Neither the spermatozoön nor the ovum is a living creature, for neither
of them has the power to take and assimilate food; nor to develop and
grow, alone. But when they unite and fuse, this combination begins
to live, it absorbs and assimilates food or nourishment, develops,
divides and produces an infinite number of daughter-cells. The atoms
in the fertilized ovum are identically the same that were in the
spermatozoön and ovum before the fusion occurred. Perhaps these atoms
form new chemical combinations. But we cannot believe that any possible
combination of atoms could automatically take on the energies and
phenomena of life. Any good chemist can make the same combination of
atoms that is found in the fertilized ovum; but his combination would
not absorb and assimilate food, it would not live, develop nor grow.
Life is not a property of matter but something wholly different from
it. Matter may exist without life; but apparently, life cannot exist
without matter. It is evident that the atoms of which the human body
is composed did not manifest the phenomena nor the energies of life
until they were grouped into that body; on the other hand the body
does not manifest vital energies after its death. Life begins at a
particular moment and ceases at another specific instant.
If a piece of iron be charged with electricity, it will manifest
electrical energy so long as it remains charged. But when the
electricity passes from it, the iron ceases to exhibit such phenomena.
So, when the human body is charged or endowed with life, it continues
to manifest vital phenomena until life passes out of it.
Life is bestowed on the several species of animal under divers
conditions. Thus, it is bestowed on the fertilized human ovum in the
genital organs of the mother, for the reason that this is the best, if
not the only, place for it to develop and grow. It is bestowed on the
eggs of fishes in the water; and upon the eggs of birds, after they
have passed out of the bodies of the mother bird. Let us consider the
hen’s egg for a moment. When laid it contains a fertilized ovum and
“the white and the yellow” of the egg. It is a complete and finished
egg. But it has no life. Unless it be placed under a sitting hen or in
an incubator, it will decay and disintegrate.
The hen or incubator merely keeps it warm during the period of
incubation. By the end of the twenty-first day, the contents of the
egg-shell have been converted into a live bird, with a skeleton,
muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, brain, eyes, ears, heart, lungs,
liver, wings, legs, feet, etc. There is no skeleton, model, nor any
other performed outline of the coming chick, in the egg; for the
contents of the egg-shell are a homogeneous mass of protoplasm. There
is no reason to suppose that the warmth of the hen’s body, nor that
the heat of the incubator, is, alone, adequate to impart life to the
egg. Each part of the egg is necessarily kept at the same temperature
as that of every other part. For this reason we cannot believe that
mere heat differentiates one part of the white and yellow into bones,
another part into muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, etc.
In his Principles of Biology, (vol. 1, p. 116), Spencer says:
“There is experimental proof that seeds may, under conditions
unfavorable to germination, retain for ten, twenty, and some even
thirty years, the power to germinate when due moisture and warmth are
supplied.”
Now if these seeds are alive, what becomes of the life in them during
these long periods of quiescence? There are untold millions of grains
of wheat and of corn. None of these grains will germinate until they
are supplied with “moisture and warmth.” Can we believe that heat and
moisture alone have any creative forces? If so, all the sands of the
sea shore ought to be living creatures.
Let us consider the acorn. When mature, it falls to the ground. If
it be supplied with a proper degree of heat and moisture, it will
germinate in a short time. But it will never germinate, so long as it
is kept in a cool, dry place. Suppose an acorn is deprived of heat
and moisture for five years; that it is then supplied with them and
immediately germinates. When did the life of the acorn begin? Did
it begin when the acorn ripened and dropped to the ground or when it
germinated? If it was alive when it first matured, and germinated five
years afterward, what became of its life between its maturity and its
germination? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the Creator endowed
it with life when it germinated?
Can we believe that the heat of the mother’s body is, alone, adequate
to generate life in the fertilized ovum? Can we believe that the
heat of the sun, and the moisture of the earth are, of themselves,
sufficient to generate life in a grain of wheat, a grain of corn or an
acorn?
It follows that the fertilized human ovum must be directly and
specially endowed by the Creator with the power to absorb and
assimilate food, to develop, grow and live! The Creator in every
instance strikes the vital match!
Sec. 49. Proposition 16. Every Human Soul is a New, Direct and Special
Creation
The soul is defined as: “A substantial entity, believed to be that, in
each person, which lives, feels, thinks and wills.” (Cent. Dic. 7, p.
5781.)
I hope and believe that every human being has an immortal soul; and
if this be true it must be his or her own, for we cannot imagine that
the same soul ever occupied more than one body; unless we believe in
the transmigration, metempsychosis or reincarnation of souls; and this
belief is too absurd for serious consideration. The child does not take
his father’s soul nor his mother’s, nor is there any reason to suppose
that either parent transmits to the child, any part of his or her soul;
nor that either of them transmits any germ of a new soul for it. No man
can even imagine a division of himself--his ego or self--into two or
more parts. It follows that each human body has its own soul; which is
separate from and independent of every other soul.
We cannot believe that the spermatozoön nor the ovum has any soul prior
to their fusion into the fertilized ovum. We are therefore compelled
to infer that the soul comes into existence at the moment this fusion
occurs, or shortly afterward. We cannot even imagine that the soul is
created by the father, nor by the mother, nor by the body in which it
resides; nor by accident nor chance.
It follows that a new soul must be directly and specially created for
each embryo body, if it ever gets one.
It may be that life is an attribute or property of the soul. If this be
true, the creation of the soul would include the creation of life.
If one believes that he has a soul, separate and apart from his body,
as most of us do, he is compelled to assume, that it was directly and
specially created by Almighty God.
If we believe that the soul is a special creation, we may well assume
that the body is also a special creation.