Egocentricity in the Good Samaritan Story: Application to the Abortion Debate

 

Egocentricity in the Good Samaritan Story:

Application to the Abortion Debate

 

 

At Steve’s request, UBCCourageClass read the Good Samaritan story to consider abortion politics. With a view from 5500 year-old Sumerian political philosophy, which suggests that I may& can choose to constrain chaos in my way of living, I think the civic-citizen who discovers a victim of crime notifies First Responders.

Commenting on particular Luke 10 verses:

V 25 Political power may speculate but cannot force attachment-to the afterdeath[i] mystery.

V 27 The phrase “the Lord your God” is a Hebrew construct that contradicts the-God-of-Gods, whatever that is. People choose to pursue either mutual appreciation, competitiveness, or unreliable middling.

V 29. What is neighbor, the lawyer asks? Traditionally, its kin and tribesman, but it could be other civic-citizens[ii].

V 30-35 Various characters: a robbery victim, robbers, a priest, a Levite, a Samaritan, the innkeeper.

V 33: Caretaker: took pity, went to victim, bandaged wounds, poured on oil and wine, conveyed him to an inn, returned the next day, paid innkeeper, commissioned innkeeper to more care, promised to cover expenses.

Incentive schemes often consist of the following key elements[iii]:

 

1. A goal or series of goals
2. An incentive — a reward for completing the goal (s)
3. Recipients — a person or group of people tasked with achieving the goal (s)
4. Rules stipulating how the recipients can earn the incentive by completing the goal (s)
5. A timeframe within which to complete the goal (s)

 

Applications to the Good Samaritan story:

1.      Arbitrarily deliver first-response to a victim[iv].

2.      Speculate receiving eternal life during individual afterdeath.

3.      Impose on innkeeper extended-care responsibility.

4.      The incentive was not shared to the innkeeper.

5.      First responder may& can pay the innkeeper’s final bill but cannot promise eternal life.

 

Trying to build an abortion-analogy to the Good Samaritan story:

A typically egocentric man penetrates “a body with a uterus”[v] and viable ovum. The body then has a conceived embryo. The body will discover the embryo and decide whether to remain pregnant or not. “The body”, like it or not, is alone regarding the embryo’s fate.

1.       A social faction imagines& believes the body’s embryo must be gestated, delivered, and saved. Therefore, they dictate that the body-with-a-uterus must complete the task, like it or not. The believers leave it to others to stand guard over the body during the remaining of 9 months’ process. The believers take no action regarding the delivered-baby’s care& education toward human being (verb[vi]).

2.       The society seeks to feel divine or otherwise satisfy its beliefs.

3.       They urge the civic-citizens’ government to force the body to deliver the baby.

4.       Only the believers may feel divine or satisfied.

5.       Their egocentric beliefs are satisfied at baby-delivery.

 

Trying to build a viable-egg analogy:

A viable ovum, one of 350,000 ova at puberty, awaits appreciation. The ovum’s body-with-a-uterus and viable ovum is penetrated by a man who has neither awareness nor intent to appreciate his own conception. He abandons the body-with-a-uterus and the embryo.

The 5 element scheme seems the same as for the above abortion case, except that the society includes people who are not seeking divine feeling – only satisfaction of their beliefs about a woman’s ova.

Evaluations

Using the presented 5 elements of inventive schemes, I suggest 2 mimics of the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10. First, I illustrate traditional male-dominance in sex and reproductive politics, using a professor’s sarcastic expression of “woman”: a body-with-a-uterus. Note: I think a few men authentically appreciate every woman and her ova. Second, I suggest a view from the ovum hoping to be born unto appreciation for life.

This study helped me perceive that the Good Samaritan Story (GSS) is 1) un-civic and 2) contradicts Jesus’ civic-responsibility-message to humankind. The Samaritan acts egocentrically, in order to expect eternal life, a mystery, rather than to aid the victim’s life; see Luke 10:25. Yet ancient scripture referenced in Verse 27 instructs loyalty to God and to neighbor, in order to fulfill self. The question is: How does a human be loyal to both God and to neighbor? I suggest accepting – not questioning -- God's salvation and practicing responsible-human-independence[vii] (RHI).

During the recent 10,000 years, mankind has discovered (not accepted) that first response to harm is for trained personnel, in order to lessen unintended consequences of uninformed-citizen-actions. A civic-citizen’s first duty is to alert first-responders rather than to respond first. Civic means reliable to neither cause nor accommodate harm to-or-from anyone. Some civic-citizens train in order to be first-responders according to need. For example, some civic-citizens carry a gun and shoot no one who does not need to be shot (sometimes, notifying first responders is not possible). I consider myself too emotional for such duty, yet I train, in case I have no choice but to defend my family.

In summary, the-laws-of-physics& progeny[viii] make it plain that the-God-of-Gods, whatever that is, holds that mankind may& can choose to provide order to life and to the earth. The impact on me is that I choose to constrain chaos in my way of living. Knowing that there will always be people who, for reasons they may understand, cause and/or accommodate harm, I choose to aid pursuit of statutory-justice based on the-ineluctable-evidence[ix]. This requires police& military, so that civic-citizens may earn enough to sustain their way of living including paying their local, state, and federal taxes. I vote for candidates who seem to uphold the United States intentions, abstractly stated in the amendable preamble to the Constitution.

Experience& observations show that order rather than chaos brings happiness. When most fellow-citizens pursue order, there is less chaos, so educating people to the civic-integrity that is necessary to practice RHI is more promising than directly-constraining public-chaos. Chaos includes egocentrically attempting to civically rather than civilly restore a victim of a wayward fellow-citizen’s harm. For example, the person who volunteers care is not informed as to the victims wishes. The modern victim have do not resuscitate orders. Convincing a harmful citizen to reform is more economically viable than arbitrarily aiding their victims. Civic-citizens may& can choose to instruct Education Departments to facilitate& encourage human being (verb). That is, pursuing personal happiness using the civic-integrity for RHI. Increasing the civic-faction comports to both the US preamble and to humankind’s discoveries so far.

