As I’ve mentioned here before, I am in principle against late-term abortions, but that is the current law anyway so there’s no real space between my own position and the law.

Against the creationists’ magickal idea of “person”, I suggest that a much better definition has to do with brain function - which is why “brain death” is one criteria for unplugging someone totally dependent upon life support.

Without a functioning neocortex/cerebral cortex there can be no conscious thought, no collection of memories interacting with sensory input can exist.

The religious right cannot allow this biological definition of “person” because the magick would be gone.

It’s interesting for those studying religion that not all theists insist on a “soul”, but those believing such are clearly a minority in the US. In American religious culture, most Americans fully embrace mind-body dualism (yes, even reincarnationist Hindus), and some Christians even go one step farther into a tripartite human.

These type of beliefs most likely evolved with the rest of human culture as a way to accommodate the intense emotions surrounding death. Most people express these type of dualistic beliefs some time in their lives. This universality of the problem makes the sales job of the religious right much more easier than it would be otherwise (e.g., compare to the doctrines of tithing - most Americans don’t really buy fully into those ideas.)

Since everyone past childhood have some awareness of their own impending death, the belief of “life after death” is one of the few comforts available to anyone regardless of social position or wealth. This belief gets translated back into the present as a claim to some sort of “soul” independent of the biological systems of the body.

This is also why people believe in ghosts.

Fighting this widely held belief system is difficult and returns little for the effort. Since so many people want to believe they are a non-physical being inhabiting a physical organism, the odds are strongly in favor of the religious right being able to continue to market their products in this country.

This problem will not go away when Akins goes away.