Rev. Robert E. Coté
8335 Winnetka Ave.  #107
Canoga Park,  California  91306 
Web site:  http//www.pro-truth.net
Web site:  http//www.choice101.com

Rel Free M      Rel Free M      ...

Justice John Paul Stevens
The United States Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court Building, 
1 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20543

RE:  Abortion as a Religious Freedom Issue

Dear Justice Stevens,

As As a minister concerned with the fundamentalist Christian attack on our religious freedoms, I am writing to bring to your attention the overwhelming evidence indicating that abortion is a first-amendment, religious-freedom issue.

The evidence showing the intimate relationship between religion and abortion is thoroughly displayed on our two web sites: <http://www.pro-truth.net>.  and   <http://www.choice101.com>.   Attached to this letter, please find the six-statement overview of that evidence.

As you well know, the state has no right to dictate religious behavior.   The evidence in this booklet  [and on our web sites]  shows that because of the intimate relationship between religion and abortion, the state also has no right to dictate personal behavior relating to abortion.

Thank you for taking a few moments to read this.

Sincerely,

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Rev. Robert E. Coté

 The anti-abortionists claim exclusive access to God:   But they are only one small and excessively noisy voice is a vast sea of religious opinions.

The Overwhelming Contradictory Evidence:

Billions  (that's billions with a "B") hold beliefs quite different from those peddled by the anti-abortion leaders.   

The Eastern Religions  ---  More than two billion people worldwide believe in reincarnation.   The people who believe in the Eastern religions, such as Buddhists, Hindus, Shintos, etc.,  teach  that humans are eternal divine beings who always were and always will be.

Judaism  --- The Talmud (the Jewish sacred text) specifically states that an individual human life begins at birth.

Islam  --- Verses 23.12-14 and 15.28ff of the Koran (the Moslem sacred text) express language similar in meaning to Genesis 2:7,*^F  which also indicates that life begins at first breath.

Christianity  ---  Millions of  Christians believe that the Bible is correct when, in several places, such as Ecclesiastes 11:5 RSV,  it clearly distinguishes between body and spirit, and when, in Genesis 2:7, it says that the breath of life (the spirit) comes into a fully formed human body with the first breath (at birth).   Also note that   Job 33:4,     Ezekiel 37:1-10, and several other Biblical passages support the belief that first breath marks the moment when an individual life begins.

Native American Religions  ---  Native American religions honor The Unity of Everything.*^G   Their religions teach that an individual human life begins at birth.

Universal Spiritual Path to God   --- Uncounted millions here in the United States (and millions more around the world) believe in a Divine Creator, but do not adhere to any specific organized religion.   They believe that they are eternal divine beings having an earthly experience.   (See Statement Five, below)

*F  http://www.pro-truth.net/30b-bible-psgs.html.

*G  http://www.choice101.com/89-chief-seattle.html.

To view statement two in it's entirety, go to:
http://www.choice101.com/88-for-whom-i-speak.html.

Here are five of the core, unprovable assumptions that anti-abortion leaders proclaim to be completely true.    If even ONE of these five assumptions is NOT both true and verifiable, then passing anti-abortion laws constitutes religious tyranny.   Enforcing laws based only on religious beliefs is a disguised form of religious persecution.

3-1)   At every human conception, God creates
            a brand new soul:

When the anti-abortionists use the word “conception,” they are not referring simply to the biology of male and female cells uniting.   They are referring to an additional process -- a process where God steps in and, by an act of instantaneous, supernatural, transcendental magic, transforms every uniting human egg and sperm into a brand new,  never-before-existing, separate, complete, eternal, everlasting, sovereign, human being.

3-2)   Independent human life begins at conception:

The anti-abortionists believe that God magically creates a brand new, separate, complete, sovereign, individual, human being every time a human egg and sperm unite.   Where that union occurs is irrelevant.   They believe this brand new human being did not exist the moment before conception, but will continue to exist forever more.   Therefore, from the anti-choice viewpoint, independent human life begins at conception.

3-3)   A human being is his or her physical body:

With absolutely no evidence to support their claim, anti-abortionists declare that, at conception, God creates each human being  as  his/her physical body (in the form of a fertilized egg).   In spite of the fact that the egg has been an integral part of the woman's body since her birth and in spite of the fact that the egg cannot survive on its own, they simply  proclaim the fertilized egg to be a complete, independent, separate, sovereign human being.  

