Markup /zellig/99043

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>>91999
>when people say "life begins at conception" they're exploiting the connotation of the word "life" to make it seem like biologists are saying "a fertilized egg is a person deserving of rights"
this conflation of layman definitions with rigorous, scientific definitions is one of the most common symptoms of science illiteracy.
"that's just a theory, not hard science!"
"dark energy? dark matter? that sounds like some mystical stuff!"
"the big bang must've literally been an explosion because it has "bang" in its name!"
"the Cambrian explosion must've happened so fast, just like how an explosion happens fast!"
"biologists say life begins at conception, that means a person is created a conception!"
this is responsible for basically the entire abortion debate. the same way people believe dark matter is a mystical phenomenon because they associate the word "black" with black magic witchcraft, anti-choice people believe that a life-form is automatically a person because they associate the word "life" with sentient beings.
if black matter was referred to as "non-baryonic matter", no one would think it is mystical, and if biologists said "biota begins at conception" instead of "life beings at conception ", no one would be fighting for the rights of zygotes.