When does life start?

[ribozyme]

It starts 3.8 billion years ago.

 

[holdencaulfield]

It starts 3.8 billion years ago.

Thanks for that. I don’t think many people would disagree with you. However seriously troll somewhere else.

 

[AHapka]

Also, importantly, there is the argument from mathematics, or the 0 to 1 idea.

You have a sperm, and you have an egg. Alone, each will continue only being just a sperm and just an egg.

Together, they form one cell, the zygote. Where there was no human cell, there is now 1.

The difference between 0 and 1 is infinite, as an infinite amount of zeros (sperm by themselves, or eggs by themselves) only make zero, but together, they have added 1.

Now that there is 1, life has begun. There is no other reasonable time for life to start, for there is no greater growth of human cells. Though that 1 will eventually become billions, this is still a finite growth, while the 1 is infinitely more than 0.

I agree with what you are trying to say, but I do have a problem with your math. How can you say 1 is infinitely more than 0, when it is a defined quantity away from 0, namely 1 unit? They are both whole numbers, so when you subtract 1-0=1. That’s not infinite. Also, an infinite number of zero’s can never be added together to become one. Zero raised to any power (even increasing without limit) will always be zero.

Could I perhaps suggest defining a sperm as 1/2 and an egg as 1/2? After all, each one does have half of the genetic material required to created new life. Then when you add them together (1/2+1/2=1) it makes more sense.

An added benefit of defining it as 1/2, would be that you are acknowledging that each flesh in the union is contributing to the new life. 1/2 from the father’s side, and 1/2 from the mother’s side. This would also more accurately coincide with what the Catechism states when it says that the parents join in God’s creative work by assisting God in creating new life.

It both acknowledges that that parents contribute the 1/2, and that God does the adding. And life begins at one, because that’s when the adding is complete. After the adding, the cells increase at a multiplicative rate (after one cell divides, then two cells divide, then four cells divide, then eight cells divide, etc).

 

[guanophore]

So, I hope you will monitor her class from here on out and exempt her from sexual topics.

We are in the world, not “of” it. We must be in the marketplace, where society is. This is a great opportunity, as it is for all parents, to use what children are exposed to secularly to teach how it is different in the Kingdom. Better this is done now, while they are in the home, then wait until they are away at college, and don’t have the benefit of daily (name removed by moderator)ut!

 

[SenorSalsa]

Ask he why it should even matter if it counts as an abortion?

why would she be having sex if not for the purposes of procreation. Even if it is not an drug induced abortion, it is certainly at minimum birth control, which is just as wrong.

Oh and by the way, as a Senior in a public high school, i can vouch that such a topic should have never come up in a Public school curriculum. I took health class. Birth control was never mentioned. Only this is this body part, this is that body part. This is how the mix. Then it was on to the next section

 

[guanophore]

Ask he why it should even matter if it counts as an abortion?

why would she be having sex if not for the purposes of procreation. Even if it is not an drug induced abortion, it is certainly at minimum birth control, which is just as wrong.

Oh and by the way, as a Senior in a public high school, i can vouch that such a topic should have never come up in a Public school curriculum. I took health class. Birth control was never mentioned. Only this is this body part, this is that body part. This is how the mix. Then it was on to the next section

The problem is that this is not being taught in catechism. So, the only organized curriculum is in the public school. Unless and until the people conducting catechism are willing to take it on, our young people will continue to be poorly prepared.