Based on the above three declarations, they proclaim that anything which interrupts the life of that egg is an act of murder.  Next, they say that  ending the life of an egg is murder; therefore, abortion, RU-486, and stem cell research should all be illegal."*^H   They then bring their religious beliefs into legislative circles and attempt to use the government's power of violence or threats of violence to force everyone else to practice their religion.

3-4)   More Transcendental Magic:

These same people who declare they are their physical bodies go on to proclaim that, at death, by another act of God’s transcendental magic, they suddenly become something other than their earthly bodies and go someplace above the clouds to live forever without their physical bodies.   Again, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support this transformation from “humans who are their bodies” into “beings who are something other than their bodies.”

3-5)   Freedom of Religion is for Christians Only:

According to the anti-abortion leaders,  Jews, Moslems, and the billions of humans (such as Hindus, Buddhists, and Native Americans) who believe in reincarnation do not deserve the right to practice their own religions.   All non-Christians are considered to be heathens who must be converted to the Christian faith and be baptized.   Otherwise, God will abandon these people and refuse them access to heaven.

There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that any of the above five anti-abortion declarations are factual reality.   Even the United States Supreme Court (Roe versus Wade) could not find any research data or any scientific evidence to indicate when an individual human life begins.

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*H   http://www.pro-truth.net/48-no-choice-analysis.html.

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To read about additional cherished unprovable assumptions:
  http://www.pro-truth.net/20-2-talk-to-no-choice.html#MoreAssume.

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To view statement three in it's entirety, go to:
 http://www.pro-truth.net/20-2-talk-to-no-choice.html
#Anti-AbortionCoreAssumptions.

Reincarnation:   On the reincarnation side there are  literally tens of thousands of well-respected scientists,  authors, visionaries, philosophers and religious leaders from antiquity to modern times who have offered the world an overwhelming amount of anecdotal data, indirect implications, situations, circumstances, and personal experiences that are in complete harmony with the idea that humans are eternal divine beings experiencing life in a physical body.

Christian One-life-ism:  On the Christian one-life-ism side,  the story of God's Conception Magic Act*^I   has been handed down from generation to generation going all the way back to its origin with the people  who believed the Earth was flat.   There is very little anecdotal data, indirect implications, situations, circumstances, or personal experiences that in any way support the "conception-magic-act" possibility and at the same time is inconsistent with or refutes the "eternal divine being" possibility.

We hear about embryo movement, womb memories,*^J  heart beats, and lines such as "it looks like a baby" offered as evidence in support of the "conception-magic-act" story,  but every one of these stories is also completely consistent with the possibility that humans are eternal divine beings.

Is Christianity threatened by abortion rights?   Anti-abortion leaders tell their followers that Christianity is being threatened by the science of evolution, by abortion rights, by open attitudes about sex, and numerous other things.  The truth is that the energy underlying Christianity is so powerful that Christianity is not threatened in the slightest be anything, by anybody or by any contrary beliefs.*^K   It's not even threatened by what the Christians have done and are doing.

The anti-abortion war is a self-survival struggle:   The concept of reincarnation could easily be put back into Christianity;*^L  however, the belief in reincarnation represents a serious threat to  the hierarchies that have dominated Christianity for centuries.   Why?   

1)  Because to acknowledging reincarnation as a possible truth would throw the entire anti-abortion campaign out the window;  

2)  Because no longer having the anti-abortion war to use as a political tool would be a seriously loss to those leading the ultra-conservative Christians campaign to dominate the Republican Party and create a Christian theocracy in America.*^M 

3) Because acknowledging reincarnation would,  a) expose the Pope's infallibility. fairytale for what it is, b) acknowledge the Christian Bible as presently written is different from the original text,. c)  acknowledge that there is more than one way to interpret the Christian Bible,  d)  remove the exclusive access to God aspect of Christianity, e) acknowledge that Christianity is just one path to God among many, f) question the authority and believability of those presently dominating Christianity, and g)  cause them to lose billions of dollars in annual revenues.   (That's billions with a "B")   

When we get to the bottom line, we find:   "The anti-abortion war is a self-survival struggle on the part of the men dominating and controlling the Christian Hierarchies."

*I   http://www.choice101.com/17-conception-magic.html.

*J  http://www.pro-truth.net/62-con-artist-tricks.html#ConfusingReality.

*K   http://www.pro-truth.net/66-abortion-history.html#ChristThreat.

