Which gets the soul?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gaerteuth
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Gaerteuth

Guest
The Catholic Church’s definition of life is “Begins at conception”.

This fails to account that multiple fetuses can form from a single conception.
If a zygote in it’s early stage is accidentally broken, the two pieces that broke apart begin developing as separate fetuses.

Considering that there was only one moment of sperm-egg conception, which of the fetuses get the soul?
 
I think it is simply a matter of fetus being slightly older than the other. The first was conceived when the sperm met the egg. The other was conceived when it split from its sibling.
 
This is why the church has been careful not to define the moment of ensoulment.

The soul is the life; therefore wherever there is a living human body, or embryo, there is soul, and has been since the beginning of that being’s life.

But because embryos can divide, or even merge, the moment of ensoulment may not be precisely the moment of “fertilization.”

ICXC NIKA.
 
Some Catholics don’t believe the Church’s teaching that life begins at conception and some even go so far as to claim that the Church doesn’t even teach what it actually teaches, but they’re gravely wrong.
 
Herbal cells are alive and are able to divide and accrete. But plants have not soul. Their life is one kind of God’s act. Without soul any thing can be alive in that way. According to Muslim scholarships a fetus does not a soul before about 40 days. After sperm met egg 40 days must pass for giving soul. Untill that time fetus has a life maybe like herbal cells.
 
mhmtas said:
Herbal cells are alive and are able to divide and accrete. But plants have not soul. Their life is one kind of God’s act. Without soul any thing can be alive in that way. According to Muslim scholarships a fetus does not a soul before about 40 days. After sperm met egg 40 days must pass for giving soul. Untill that time fetus has a life maybe like herbal cells.
Click to expand...
The OP asked for the Catholic Answer to this question.
 
We don’t know exactly how or when the soul is granted, but I daresay it’s not a difficult stretch of the imagination to think that God would simply grant two souls instead of one.

Are we really so desperate to make God fit into our tiny little paradigms that our common sense simply fails us? :o
 
Bookcat said:
God infuses two souls.
Click to expand...
Lochias said:
We don’t know exactly how or when the soul is granted, but I daresay it’s not a difficult stretch of the imagination to think that God would simply grant two souls instead of one.

Are we really so desperate to make God fit into our tiny little paradigms that our common sense simply fails us? :o
Click to expand...
I think it’s more of a desire of doubters to drive a wedge into faith (ie, by arguing the soul away). IMNAAHO of course.

ICXC NIKA
 
Just a thought here, but maybe they share the same soul and that is why twins are so emotionally connected. Like when one twin feels pain, they other just knows without even having to be told.
 
truthquester said:
Just a thought here, but maybe they share the same soul and that is why twins are so emotionally connected. Like when one twin feels pain, they other just knows without even having to be told.
Click to expand...
There is no sharing a soul. The soul is the life; each body has its own soul.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
There is no sharing a soul. The soul is the life; each body has its own soul.

ICXC NIKA
Click to expand...
For one thing, that is just my personal theory and how do you know what you say is for sure? As I said, there have been many documented cases where twins seem to have such a strong bond that they almost seem telepathic towards each other, how else can that be explained?

They behave and react in the same manner and even twins who have been seperated at birth and reunited later in life have striking similarities such as having the same kind of job, same taste in cloths, housing, spouses, same kind of life choices ect.
I read an article once where boy twins were seperated at birth and reunited later in life and they both dressed the same way, both had married a woman with the name of Majorie, both had 2 sons, ect.
If they don’t share the same soul, then they must have an exact copy of the same one. My neice was one of a twin and her twin died in the womb and for her entire life she has felt as though there is a part of her that is missing, how can this be explained any other way?
 
truthquester said:
For one thing, that is just my personal theory and how do you know what you say is for sure? As I said, there have been many documented cases where twins seem to have such a strong bond that they almost seem telepathic towards each other, how else can that be explained?

They behave and react in the same manner and even twins who have been seperated at birth and reunited later in life have striking similarities such as having the same kind of job, same taste in cloths, housing, spouses, same kind of life choices ect.
I read an article once where boy twins were seperated at birth and reunited later in life and they both dressed the same way, both had married a woman with the name of Majorie, both had 2 sons, ect.
If they don’t share the same soul, then they must have an exact copy of the same one. My neice was one of a twin and her twin died in the womb and for her entire life she has felt as though there is a part of her that is missing, how can this be explained any other way?
Click to expand...
You are describing mere personality traits shared in common.

The soul is one’s eternal dignity before God. If one were baptized, he would be Christian; the other would remain non-Christian. If one were ordained a priest, the non-ordained would not also be a priest.

God knows who is who.
 
Bookcat said:
God infuses two souls.
Click to expand...
How do you know? You’re just doing the God of the Gaps in a sense.

"X thing the church defines happens to have a logic flaw. Fill logic flaw with “God did this”.
 
Gaerteuth said:
The Catholic Church’s definition of life is “Begins at conception”.

This fails to account that multiple fetuses can form from a single conception.
If a zygote in it’s early stage is accidentally broken, the two pieces that broke apart begin developing as separate fetuses.

Considering that there was only one moment of sperm-egg conception, which of the fetuses get the soul?
Click to expand...
Conception is defined as when a new individual is formed. It is not necessarily only when a sperm and egg unite.

For instance, in human cloning, a new individual could be formed by genetic manipulation. It is the involvement of the human soul that makes cloning immoral.

An individual splitting from his or her sibling simply means a second, “non-tradition” conception occurred.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top