Even if you give them a pass on the soul thing, this is just fucked up. It would take a lot of mental gymnastics to square something like this with an intelligent designer. A designer doing some bad drugs, maybe.

(April 23, 2015 at 5:44 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: I'd never heard of these until I read this article: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman%E...ar-AAbzM0C

It's basically an undeveloped fetus (perhaps a twin) that ends up in the body of a person who developed to term. In this case, it was inside her brain. I wonder how someone who believes in souls reconciles it with this phenomena. God seriously works in mysterious ways.

A teratoma which seem to contain complete body parts like bones and teeth is called a fetiform teratoma.   Whether fetiform teratoma is a failed fetus growing inside another is highly controversial.   Normal Teratoma is usually not interpreted to be some parts of a separate failed fetus,  but instead is a form of tumor of base cells in the host fetus.   There is no clear delineation between normal teratoma and fetiform teratoma.

(April 23, 2015 at 9:45 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: It would take a lot of mental gymnastics to square something like this with an intelligent designer. A designer doing some bad drugs, maybe.

Or a designer who decides to confront us with a bit of adversity lest we get too big for our britches. (I can already see the indignant shout-down on the way.)

No matter how many time the (heretical) Christers assert the soul implants at conception, it simply does not.

Insoulation occurs immediately following birth with the VERY FIRST BREATH PERIOD.


No matter how many times Christers repeat a lie, IT WILL NOT BECOME GOD'S TRUTH !!!

Holy fuck! Give us a warning before you post creepy shit like that lol

(April 23, 2015 at 10:58 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: No matter how many time the (heretical) Christers assert the soul implants at conception, it simply does not.

Insoulation occurs immediately following birth with the VERY FIRST BREATH PERIOD.


No matter how many times Christers repeat a lie, IT WILL NOT BECOME GOD'S TRUTH !!!

No, no, the Ancient Romans had it right.  Real peopleness doesn't occur until the father recognizes the child.  Until then it's just animal.  OK, not really.  

But, that's a thing anti-abortionists don't think about.  Exposing children, born children, was common in the ancient world and in the middle ages.  I'm sure the Hebrews did it and "god" didn't say boo.

(April 23, 2015 at 9:45 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: Even if you give them a pass on the soul thing, this is just fucked up. It would take a lot of mental gymnastics to square something like this with an intelligent designer. A designer doing some bad drugs, maybe.

No different than bone cancer or sickle-cell anemia or the inverted retina or appendix or ...

They ignore the fertilized eggs flushed out during periods, why wouldn't they ignore this?

I think they may use a tactic like this:

Theist: Where's the evidence?

Atheist: Here.

Theist: But where's the evidence?

Atheist: Right in front of you, on the table. Read it.

Theist: There's no evidence!

Why not ensoulment at the single-cell stage? Poor little teratoma. But that doesn't mean a fetal soul is like  an adult one. Or even that Roman law should recognize legal personhood.