Re: Nature article on ID

Dave Siemens wrote:

> There are also interventions that produce new natural patterns. If God
> introduced a soul or spirit into a hominid or hominoid to produce the
> first human, I hold that the gift was passed to the descendants by
> mating.

Like a lot of things it sounds good unless we think about it a little. If
a "soul" came from the man, we would have to postulate little potential
souls as an integral part of each one of countless billions of sperm cells
which do not exist in any form until the human male reaches puberty. After
that, these are produced throughout a man's entire life. Would human males
manufacture souls continually to accompany tiny sperm cells? That looks
dubious, so how about the woman?

Women are supplied with hundreds of eggs at birth. After puberty, a woman
releases an egg approximately every 28 days until she reaches menopause.
Do those eggs come prepackaged with souls too? If so, far more end up in
waste treatment plants than in choir lofts.

Our DNA, and all that is associated with our life-producing capabilities,
are simply physical processes for producing physical beings. It is hard to
imagine any spirit entity intertwined with the potentials of life. When
union takes place, that is a different story. But how spiritual souls
match up with physical bodies is anybody's guess. Are souls allotted at
conception; handed out at "viability"; assigned at birth; imparted at an
arbitrary age of reason; bestowed at an arbitrary age of accountability;
conferred at the acceptance of Christ; or none of the above?

And don't look at me. I don't know the answer.

Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
Received on Mon May 2 23:36:17 2005