Denial?

Schiavo's Case May Reshape American Law By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG summarizes the two sides here:

Dr. Diane E. Meier, an expert in end-of-life care at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "We've always said that autonomy and self-determination does trump the infinite value of an individual life, that people have the right to control what is done to their own body. I think that is at risk."

...[S]ocial conservatives...argue that sanctity of life trumps quality of life....

This helps me explain my feelings about a lot of religion, that it's denial of reality in favor of some nebulous quality. But what exactly is "sanctity"? Merriam-Webster, pointed me to holy, which led me to divine which in this context I assume means "of, relating to, or proceeding directly from God or a god (divine love). But what is God? "the supreme or ultimate reality: as a) the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe".

To me, all that means is that those who believe in this kind of stuff refuse to accept the evidence of their senses. For them, there's more to life than meets the eye, a belief based on a tradition mostly resting on the Bible.

While I admit that my physical senses can certainly mislead me, I trust the word of scientists who base their explanations on the scientific method:

principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses

As far as I'm concerned, the Bible is delusional hearsay with little substantiation.

So yes, I desire individual autonomy, self-determination and control over my own body. For that, some of the more extreme religious believers would accuse me of promoting the culture of death, which is a little strange, since for me, only our current physical life exists, and they believe in another life.

To be sure, the religious are not the only ones to deny the evidence of their senses. Right now, I believe my non-believing father is denying the seriousness of my mother's condition. And the situation is far more nuanced than the NYT reporter would have us believe. For on the other hand (the clapping one), the remarks of Donald Sensing, a church pastor and an ordained elder in full membership of Tennessee Conference of the UMC on this were so sensible, that I put him on my blogroll.