"I find these kinds of arguments very unpersuasive. How can you ascribe
material properties to a spiritual entity like the soul? "
I was not ascribing material properties to the soul. What I was doing,
and I apologize for not being very clear, was saying that IF there was
such a thing as a soul, (and that thing might be material or
non-material), one might reasonably conclude that there was one soul per
human being; that if one were to assume otherwise (two or more
souls/person or two or more persons per soul) that all kinds of weird
conclusions might be drawn from that assumption. So, for the argument's
sake, I though we might all agree to assume 1 soul/person, at least for
now. Again, whether material or non-material is not specified.
Based on that assumption, I then argued that some zygotes had to be sans
soul, at least during part of their development, and that the soul were
"added" later. But if SOME zygotes were, and are, so treated, we'd have
no data to suggest that it is not true for ALL zygotes. Conclusion --
zygotes are soulless. Conclusion -- abortion of a zygote does not kill a
human being.
That's the argument. Please note, BTW, as I indicated to you off-line --
this is an issue/argument I am currently espousing. It may, or may not
be, an argument I personally hold (or "believe in.")
Thanks for the dialog. It is appreciated.
Burgy
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