Louisville Process Theology Network

Our First Spark

Mar 02, 2009

Just imagine ?“The Creation of Adam?” in that famous fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo around 1511. Here we see God imparting life to Adam, the first man, as told in ?“Genesis.?”

God is the heroic looking man with a white beard and draped in a swirling cloak which he shares with a bevy of cherubim. His right arm is wrapped around a female character, who appears to be Eve, the first woman. She is apparently waiting in Heaven to receive her earthly life.

And, God?’s left arm is stretched outward to give the first spark of life from his own finger to Adam?’s finger. We see Adam reaching out to receive it. They are almost touching. The first human life is about to begin.

We?’ve seen copies of this inspiring scene many times. You can see it again here ---- http://mv.vatican.va.

A few days ago, we read another letter in the newspaper from a reader who characterized abortion as ?“a holocaust.?” This reader is obviously not involved in the public dialogue.

Neither would be any pro-abortion advocate who simply ignores the question of when life begins. Some of them like to say it is impossible to answer that question. We know they're just dodging it. Your high school debate club would call this a prevarication.

When do we receive our first spark? It appears to us that most of those who have tried to figure out an answer, based on knowledge instead of hype, have settled on one of these two answers: life begins at conception, where cells combine to form an embryo; or life begins with the first brain wave at the onset of consciousness.

Both sides would surely agree that a human body consists of a body and a soul. In religious terms, the essential questions are these: ?“When does the soul enter the body??” and ?“How do we know this??”

Some folks allow that the soul might arrive sometime after conception, but still believe that embryos are anointed by God at conception inasmuch as they are forms awaiting the arrival of souls.

Meanwhile, others say the potential of an egg, sperm, zygote, embryo, and infant are all the same. The end-state of each is to become a cognizant human being. This means the moral status of abortion is the same as the morality of stem cell research and birth control. It?’s sort of a package deal. The argument for potential is not valid unless we intend to prohibit all those things. That brings us back to the question of when the soul enters the body.

These are the kinds of questions most people want to learn more about. Heated-up political rhetoric and evasions are a waste of everyone?’s time.