Part 9

If there were no extraneous supervising architect to adjust and correlate each organ and part to every other, there would be no harmony of form, size, nor structure in the edifice. Surely, the atoms and cells in the right leg would have no knowledge of the form, size, nor structure of the left; and no organ, nor any part of the body, would have any power to adjust itself, automatically, to any other.

Sec. 48. Proposition 15. Each Human Body is Specially Endowed with Life

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.

Sec. 50. Objection to this Theory of Special Creation

I admit that there are serious objections to my theory of special creation. But like objections may be brought against any other theory. For example, many serious objections have been brought against Darwin’s theory of organic evolution. Yet a majority of all the scientists believe it is true.

In his “Man’s Place in Nature” (p. 149), Huxley says:

“Our acceptance of the Darwinian hypothesis must be provisional so long as one link in the chain of evidence is wanting: and so long as all animals and plants certainly produced by selective breeding from a common stock are fertile, and their progeny are fertile with one another, that link will be wanting.”

This link is still missing and probably will be forever.

Although there are serious objections to my theory, yet there is none so serious as there are to the alternative theory that dead atoms and blind, unthinking cells do spontaneously and automatically group themselves into the chemical combinations and mechanical arrangements, which are necessary to produce the human body; and that this body becomes, spontaneously and automatically, a live human being with intellect, memory and will.

Index

Figures refer to pages.

=Animals=, their sizes determined how, 66 first appeared at a certain time, 106 first were specially created or arose by spontaneous generation, 107 none produced by spontaneous generation, 109

=Atoms=, defined and discussed, 20

=Body.= See Human body; Embryo body.

=Brain=, is a special creation, 129

=Cell=, defined and discussed, 21 their distribution and grouping, 69 their differentiation or metamorphosis, 77 their waste, discussed, 80 See Germ-cell; Daughter-cell.

=Chemical elements=, Composing the body, 19

=Creator=, could have made a million animals or plants as easily as one, 111 if He made the first animal and the first plant he made all others, 112 His supervision is necessary to produce the embryo body, 135 bestows life on each individual, 136

=Daughter-cells=, their production, etc., 65

=Differentiation of Cells= (metamorphosis), 77

=Distribution and grouping= of cells, 69

=Ear= is a special creation, 128

=Elephant= grows larger than a mouse, why?, 66

=Embryo body=, distribution and grouping of cells in, 69 differentiation (metamorphosis) of cells in, 77 is built of inanimate matter, 81 each is produced anew, 82

=Eye= is a special creation, 123

=Fertilized ovum=. See Germ-cell.

=Force and motion=, defined and discussed, 35

=Generation, spontaneous=. See spontaneous generation.

=Germ-cell= defined and discussed, 53 does not contain any skeleton or model of the coming embryo, 57 has no power to evolve the embryo automatically, 61

=God.= See Personal God, 11

=Grouping of cells=, in embryo body, 69

=Heredity=, has no power to generate a new human being, 85 has no power to evolve one from the germ-cell, 85 and environment are inadequate, etc., 18

=Human being=, each is a special creation, 105

=Human body=, chemical elements in it, 19 is a compound physical structure, 25 is built of cells, “organic bricks”, 25 is a complex animal machine, 30 is constructed on a definite plan, 33 each is unique and peculiar, 35 is either specially created or spontaneously generated, 113 is specially endowed with life, 136

=Intellect, etc.=, are necessary when, 9, 43, 51

=Life= is specially bestowed on each individual, 136

=Memory, etc.=, are necessary, when, 9, 43, 51

=Metamorphosis of cells=, discussed, 77

=Model of embryo=, none in germ-cell, 57

=Motion and force.= See Force and Motion, 35

=Mouse= is smaller than the elephant, why?, 66

=Materialist=, his theory of the universe, 14-15

=Nature=, has no power to generate a new human being, 103 has no power to evolve one from the germ-cell, 103

=Newton’s first law= of motion, stated, 35

=Objections= to this theory of special creation, 141

=Organs, Sexual.= See Sexual Organs, 129

=Organs=, their form, size, structure, position and number are proof that the human body is a special creation 132

=Ovum=, defined and discussed, 47 is a special creation 49 its production, 65 fertilized, see Germ-cell, 53

=Personal God=, belief in His existence, 11

=Plant=, first was specially created or arose by spontaneous generation, which?, 107 none produced by spontaneous generation, 109

=Protoplasm=, defined and discussed, 23

=Question=, the real stated, 12, 102

=Real question= stated, 12, 102

=Reproduction=, its phenomena stated, 64

=Sameness of human bodies= is evidence, etc., 133

=Sexual Organs= are special creations, 129

=Sizes of animals= are determined, how?, 66

=Skeleton= is a special creation, 116 of embryo none in the germ-cell, 57

=Soul= is a special creation, 139

=Spermatozoön=, defined and discussed, 44 is a special creation, 49 its production, 64

=Spontaneous generation=, none of animals and plants, 109

=Stem-cell.= See Germ-cell, 53

=Supervision= by the creator is necessary to produce the embryo body, 135

=Universal sameness= of human bodies, proof of their special creation, 133

=Waste of cells=, discussed, 80

=Whence and whither=, 12

=Will power.= See Intellect, etc., 9, 43, 51