There is no clear cut answer to the question: What does it mean to be human? Humans are made up of cells, organs, blood, and water just like any other living organism; however, the difference comes when you look at the brain. Humans have a brain that is capable of thinking beyond the physical world and into the abstract world. With our ability to grasp abstract ideas, we are able to develop thoughts on how our world came to be. Many of these ideas are often expressed through language, art, religion, music, and symbols. With the human brain's capacity to understand such abstract concepts, philosophy, the study of knowledge, began to spread, and challenge the most intellectual mind into answering the questions of life, such as the one we face at this moment: What does it mean to be a human?
With a plethora of opinions and ideas that are scattered all over the world, there is bound to be clashing ideas within the philosophical realm. One philosophical issue in today’s society is the issue of abortion. Abortion is debated and evaluated on the basis of science versus religion. For those religions that read the Bible, they argue abortion is wrong due to the belief that God created life within a human to depict the image of Himself. With religious thinking, God created us, and He made no mistake in creating the human within the womb. In addition, God loves us and values us, and we shouldn’t destroy His creations. Christian religion offers you are human from the very moment you were created.
On the science side of the philosophical issue, they argue a baby isn’t fully developed into a baby until it develops to a certain point in a pregnancy. Science claims that as you are conceived, you are nothing more than a clump of cells. At 3-4 weeks, the brain of the fetus will begin to develop, yet the fetus has no awareness. At 4-8 weeks, neural tissue begins to form in the brain, and by 8 weeks, human-like facial features are distinguishable. By 12 weeks, connections between the brain and the body are forming, yet they are still incapable of forming some functions. Twelve weeks serves as the turning point of when a baby develops into a human as it gains neurological functioning. Science debates that a fetus doesn’t turn into a baby until it develops an conscious awareness, and that is when you become a human.
Artwork allows us to face philosophical issues, just like those that show up in the abortion debate. Artwork allows us to face an issue head on, as a piece can express ideas that words aren’t able to describe themselves. Each piece of artwork allows humans to take their own message out of the image provides. Artwork is how ideas and opinions are spread. You don’t need to speak the same language as an artist to find meaning with their piece; however, for an author, the reader needs to be able to read the same language in order to understand and comprehend the meaning of the text.
Below are two examples of abortion in art:
I love your blog post! I think it's great how you started it off with "There is no clear cut answer", which is very true because everyone has a different perspective as to what it means to be human. I put that in my blog post too. I also love how you put abortion into the topic, since it is really the start of human life in the first place. Having both the religious view and the scientific view of abortion is a great way to show that there is many answers to what it means to be human, but none of them are the "right" answer. Since abortion is such a controversial topic, it's hard to write about it without someone disagreeing. But, you did a fantastic job at putting both sides in the blog as a medium between the controversy. Great post!
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ReplyDeleteThe way you talked about the abortion controversy using both religious and scientific perspectives created a more abstract way of thinking because it gives readers the chance to really think about the topic in a broad manner. I enjoyed reading your blog post because you hit the question "what does it mean to be human" from a few different angles. I like your paragraph about art and how it helps us deal with philosophical issues, and how you related it back to the issue of abortion by adding artwork expressing the emotion behind the controversy. Nice job!
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