I went to the doctor a few days ago. I received an injection, the needle being enclosed in a sort of plastic. It was "thrown away". I buy food protected by container and plastic. I open the package and "throw the cover away". I could extend the "throw away" nature of modern culture, and praise it. The metaphor used by the Pope misses the point. The unborn is not thrown away, but aborted, i.e., …More
I went to the doctor a few days ago. I received an injection, the needle being enclosed in a sort of plastic. It was "thrown away". I buy food protected by container and plastic. I open the package and "throw the cover away". I could extend the "throw away" nature of modern culture, and praise it. The metaphor used by the Pope misses the point. The unborn is not thrown away, but aborted, i.e., murdered. --It is true that the dead fetus is "throw away" in a container. But so would be a piece of cancer.
The Pope hopefully wants to say that the modern world of the West is seeking no profound connection with life, specifically unborn life, or with anything of transcendent importance, because the "modern" world possesses a "horizontal" view, i.e., this life is the thing and it should be "lived to the fullest" as the only life there is. "Fullest" entails pleasure, sensate, emotional, sex, holidays, etc. and just plain fun. In themselves nothing wrong so long as they are ordered to a vertical transcendence. This vertical moment is absent and such absence justifies somewhat the metaphor of the "throw-away" culture condemned by the Pope. The condemnation is fine, but reflects his horizontal thinking. Really? Yes, the Pope speaks more of social justice, evil capitalism, etc. than about "sin", "repentance" and "salvation" unto death and beyond. Let him accuse Obama of a social insurance policy of "throwing the unborn away". That would be to challenge the modern world.
In summary, my problem is not with the condemnation (that will bother the "hell" of the secular admirers), rather with the non-reference to a transcendence that I find lacking.