You can't blame Christians of today for the ill-led actions of hundreds of years ago. We're not them, and they're not us. We're not Catholic either. I can't defend the past, but I can defend myself and others who follow a similar creed. I'm against this because I see it as murder, not because I'm some evil member of the "Magesterium" actively working to undermine the efforts of "noble truth seekers". So put that away.
Leave your black and white opinions somewhere where people sympathize with you, because it aint here.
You are right, it isn't a black and white issue. In absolute technical terms, you are right. It is exploiting the human life cycle. If anything, wouldn't you agree that saying that, despite any advances that can be made with this practice and the fact that you are not killing a
person*, that it'll always be wrong because it's part of human development?
That's like me saying "Christianity is bad, no matter what you say", despite all the positives brought about people who brought about success because they had faith.
I do not consider harvesting embryos has murdering humans. Hell, a dog has more personality than an embryo, and yet when one gets hit by a car, you don't see it on the news, yet the idea of harvesting embryos is detested by many.
*one who is visually alive, with personality, expression, emotion, goals, etc. As opposed to the phrase "human", which only designates the species, not the character.
EDIT:
Look, I'm sorry to be bringing my very conservative ideals onto an apprently ultra liberal forum, but we're entitled to our opinions, even if they must clash with others. I'm sorry I feel the urge to stand up for what I feel is morally right. Really, this isn't the place where I want to discuss round-about topics like "is there/isn't there a soul/divine entity/etc." And frankly I don't intend to. It's only when certain people (won't name names right now) decide to challenge, and not only challenge, but DISMISS my views on the mere basis that I believe what I believe, that these asinine convos start. I really don't want to argue with you over why the Bible is wrong/right. You can say you're an atheist and you believe this, and I'll say I'm a Christian and I believe this. I'm fine with that, I get that. That doesn't start an argument. Following up by saying, "your views are ignorant and old fashioned because of this, this and this contradicting evidence of this, blah blah blah" is how you start a bad argument that erupts into the crap that I've been unfortunate enough to be in the thick of. I don't really intend or believe I'll change your creed, so please stop thinking you can change mine. I don't want to hear your reasons for the nonexistence of souls, I don't want to hear you demonize Christianity for such stupid things like moron Catholics banning the concept of heliocentricity. Just let us be, all these arguments are going to do is provoke harsh feelings and lock topics.
Now I am not an atheist. I like to consider myself an agnostic "christian", because I don not think the hard core christians-muslims-jews have enough evidence to back their claims up and neither do atheists, but part of me still thinks there's something out there. If there is a God, he demonstrates his power extremely sparingly through time. In fact, it seems only those specific biblical times that he has been documented as directly interfering with humanity. Now and days, we don't hear from him, and people constantly try to bring him into science and politics. He doesn't make appearances for a reason, so I believe people should stop forcing their perceived version of his "will" in the world.
I do not want to change your beliefs. That's not fair. I would love to encourage you to question parts of your faith, but never force you to denounce God, then I'm no better than the Islamic and Christian fundamentalists out there.
However, for us non religious types, you must understand that the argument "
God says it's bad" is almost rude. It disrupts any form of debate and reason. One person could believe one thing and another the opposite. They can get into a heated debate, providing facts, opinions, and thoughts. At the end of the day, maybe one side learned something. Maybe spectators learned something. Or maybe one side even changed their mind.
However, when God gets into an argument, the debate loses much credibility. The religious person, or persons, will never consider the other side because in their mind, a mortal can not prove God wrong. Evidence, facts, and history are thrown out of the window because of
faith, the act of believing something without evidence.
This is why I and many others here dislike the idea of God entering arguments. The religious one may say that their views are influence by God and that they are not bringing him directly into the debate, but at the end of the day, their "influence" opinion is "I believe this because God says so", and begs the question: Would he still believe it if there were no God?
I will tell you that many people here can get tactless when they go against your christian/conservative views, but to them, it is extremely enticing to hear someone disagree and look down upon a view because of God.