When Life Begins by Gråulf

One of the big issues of the day is when does life begin? Many Christians insist that life
begins at conception, and present as proof that a fetus is genetically human from the very beginning. Well, so is the pimple on my rear end, and there is nothing sacred about that. Then there is the predominant belief that life begins when a fetus is viable, which is a moving target as technology becomes ever more sophisticated. Now tiny fetuses are kept alive to grow up with all sorts of horrible physical problems.

Throughout most of history life began when a newborn took its first breath. However, a newborn did not become a person until it was named, or if Christian, baptized. Until then it was legal to put an unwanted newborn out for the wolves. Baptism was an invention of monotheistic religions that consider it a sin to believe in other Gods, and that baptism conferred some magical connection to God. Muslims to this day kill those who abandon their faith, and Christians used to do the same. Note, the inquisition, when the Catholic Church burned Jews who were accused of practicing Judaism after they were baptized, and Charlemagne who executed thousands of pagans because they returned to paganism after being forcibly baptized. Pagans, who believe in many Gods, do not baptize children, because it would be meaningless. They may consecrate a child to the protection of a particular God by making the sign of the hammer over it, but that does not commit the child to that particular God, because no one can make that sort of commitment on someone else's behalf. Praying to a particular god is situational, and does not mean that you forsake your preferred god. If you are on the water you pray to Njord,, and if it is a matter of truth or justice you may pray to Tyr, etc. To a pagan the naming ceremony makes the child a provisional member of the community, and that commitment is affirmed when that child becomes an adult and a full member of the community. At that point a person can participate in religious ceremonies, and can make binding oaths. That is usually around the age of 13 or 14, and that was the most important ceremony of a persons life. So important that coming of age is still practiced in many forms, depending on the culture, although now it is mostly symbolic since people are not legally of age until they are eighteen or twenty-one.

The belief that a fetus becomes human with the first breath is confirmed by many old sayings, such as “Death begins with life’s first breath”; “From my first breath to my last”; “God breathes the soul into the body with the first breath”. Before that first breath the fetus is just a parasite with the potential of becoming human being.

Gråulf.