Josh,

An important issue in the abortion debate is the argument over when life begins; at conception, at birth, or somewhere in between? I’ve heard many opinions over the years, but one (from a fellow engineer) has always struck me as a possible solution. The logic of the argument goes like this: ‘life’ and ‘death’ are inverse states of existence. Therefore, the set of criteria that define ‘life’ and ‘death’ should also be inverse quantities. Thus, we should define ‘life’ by the inverse of the criteria we use for ‘death’, since those criteria are pretty well accepted both legally and morally (of course there are always edge-cases). For example: if someone is pronounced dead when their heart and brain consciousness stop, then life is defined as conscious brain function and a heart beat (over-simplified of course).

This is a very pragmatic argument. It view’s the woman’s body as analogous to a life-support system, thus rendering null the argument that life begins when the baby can exist outside the mother’s womb. This is an important step, because technology renders this a moving target… at some point, an artificial womb may be able to carry an embryo to full term. I’d be interested to get your thoughts on this.

-Tom

Josh responded to my question on his video podcast LifeReport.

Thanks Josh for the response, but you are too gracious with the praise!

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

“This is one of the first steps necessary for building large-scale computational models of the human brain to help us understand processes that are difficult to observe, such as disease states and recovery processes to injuries…” [emphasis mine]

As an engineer, I’m more interested in modeling the brain for artifical intelligence reasons (call me narrow and selfish if you want). To be clear, I don’t believe that simply cloning the brain will create a living conciousness… I’m more interested in augmenting our existing reasoning power (controversial, I know).

I tend to question the comments made by one of the researchers (maybe I’m reading too much into it):

“We can measure a significant correlation between brain anatomy and brain dynamics. This means that if we know how the brain is connected we can predict what the brain will do.”

Maybe on some generic scale, but I consider us more than just a biological computer. I’ll lay out why I believe this using inductive logic. First, I believe people are fully responsible for their own actions (using the Bible as my base). To be responsible, a person has to be able to make a choice about what actions they will take (free-will vs determinism). Now, assume we are just a biological computer, with predictable, deterministic actions. If this is true, then our behavior is dictated by our biology and we only appear to have free-will. Without free-will, we are not responsible for our actions. Thus, this can’t be true.

Okay, now some would argue that we are a biological computer but with some non-deterministic properties. If this is the case, we still have no responsibility for our actions because they are simply slaves to these random fluctuations. Thus, I hold firm to my belief that we have a soul that transends the physical.

You can read the full results of the study HERE. Or as a PDF.

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith lately. I think all too often Christians confuse hope for faith. There’s a very important distinction between the two: you must have hope to have faith, but you don’t have to have faith to have hope. Look at Hebrews 11:1 again… a part of having faith is “… being sure of what we hope for…“. The problem is that many of us stop there. We know what we hope for, but that’s only the first part of having faith… we have to be “… certain of what [we] do not see.” Faith requires both parts! Substituting hope for faith is like trying to win a race without crossing the finish line… you have to start and finish. The power is not in starting the race… anyone can do that. The power is in finishing. This is why faith is so difficult.

Now consider the power of faith. Matthew 17:20 tells us that faith “… as small as a mustard seed” can move mountains. Now that’s power! Yet, why are so many Christians lacking the power of God in their lives? It is a lack of faith. So many Christians talk, and talk, and talk about faith, but all they really have is hope. They hope God will do this or that, but there is no certainty that he will do it! They try to hedge their bets… they make plans in case things don’t work out… they worry and wonder what the outcome will be. Where’s the faith in that? When you are certain about something there is no second-guessing!

Now don’t get me wrong… there’s nothing wrong with hope. Hope is a great thing and it is a key part of faith, but it alone has no power. Without the certainty that God will do what he promises, the great acts of faith we see in the Bible would never have happened. Faith gives us the confidence to act on Gods promises… hope alone does not. This is why James so powerfully proclaimed:

“Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” (James 2:18)

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26)

It was faith that empowered Abraham to take Issac to be sacrificed. It was faith that empowered David to fight Goliath. It was faith the empowered Jesus to submit to the cross. It was faith that empowered the apostles to preach the good news that ultimately led to their executions.

Notice how faith always inspired fearless action! Hope doesn’t do that… only faith does. That’s why “…certain[ty] in what you do not see” is so important. The certainty of faith removes all fear, all doubt, all trepidation… something that simple hope cannot.

It makes me sad to see so many Christains lossing “faith in faith” because they don’t see God’s power in their lives. Yet, the problem is they never had faith to begin with! What’s even more tragic, is that the world sees so many “faithless” Christains talking about how great and powerful God is. No wonder so many people aren’t interested in Jesus… we proclaim one thing with our mouths, but our lives proclaim something completely different.

My prayer is that the next time we claim to have “faith”, we would look honestly at our actions and see if they reflect someone who is certain about what they are believing for. Faith is a choice, and choosing to trust releases the power of God to work in your lives.