How does a fertilized egg become human?
I just came across this short blurb by Steve Olson, author of Mapping Human History. Steve writes, “Imagine that you place a 1-inch-wide black cube in an empty field. Suddenly the cube makes copies of itself—two, four, eight, 16. The proliferating cubes begin to form structures—enclosures, arches, walls, tubes. Some of the tubes turn into wires, PVC pipes, structural steel, wooden studs. Sheets of cubes become wallboard and wood paneling, carpet and plate-glass windows. The wires begin connecting themselves into a network of immense complexity. Eventually, a 100-story skyscraper stands in the field.
That’s basically the process a fertilized cell undergoes beginning with the moment of conception. How did that cube know how to make a skyscraper? How does a cell know how to make a human (or any other mammal)? Biologists used to think that the cellular proteins somehow carried the instructions. But now proteins look more like pieces of brick and stone—useless without a building plan and a mason. The instructions for how to build an organism must be written in a cell’s DNA, but no one has figured out exactly how to read them.”
Ummm, let me respond with one of my favorite writings from God. This one is found in Psalm 139. “O Lord, you made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”
What I love about this passage of the Bible is that it not only answers (albeit at a high level) Steve’s question, but it assures every one of us of the fact that God has precious thoughts about us. For me personally, the exact method that God used and continues to use for creation is not nearly as important as the fact that it is God that creates. And, even more importantly, that God LOVES what He creates!
How does a fertilized egg become human? The world may never know. But I hope we do find out. Because the more science discovers, the more God is glorified by His awesome abilities and motives.
That’s basically the process a fertilized cell undergoes beginning with the moment of conception. How did that cube know how to make a skyscraper? How does a cell know how to make a human (or any other mammal)? Biologists used to think that the cellular proteins somehow carried the instructions. But now proteins look more like pieces of brick and stone—useless without a building plan and a mason. The instructions for how to build an organism must be written in a cell’s DNA, but no one has figured out exactly how to read them.”
Ummm, let me respond with one of my favorite writings from God. This one is found in Psalm 139. “O Lord, you made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”
What I love about this passage of the Bible is that it not only answers (albeit at a high level) Steve’s question, but it assures every one of us of the fact that God has precious thoughts about us. For me personally, the exact method that God used and continues to use for creation is not nearly as important as the fact that it is God that creates. And, even more importantly, that God LOVES what He creates!
How does a fertilized egg become human? The world may never know. But I hope we do find out. Because the more science discovers, the more God is glorified by His awesome abilities and motives.
posted by Greg Nettle at 7:08 AM
1 Comments:
It was only about 50 years ago Watson and Crick discovered what DNA actually looks like. Technically, DNA was disovered in the 1800's, but we knew nothing and could find nothing else about it until the 1950's.
Keyword: discovered.
Something that is discovered is not something that is "invented". Discovery implies the finding of something that has been lost or hidden from sight until the moment it is seen or found...thus, it has ALWAYS been there, we just didn't see it. Watson and Crick didn't invent DNA no more than Newton invented gravity. People didn't start procreating the moment a scientist saw a double-helix in a microscope...everything in the world didn't randomly float around and then suddenly fall to the ground when Newton decided to write Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. Those kinds of things are there...they've always been there. And if it was there before we knew about it, seeing as how man did not invent it on his own, there must have been Someone else who put it there and knew how to use it before we did.
Moreover...the Bible tells us that they have always been there.
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