Men and women are born independent and may choose civil spouse hood. The woman has 350,000 eggs at puberty with gradual discharge until menopause. She may produce 400 viable ova during her fertile years. The civic-woman perceives obligations to herself and to her ova. The civic-man excludes intimacy with any woman and her ova, unless he is in civil spouse hood with her and their possible offspring. Thus, his civic-obligation is to every woman, her ova, and himself. Mutually accepting these obligations for life can result in family loyalty unto grandchildren-and-beyond for a continuum of unique happiness. Wanted eternal life may be trusted to the-God-of-Gods mystery.

Applying the incentive scheme to human being (verb):

1.      Establish and maintain loyalty to the-ineluctable-truth and to fellow-citizens.

2.      Unique[x] personal-happiness.

3.      Civic-citizens collaborate in the pursuit of RHI

4.      Happiness in a culture of civic-integrity fellow-citizens may& can choose

5.      Integrity is discovered as human-ignorance is overcome and ineluctable-evidence is understood despite a continually changing world.

Conclusion

I have considered the possibility that there is no place for imposition of beliefs in the pursuit of human being (verb): beliefs are optional, private pursuits. When it comes to the-God-of-Gods, the mystery of mystery, love is no surrogate for loyalty; tradition is no surrogate for ineluctable-evidence; power cannot defeat integrity.

Existing statistics accommodates ova-disposal. With 350,000 eggs at puberty, typical mothers lose 349,998 ova in having 2 babies. No one wants to gestate and deliver a baby destined to life without appreciation. The woman, whether upon pregnancy-discovery or after her 9 months' labor, knows best the promised life she might deliver. Morality assigns to the pregnant woman the responsibility to remain pregnant or not. The human ovum usually contains everything needed for fertilization to embryo that may emerge a baby. Upon delivery, the baby may during their first quarter-century acquire the comprehension& intention to develop human being (verb). Success is unlikely if the young adult is not informed and convinced they may& can choose to pursue the-good during every decade of their life. They are highly unlikely to succeed if their mom did not trust gestation, delivery, and appreciation.

Civic-citizens may& can direct education departments to practice, facilitate, and encourage the civic-integrity needed to pursue RHI, leaving the decision to remain pregnant to the woman --- the only person who has that wonderful opportunity. Only she has the awareness to happily choose to prevent an unwanted life to her fetus. Similarly, every person has the opportunity to both responsibly pursue the happiness they perceive and trust ultimate fate to their origins rather than to the mystery of their thoughts.

These concepts and principles seem cheerful to me, and I share them hoping to learn how to improve both expression and substance so as to potentially appeal to every citizen. I am listening for comments.

Acknowledgements regarding this essay

I appreciate life – my family with wife and 3 children -- our Louisiana-French-Catholic influences. I am grateful for many past forums regarding parenting and abortion. The people of University Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, (UBC) helped me perceive that the-civic-Jesus influenced my better decisions since my adolescence. Despite the competitive monotheism surrounding Christ-literature, Jesus’ civic advice may& can be discovered& pursued during successive generations, as humankind’s pursuit of statutory-justice unfolds. The civic-Jesus deserves notoriety among the political philosophers who are credited with the 1787 United States Constitution and its preamble “to ourselves and our Posterity”. I am grateful to the UBC Nomads class for accommodating my commentaries on scripture they choose to study, including Luke 10 with its Good Samaritan story. Most of all, I appreciate UBCCourageClass’s response to Stephen Strohschein’s unit considering unjust subjugation of women through abortion legislation.

Copyright©2023 by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included. Updated on 8/24/2023.

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[i] That indefinite time after body, mind, and person stop functioning. The soul-construct facilitates the eternal-life mystery. I was nothing before my egg formed in my mom’s fetus, then a couple decades later only that ovum, when my dad inseminated my ovum. I happily accept that I can do nothing to avoid death [ending my pursuit of human being (verb)] and do not speculate about soul.

[ii] “Civic” means neither causing nor accommodating harm to-or-from other persons or institutions.

[iii] Online at 21 ways to incentivize employees, customers and participants (tremendous.com).

[iv] Civic-citizens authorize& train first responders, in order to lessen the possibility of unintentional harm to the victim or others. This consideration was obvious 5500 years ago, as represented in Sumerian law codes.

[v] Margaret Kamitsuka ‘s phrase to represent an impregnable woman, online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp35xFMtLQc&t=1272s. I don’t know if her expression is sarcastic or sincere.

[vi] In human being, “being” is a verb and “human” is its modifier. It takes a quarter century for the human body to complete the wisdom-building parts of the brain, and during that time, the person may& can choose to acquire the comprehension and intention to pursue civic-integrity. Human being is more a more likely pursuit if civic-coaching is offered.

[vii] Practicing civic-integrity. See Note 2.

[viii] Progeny include mathematics, forces, chemistries, biology, psychology, fiction, lies --- everything. The undiscovered actual-reality accommodates intent to lie, until humankind accomplishes discovery.

[ix] “Ineluctable” means: not to be avoided, changed, escaped, neglected, obfuscated, rationalized, or resisted. The interconnected ineluctable-evidences represent the-ineluctable-truth. “Truth” is insufficient, because parties may& can obfuscate their object of pursuit. A portion of society resists “ineluctable”.

[x] Every person who chooses to pursue human being (verb) accepts their unique power to choose the-good in seeking the happiness they prefer rather than subjugating to someone’s ideal for them.