Sometimes, skeptics are just complainy
Skeptic though I am, I am sometimes exasperated at the value judgments and big deal fellow skeptics make when some controversial decision involved a religious person. Case in point, a British woman recently decided to carry her conjoined twins to term, despite a slim 20% chance of survival at birth, and an even smaller chance of survival to adulthood. She is devoutly Catholic and stated that her twins were a gift from God. I read the article earlier today and thought “oh okay, good luck to her” and nothing more.
Then I come across this post on Skepchick about it. The poster and commenters bring up questions I often find myself wondering at other times: Is she in her right mind? What kind of god would do this? Who would believe in a god who would do this? Is she just avoiding reality with some rosy religious falsity?
But this time, I think the religion skeptics are being a bit too harsh on the criticism. The moral issue here is so incredibly blurred that there really is no “right” answer separate from personal beliefs. And at this point, does it REALLY matter what those personal beliefs are? Would the outcome be any different if she was an atheist who decided to keep her conjoined twins?
As much as I like thought experiments, I really don’t see why people are dedicating so much philosophical ponder time to this one. The family will have a hard time ahead of them, but their faith will doubtlessly help them. I can’t even predict how I would personally decide if I was in the woman’s situation, much less try to understand exactly why she chose the way she did. There are tougher—perhaps even more important—issues with clearer answers out there, so why struggle over such a unique and unsolvable conundrum?
