The reason religion is so powerful

[The Architect Of Fate]

"Kleptoparasitism is a form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food that was caught, collected, or otherwise prepared by another animal, including stored food."

Stealing food—if anything, this describes my little brother when I leave stuff in the fridge.

You ignore the etymology of the word, yet chide others to value words.

Noting it specifically calls the act a form of parasitism. But note this isn't even needed as the host can organism that's being feed on . Same species or no. It's not an important distinction to the act (feeding off another organism)

[John 6IX Breezy]

You ignore the etymology of the word, yet chide others to value words.

Right; it's fairly obvious that you only saw the root parasite in the word and ran with it, despite all indications that its just a fancy word for theft:

"The root klep- means to hide or to steal so, in terms of etymology, kleptoparasitism should refer to the generalized theft of any resource, and not just food" (Iyeng, 2008, p. 747).

This author also makes it clear the word only refers to unrelated individuals (meaning any comparison between an embryo and its mother goes out the window):

"Individuals that steal food from relatives (parents, siblings) are not kleptoparasites because increased indirect fitness may overcome the reduction in direct fitness."

Reference: Iyeng, E. Y. (2008) Kleptoparasitic interactions throughout the animal kingdom and a re-evaluation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 93, 745–762,

[The Architect Of Fate]

Right; it's fairly obviously that you only saw the root parasite in the word and ran with it

It's fairly obvious that's simply false. But do go on 

[Ravenshire]

You ignore the etymology of the word, yet chide others to value words.

Right; it's fairly obviously that you only saw the root parasite in the word and ran with it, despite all indications that its just a fancy word for theft (and was coined/popularized fairly recently).

"The root klep- means to hide or to steal so, in terms of etymology, kleptoparasitism should refer to the generalized theft of any resource, and not just food" (p. 747).

Reference: Willis, T., et al. (2017). Kleptopredation: A mechanism to facilitate planktivory in a benthic mollusc. Biology Letters.

Actually, I was commenting on your intellectual dishonesty in quoting an entire line of text, except for the bit you found inconvenient. But, you do you...

[Pat Mustard]

In other words, you value the rights of a blastocyst over a person with a story, hopes, dreams, loved ones, an inner life, and everything else that really makes a human being human. Such a champion of human dignity you are!

In the event of a fire, would you save an elderly person over an infant on the basis that they have a story, loved ones, and a coherent inner life? I don't think you would, given that society places value on children (but maybe you would). Perhaps the issue here has to do with faulty object permanence: The younger the individuals the more value is placed on their life, until it crosses into the womb and becomes "out of sight out of mind."

p.s. I didn't realize there were two abortion threads going on at once lol.

Tell me, why is the "right to life" of a foetus more valuable and improtant than the right to life of a living child? Because the same groups that promote forced birth and the criminalisation of abortions in all circumstances are also supportive of parents "rights" to murder their children through medical negligence for "deeply held religious reasons".

[Silver]

"The root klep- means to hide or to steal so

Bolded: The placenta uses a cloaking device.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Nope related or unrelated. It's the same species. So it does not go out the window. But as i said this point isn't even needed to make the case. But it's a nice extra.

Again nice try 

But please carry on

[John 6IX Breezy]

Actually, I was commenting on your intellectual dishonesty in quoting an entire line of text, except for the bit you found inconvenient. But, you do you...

Why would I find it inconvenient to insert the parenthetical (etymologically, parasitism by theft) after I wrote klepto-parasitism?

Do you not realize that when you click the parasitism hyperlink it takes you to the very definition I've been defending:

"Parasitism is a symbiotic relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life."

Obviously, kleptoparasitism is using the word parasite symbolically not literally. The aforementioned paper even uses a scenario of a bird catching a mouse that was running away from a cat, to describe the bird as a kleptoparasite. Clearly, this isn't parasitism in the conventional sense, it's just theft with a tiara.

[Pat Mustard]

Life after death, for example, is exclusive to religion. No political ideology promises you heaven after death. Religion tells you you will meet your parents after death, and reunite. No political ideology promises this.

And what's so dangerous about the idea of an afterlife? Actually, it's more dangerous to think that there is none, that the likes of Hitler will go unpunished. Materialism is the backbone of all fascist and communist ideologies, which are responsible for two world wars... so far.

Jam tomorrow. That's what's so dangerous. Or if you want to put it in more academic terms, opium of the masses.

[John 6IX Breezy]

"The root klep- means to hide or to steal so

Bolded: The placenta uses a cloaking device.

Okay, and do you understand why the placenta needs to hide from the mother's immune system? Because, contrary to many pro-choice arguments (and I understand not everyone goes this far), this is not the woman's body. The embryo is a separate organism, with a separate genome, and a separate blood supply.