The Tebow ad, Continued…

So here it is, as it aired:

Not much controversial material there (viewers were told to visit Focus on the Family’s website for the full story, including Christian references and anti-abortion argument), but we’ve all heard plenty about the ad’s intent by this point.

But there’s more to debate here than the ad’s propriety – what about the validity of the argument?  The argument being made is a version of the famous “Beethoven example” used by the pro-life community:

“About the terminating of pregnancy, I want your opinion. The father was syphilitic. The mother tuberculous. Of the four children born, the first was blind, the second died, the third was deaf and dumb, the fourth was also tuberculous. What would you have done?”

“I would have terminated the pregnancy.”

“Then you would have murdered Beethoven.”

Convincing, eh?  Had Tebow’s mother made what many pro-choice advocates suggest is the “right decision,” we wouldn’t have her successful son Tim.  Richard Dawkins rebuts this logic, reminding us that by the same reasoning, we should equally condemn each act of abstinence; after all, every decision NOT to have procreative sex deprives the world of a potential genius.  Also, in order for Tim to exist, some 40 million rival sperm lost out in the race to an egg.  One of those sperm could have grown up to cure cancer.  Is Tim Tebow the man who prevented that cure?  These thought experiments are quite interesting, and worth thinking about if we want to get our logic straight on abortion.

(That’s setting aside the factual inaccuracies of the example, as Beethoven was the eldest child, none of his siblings were blind, deaf, or dumb, and his father did not have syphilis).

-Colin

Related posts:

  1. Yes, we are glad Tim Tebow is here
  2. More on Tim Tebow
  3. Burqa continued…
  4. Public philosophy 4 kidz, continued
  5. Is the Right pro-family or anti-abortion?

February 8, 2010 · Filed Under Colin, Faith, Health Care, Personal vs. Public Morality, Science

Share

Comments

One Response to “The Tebow ad, Continued…”

  1. Super Bowl Ads Con’t: The Green Police : The Public Philosopher on February 9th, 2010 7:07 am

    [...] on Colin’s post, the environmental website Grist has a post on the memorable “Green Police” Audi [...]

Leave a Reply




  • Editors

    Jacob Bronsther is a law student at NYU, a former Fulbright Scholar to Mauritius, and a graduate of Cornell University. He has an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.

  • Sam Gill is a consultant in Washington and a graduate of the University of Chicago. He studied Political Theory at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

  • Marc Grinberg is a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. government and a graduate of Princeton University. He earned an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.

  • John Rood is the founder of Next Step Test Preparation and a graduate of Michigan State University. He has an AM in Political Theory from the University of Chicago.

  • Luke Freedman is a student at Carleton College, pursuing a double major in Philosophy and Political Science.


  • Sign up for the TPP Weekly Rewind



  •

  • Share us