When Does Life Begin?
I have no intention of including a discussion on abortion in this blog entry. This is not a defense of a viewpoint. It is a view of life's beginning drawn from the writings of an advocate of the "all is vanity" argument. By expounding on a simple statement made by the Guru of "All is Vanity," I hope we can come to an understanding of the beginnings of life - that is the life that pertains to an individual human. So when does life begin?
What we consider as human life on this earth is made up of 2 or 3 major components - the body, the spirit, and some would include the soul. Now, we are very familiar with the body and the intricate nature of its systems. We are a little less familiar with the soul or mental aspects of life. We know very little about the spirit. However, each one of these aspects of human existence makes up every one of the lives you know here on earth. Not only do they make up these lives, but they also hold the key to when these lives began.
At this point, let's consider a question and answer related to our topic:
Q. Considering the most understood aspect of human life, the body, does the body need the spirit within it to exhibit what we call life?
A. Well, life in the body is characterized by animation, action, growth, and all the other things that a living human body does. Now we know that a body cannot do these things on its own. The body is often referred to as a machine - a very complex machine. The working of the body is mechanical, and the natural forces that apply to mechanics apply to the human body. Consider the body as a vehicle. While the operations of a vehicle may work without the assistance of an intelligent being, like a car idling while the driver is out of it, the car is unable to perform the complex operations that give it purpose without an intelligent operator. Likewise, the body may maintain its biological operations without the spirit present, but those operations will not provide meaning to the body. It is a shell, like a car without a driver. In other words, in order for the body to live, or exhibit those characteristics that we consider life here on earth, a spirit must be present. As support of this position, I refer to the bastion of accuracy, Wikipedia, on the medical definition of death. "Brain death is an irreversible unconscious state, in which the integrating functions of the brain to support life, including breathing and consciousness, which are dependent on brain-stem functioning, have irreversibly ceased to operate." Put another way, a body is declared dead when it cannot sustain its operations due to the loss of "consciousness." Interestingly, Wikipedia goes on to say that there can be "considerable" brain activity continuing in a dead body because the individual cells continue to function, "but they are no longer functioning in an integrated or coordinated manner." That sounds like the driver has left the car to me.
Now it may be an excellent time to insert what the "All is Vanity" Guru says about a spirit inhabiting a body. The position of this guy is that we do not know "the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child…" In present-day terminology, we do not understand how the spirit enters the body of a fetus, or baby, in the womb. I believe that would be supported by most medical experts today. But I also believe that there is a finer point for us to consider here. To another Q and A:
Q. Considering the Guru's statement, if it is true that the spirit enters the body while that body is developing in the womb, would the spirit arrive first and then the breath or would the body breath and then the spirit come?
A. Well, first, let's make sure that we understand that the breath of a baby in the mother's womb is different than a breath of the same baby outside of the womb. The breathing mechanics of a body outside of the mother's uterus involve the respiratory system developed in the chest cavity of the body. Inside the mother's womb, the fetus will obtain oxygen through the umbilical cord that essentially hacks into the mother's circulation system. Now, these are two very different methodologies that accomplish the same thing - getting some oxygen so the body can do all those living things like moving and growing. So when does a baby take their first breath? Well, mechanically, once it leaves the mother's womb, but from a "get some oxygen" standpoint, it happens long before she comes out of the uterus. So with this cursory analysis of the breathing of a baby, let's answer the spirit than breath or vise versa question. As previously mentioned, we do not know much about the spirit. But with relative certainty, we can know that a spirit does not need breath to live. If the spirit comes to the body in the womb, and the same spirit does not require a breath to live, I would suggest that the spirit inhabits the body before the body begins obtaining oxygen through the mother's system. It is at this point when the aspects that we consider living begin to be exhibited in the baby (i.e., kicking, moving, action, growth). It could be argued, based on the machine and operator comparison, that the spirit may enter the fetus at fertilization since it is at this point when the cells begin acting with the purpose to develop. But whether at fertilization or a little later in the fetal development process, the Guru's proposition that a spirit enters the body in the mother's womb has substantive support in our understanding of the components of a human's life and their requirements.
But is the point when the spirit enters the body in the womb when life begins?
Before we answer our main question, let's see if we can agree that the spirit is captivating. I suggest that a spirit must come from outside this world. I know of no machine, no location, no compound that creates spirits. Spirits are not earthly things. Spirits are likely the most unexplained entities in our entire universe.
Spirits are so extra universal that our science does not mess with them. Ologies that attempt to deal with the spirit are more commonly known as new age movements or cults or religion, but indeed not science at all. Why? Because of our limited, temporal minds that cannot comprehend the spirit. Attempting to explain the spirit scientifically is futile. Now, the "All is Vanity" Guru's statement opens up a possibility that we have not yet considered. He states that we do not know "the way the spirit comes…" If this is the case, from where does the spirit come before it enters the babies' body? This, I believe, is the key question to understanding the origin of life.
We have established that
The spirit enters the body.
The body needs the spirit to live.
The spirit exists before the body.
Based on these findings, we can understand that the spirit is that component of the human life that is living indeed. The body operates in life because of the spirit. So individual human life must, therefore, be dependent upon the existence of the spirit. I believe that the spirit has a beginning, and it is this beginning that establishes the beginning of human life, in body and soul, inhabited by the spirit. You likely existed before the car you drive. Likewise, your spirit existed before the body that you see in the mirror.
When did your spirit begin living? According to King Solomon, that "All is Vanity" Guru and purportedly the wisest man who ever lived, you began in spirit when God made you as He makes everything.