Re: New Abortion Quiz

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 22:03:27 -0600 "Terry M. Gray"
<grayt@lamar.colostate.edu> writes:
> George wrote:
> >
> >Furthermore, we now know that a large number - I have seen
> estimates
> >considerably higher than 50% - of conceptuses are spontaneously
> >aborted at such an early stage that the mother is seldom even aware
>
> >that she was pregnant. It seems odd to think that Heaven (or Limbo
>
> >for RCs) is going to be primarily populated by such human beings.
>
> I've never understood the force of this argument. Why does the fact
>
> of spontaneous abortion influence the discussion at all? The fact of
>
> infant mortality doesn't influence arguments against infanticide,
> does it?
>
> While I'm not sure he had aborted persons in mind here, the Reformed
>
> theologian Lorraine Boettner, arguing that all who die in infancy
> must be counted among the elect, claimed that the vast multitudes of
>
> heaven would be from these.
>
> Setting aside my personal take on Boettner's argument, it's clear
> that he didn't think such thinking to be "odd". Striking George as
> "odd" doesn't make it not true.
>
> TG
> --
I am almost certain that the number of spontaneous abortions of early
concepti were not known to Boettner. The count was of fetuses and new
borns, with an occasional embryo, who did not survive. Under poor
conditions, no more than a quarter of infants would be expected to die.
If only half of the survivors came to faith, they'd outnumber the babies
by 50%. Now we recognize that at least half of concepti spontaneously
abort. Some claim that more than two concepti are lost for every fetus
that comes to term (70%). So, consider the world population at ~6 Gp
(gigapersons). About a third are Christians of some sort. Let's posit,
for simplicity, that all 2 Gp will be in heaven through faith. They
represent 2->4 Gp who never develop beyond the gastrula stage. The ~4 Gp
non-Christians, whom we assign to perdition, represent 4->8 x 10^9
undeveloped concepti. Consequently, there are in heaven from our
generation ~2 Gp saved by faith and 6->12 x 10^9 mere concepti. Given my
assumptions, the ratio has to exceed 1:3 to 1:6. Even positing
universalism, the ratio must be greater than 1:1. If this is not odd,
what is?
Dave
Received on Thu Oct 14 14:32:29 2004