*L  http://www.pro-truth.net/73-bible-and-abortion.html.

*M  http://www.pro-truth.net/72-creating-christian-america.html.

The essence of the Universal Spiritual Perspective  can be summed up in one sentence:  Trying to stick God into a single religion is like trying to fit the universe into a shoe box.

The Origin of Our Country:   The universal spiritual perspective is the philosophical basis upon which our founding fathers created the Republic known as the United States of America.   These men were certainly universal thinkers, transcendental thinkers,  men of uncanny vision for their times.    They were very clear in their intent that no specific religion should dominate the government, and that no religious beliefs were required in order to hold political office.

Similarities:   The universal spiritual perspective is, in many ways, similar to the Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism,  Sikhism,  Taoism, and  Shintoism, but the religious trapping are left out.

What Is a Human Being:   Each human being is an aspect of the timeless, eternal God.    According to this belief, everything is one;  everything is energy; there was no beginning; there will be no end; eternity is now; time is an illusion; each of us is an eternal being who always was and always will be.

Spiritual Awareness:   Spiritual beliefs provide the fundamental human context , the foundation upon which all behavior is based.*^N    Spiritual beliefs provide the context  within which each hold his or her beliefs about abortion.

Believers in Reincarnation:   These people believe that all humans are eternal Divine Beings experiencing their divinity in physical form.   The being is not the body, but merely comes into the body.   The physical body is a vehicle for the temporary use of the eternal being while here on Earth.   The embryo is considered to be earth matter with potential to evolve into a physical human body.

The physical body is considered to have about the same significance as a suit of clothes, that is temporarily worn and then removed and returned to the Earth to be recycled back to building materials for still another act of creation.   When it’s time to leave, the soul  sheds the body as simply as one would shed an old set of clothes.  To use another analogy, entering a human physical body is like a tenant moving into a house and later moving back out.   The tenant is not the house.   The house is not the tenant.

God Is Within:   Most of the people who believe the universal spiritual perspective on life are not members of any particular religion.   They believe that they and everyone else are aspects of Divinity and that their connection to Divinity is completely personal,  uniquely individual, and comes from within their own being.

Cast Off the Yoke of Oppression:   Church intermediaries have been cast off as irrelevant and unnecessary parasites.   Because each person is already an aspect of "God," the belief that one needs to work, to suffer and to go through a church to connect to "a God out there somewhere," is seen as a manipulative fairytale set upon the masses by church leaders in order to dominate, control, and extract money.

To see the truth of this and the power that comes from realizing that humans can connect directly to God, one has but to study the life of Martin Luther.   In the early sixteenth-century, Martin Luther threw this very idea into  the face of the Roman Catholic Empire.   His revelation sparked the religious and political revolution which ended the dark ages and brought about the major social changes which historians today  refer to as "The Reformation."

*N  http://www.choice101.com/78-spiritual-awareness.html.

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To view this page (statement five) in it's entirety, go to:
  http://www.pro-truth.net/75-universal-spirituality.htm.

Unless the reason for life on Earth is totally unknowable, there are only these three possible answers to the Why-life-on-Earth? question -- Religious One-life-ism,   Atheism,   and Reincarnation.*^O    Some startling and conflicting conclusions are revealed when viewing abortion from each of these three basic perspectives.   Each belief system offers its own meaning, suggests different implications, and comes to conclusions that directly contradict the other two.

Philosophers have debated for centuries about which of these three philosophical assumptions is correct.   Because these three theories are still scientifically unprovable, the beliefs about them have their foundations resting upon conjecture, speculation, assumption, and upon the human need to make up answers for unanswerable questions.

 *O  http://www.truth101.org/vs-three-assumptions.html.

In order to ardently follow any one of these three assumptions and deny the other two, the believer must take what, in religious circles, is called "a leap of faith."   In every philosophical belief system, including atheism, there are fundamental, unprovable assumptions that, because of a lack of evidence, must be accepted on faith.

When we examine abortion in detail and within the contexts of each of the three, basic, religious assumptions, Religious One-life-ism, Atheism, and Reincarnation,  we come to three very different conclusions regarding the significance, the meaning, and the consequences of abortion.

The state has no right to dictate religion.   It has no right to dictate, control, and/ or influence personal behavior relating to abortion!

To view this page (statement six) in it's entirety, go to:
            http://www.truth101.org/vs-three-assumptions.html.