitting the bone together, then reattaching it? “Alternative” medicine is supposed to be “better” because it’s “ancient,” as if age were a credential. It’s not … infections were deadly, even if treated with poultices, blood-letting, or other “ancient” remedies, for millennia until conventional medicine discovered antibiotics. And people love to whine about how toxic pharmaceuticals are, how the side-effects are so horrible, etc.

Well, I’ve got news for some of you. A lot of those “natural” medicines are just as dangerous, if not moreso! In particular, ayurvedic remedies have been found to be toxic:

Ayurvedic medicines — herbal mixtures dating back thousands of years in India and increasingly popular in the West — are frequently contaminated with lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study published today.

A fifth of the nearly 200 concoctions tested contained levels of the toxic metals that, if taken at the maximum recommended doses, would surpass California’s safety guidelines.

Dr. Robert Saper, a Boston University professor of family medicine who led the study, said the findings should spur the Food and Drug Administration to start clamping down on the largely unregulated world of pills, herbs and powders classified as dietary supplements.

“It shouldn’t be me trying to figure this out,” Saper said.

Ayurveda is a traditional Indian practice that takes a holistic approach to wellness, employing herbal medicine, meditation and exercise to promote good health. It exists alongside modern medicine in India, with its own network of clinics, hospitals and colleges serving hundreds of millions of patients.

It has spread to the U.S. and Europe with the migration of South Asians around the world and been popularized by figures such as bestselling author Deepak Chopra.

Pardon me if I pass on these wonderfully natural, “holistic” medicines. And remember … poison ivy is “all natural” too, but I doubt you’d want to rub it on a wound.

In northern India there’s a bit of a contest underway between two “religions of peace” in Orissa state. On the one side there’s Christianity, of “turn the other cheek” fame (cf Mt 5:38-42 & Lk 6:27:31), and on the other hand we have Hinduism, which gave us Mahatma Gandhi, who famously used passive resistance to force the British Empire out of India. These two famously peaceful factions are engaged in a bloody struggle to determine which is the truly peaceful religion:

Authorities issued shoot-at-sight orders and police staged marches Wednesday in Orissa’s Kandhamal District, the region worst-hit by violence between Hindus and Christians.

Kandhamal is a primarily tribal area, where Christian missionaries have worked for decades. Almost 20 percent of the district’s people are Christians.

The clashes erupted after the killing of a Hindu leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four others on Saturday by unidentified armed men. The Hindu leader had been leading a drive to reconvert local residents from Christianity to Hinduism.

Since then, angry Hindu mobs have attacked and damaged churches, Christian homes and an orphanage. Some of the victims were burned to death, when rioters set fire to their homes.

Police say rival groups from both communities have attacked each other with axes, sticks and guns, despite a curfew. New clashes occurred Wednesday.

What a marvelous way to celebrate the non-violence inherent in both these ancient religions.

Really, need I say any more?