I've been diagnosed with cancer

[Jersey Girl]

Hey Tim,

I'm going through your latest entry before bedtime. I can see right now there's a lot to move through and I am sure others are going to engage different aspects of your thoughts and ideas. I did just want to say this though.

I think you are more important in the overall scheme of things than you suspect. I might want to take that up with you when I'm more awake.

Just throwing that out to you, mister.

[Imwashingmypirate]

Hi, Pirate here ..

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Very scary times. I have no wise words but I am sending love and luck.

I'll have a read of your blog.

[Imwashingmypirate]

I tried to register with discus to comment but my email says that the verification link is used to steal people's information.

[tagriffy]

Hey Tim,

I'm going through your latest entry before bedtime. I can see right now there's a lot to move through and I am sure others are going to engage different aspects of your thoughts and ideas. I did just want to say this though.

I think you are more important in the overall scheme of things than you suspect. I might want to take that up with you when I'm more awake.

Just throwing that out to you, mister.

Thank you.

[tagriffy]

I tried to register with discus to comment but my email says that the verification link is used to steal people's information.

That's okay. I'm keeping my eye on this forum, so I will see your comments whether here or on the site. The important thing will be the questions themselves since they will help me determine how to say what I want to say. So, for example, if you ask questions about why I think it was so genius for the Israelites to historicize their myths and legends, it will help me be clear about what I mean when I sit down and pound out the thoughts.

[Imwashingmypirate]

My reply was in response to the comment that talked about killing a baby with a hammer.

Not sure I followed what your opinion on abortion is, I didn't have the patience to read the full post. Sometimes when I'm reading the words start to blend together and it's like mush in my brain and I can't work out what's being said so at some point I will probably go back and read more bits.

Anyway, here was the comment I was trying to post on your blog:

Huh?

If a baby can be born 10 weeks early and still live and is clearly a moving, responding to stimuli person, this tells me that abortion at this point feels like killing.

Ending a pregnancy and killing the body inside the pregnancy should be seen as two different things. You can end a pregnancy and the baby still live. But to go in and chop a baby up and vacuum it out is killing a pregnancy.

If you remove a baby at 15 weeks does it respond to touch and light? It wouldn't survive on its own. So I guess it depends on the definition of what a living being is. Removing a baby at 28 weeks, there's a good chance that baby wouldn't need additional help (beyond the norm) to survive and it will definitely respond to external stimuli. Therefore, it is alive.

[Res Ipsa]

Sorry to hear your news, Tim. Take good care of yourself.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Duuuuuuuuude. Cancer is a low key fear of mine. Can you tell us how you’re handling this existential crisis today?

- Doc

[tagriffy]

My reply was in response to the comment that talked about killing a baby with a hammer.

Not sure I followed what your opinion on abortion is, I didn't have the patience to read the full post. Sometimes when I'm reading the words start to blend together and it's like mush in my brain and I can't work out what's being said so at some point I will probably go back and read more bits.

Anyway, here was the comment I was trying to post on your blog:

Huh?

If a baby can be born 10 weeks early and still live and is clearly a moving, responding to stimuli person, this tells me that abortion at this point feels like killing.

Ending a pregnancy and killing the body inside the pregnancy should be seen as two different things. You can end a pregnancy and the baby still live. But to go in and chop a baby up and vacuum it out is killing a pregnancy.

If you remove a baby at 15 weeks does it respond to touch and light? It wouldn't survive on its own. So I guess it depends on the definition of what a living being is. Removing a baby at 28 weeks, there's a good chance that baby wouldn't need additional help (beyond the norm) to survive and it will definitely respond to external stimuli. Therefore, it is alive.

I don't specifically remember discussing killing a baby born ten weeks early with a hammer, so I would have to least know what specific post to look through for that discussion. I suspect your comment is in response to someone else's comment, and that person would have to speak for themselves.

Specifically regarding my own arguments in favor of abortion rights, I grant for the sake of discussion that the prenate is fully a person from the time of conception. I do this not because I think it's true (and I do discuss at length why I don't think it is), but because I ultimately deem fetal personhood irrelevant. Either way, the conceptus has no right to use a pregnant person's body without consent; that person is well within their rights to abort the pregnancy, even if this does constitute a killing. They are not acting unjustly and the conceptus' right to life, if any, is not thereby violated.

Hope this helps.

[tagriffy]

Duuuuuuuuude. Cancer is a low key fear of mine. Can you tell us how you’re handling this existential crisis today?

- Doc

As well as can be expected. I have the support of my family; that counts for a lot. As I said in my post, I'm especially finding my concept of Immanuel is comforting now that I need to rely on it--I do have a great feeling that God is indeed with me, sharing my pain--and yes, my fear. The big unkown right now is how I'm going to respond to initial treatments, which will in turn determine the actual prognosis. I'm treating myself as if I could drop dead at any time, and thus feel the urgency to get out as much of what I want to say while I still have the time to say it. Once I have something like a real prognosis, the sense of urgency may wane if it turns out I still have plenty of time, but I'm still going to want to say what I have to say.