For each argument below, explain a short paragraph explaining the author's main reasons for holding the view, even if you disagree with the view.

1. "Only religion can say all fetuses are instantly human; any scientific understanding exposes this incontrovertibly as just crazy talk. But abortion rights don't depend on fetuses not being human at all. If you want to take the argument off the religious turf, you have to acknowledge that there is no moral instant when a fetus becomes human—science can't locate that transformation more precisely than sometime between conception and birth. For that matter, there is no moral bright line between human and animal as far as suffering and death, that separates a human from a chim- panzee from a pig from a dog. . . . There is moralizing, but not morality, in approving the grotesquely cruel slaughter of billions

of sentient animals for convenience or any reason at all, while labeling women who abort sixteen-cell fetuses as murderers."

Philip N. Cohen, "Abortion Is Not a Holocaust, and Feminism Is Not About Convenience," Family Inequality, Apr 13, 2018, https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/ abortion-is-not-a-holocaust-and-feminism-is-not-about-convenience/

2. "I have yet to meet anyone who can point out from who or what we evolved from. Sure some say we evolved from apes; well if that's true; wouldn't all apes have evolved to humans? There's some that say we evolved from a fish; wouldn't all fish eventually have evolved to human? Yeah, it's the easy way out to try and ex- plain we came from something that was already here, but there has never been any exact science to prove your theory . . . I've worked in the science field almost my entire adult life and I can tell you nothing evolves without a human's touch. Not a single cell will do anything without the intervention of someone or some- thing feeding it or programming it. Could you imagine evolution actually existing? You have a pet fish in an aquarium tonight and tomorrow you wake up with a man or woman sitting on your couch . . ."

Cottontop, Web comment on "Evolution vs. Creationism," CreateDebate, 2011, http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/evolution_vs_creationism

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3. "Despite the most hostile and corrupt media in the history of American politics, the Trump Administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other Administration. Judges, biggest Tax & Regulation Cuts, V.A. Choice, Best Economy, Lowest Unemployment & much more!"

Donald J. Trump, Twitter post, Mar 10, 2019, 8:02 AM, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1104714098724519936

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4. "Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is, I dunno. If the Eiffel Tower were now representing the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle- knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; and anybody would perceive that the skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would, I dunno."

Mark Twain, Was the World Made for Man? (1903); repr., What Is Man?: and Other Philosophical Writings, Vol. 19 of Mark Twain, Works, edited by Paul Baender (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993)

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5. Journalist: "What do you think of Western civilization?" Mahatma Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."

Adapted from: "'What Do You Think of Western Civilization?' 'I Think It Would Be a Good Idea'," Quote Investigator, Apr 23, 2013, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/23/good-idea/

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