Finding The Origin

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His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada
Founder-Acarya of the
Hare Krishna Movement

The first conclusion that one must come to, when discussing either human life, animal life or plant life, is that there is always a "life-force" that makes the human, the animal, the plant a living organism. Some refer to it as the "soul".

To further define "the soul" we must separate the "soul" from the "body". If we do this we get a dead body. We can see that it is a dead body because it does not have any consciousness: it cant think, speak, hear, smell, touch, taste, or dream. To go even further we can say that the soul is actually the person and that the body is not. If I stand here and I say that this is my arm, this is my leg, this is my head, this is my hand, and so on and I will come to a point where I ask "who am I"? I am certainly not this hand or this head or this arm. The answer is "I am not this body, I am the spirit soul; the life force."

So now we can say that the "soul" is the operator of the "body". The body is a machine, the soul is making the body work, just like a machine does not work without an operator. The soul is the operator of the human body. The human body can not work without the soul.

So where does life begin when considering a male and a female human, or animal for that matter, producing a new life form? To further pursue this discussion, we must see that "life comes from life". If life did not come from life, you could definitely make an argument saying that embryos can be disposed of as freely as your empty container of milk.

However, there is "no proof" at all that life comes from matter, and in fact it is a rather absurd notion. Take for instance the idea of "cloning": a scientist creates an embryo with a sperm and an egg. Where does the sperm come from? Where does the egg come from? So did the scientist create the embryo? No, the scientist simply put the sperm and the egg together. The scientist can not make the sperm or the egg. In this scenario the scientist is facilitating the situation, to an extent. But he did not create life.

So when was the life created? Was life created at birth, at conception, or even before the male and female came together? If we take the first question: was life created at birth? The child is living inside the womb independently of the mother, otherwise how do you explain premature births? If you cut the umbilical cord, the baby is still alive and is able to live on its own. Through special high-tech devices you can see the baby's heart beating on a television screen. It is beating separately from the mothers heart, even at a different rate. It's body is only attached by a cord and this cords only function is to give food to the baby. The baby is living separately from the mother inside her womb.

As soon as the sperm penetrates the egg, the process that creates the embryo starts. The male and female are not together now. The mother is not the sole life support, somehow growing or creating the baby. The mother and the father simply brought the sperm and the egg together and then the growth process of the body begins. What begins the process? What is making the process continue? What makes the process work? That is the question. If you conclude that just by putting the sperm and egg together, process will start, you have missed the point. Something so advanced, such as the growth of a human body within the womb, must have an advanced intelligence behind it.

Take for instance, the electricity that runs your computer. The electricity is one part of all the parts that make the computer work, but still there is a higher intelligence that puts the electricity and all the other parts together. Electricity in itself does not make the computer do anything meaningful. That requires a person: the operator. It is the operator that really makes the computer run. Electricity is not operating the computer. That is done by the person who is operating it. Similarly, the presence of a higher intelligence must be instrumental in creating the growth process within the human body. The "soul", the "life-force" is the real identity of the human being. We can see this is true just by knowing that if a doctor surgically amputates an arm, we will still live. We will have not lost any of our identity. We will have lost an arm, but we will still be the same person.

So the next question that will arise is; what is the origin of life; the sperm, egg, the human, the species that is able to have consciousness; to think, to understand a concept, to love, to have emotions? You can not avoid this question. To discuss the moral issue of "abortion" you have to address the issue of our origin, otherwise it is like trying to learn a language with out learning the alphabet first.

So where does life come from? We must conclude that there is a controller; a super intelligence, a supreme being, a supreme person. We can see that nothing works without an intelligence to initiate the cause, which makes the effect. Am I really addressing the notion of God? Is this really scientific? It is very scientific. The dictionary definition of Science is : "The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena." (Lexico Publishing Group, LLC: dictionary.com)

The science of God and how he works is a complete science. We can see that the universe is being maintained perfectly. The seasons change and repeat in the same cycle every year. We know that next year in New York City that in January it will be cold, in July it will be warmer. If we accept the idea of God, then we must accept that he is the controller and that he is the origin of everything including us humans. There is always a cause and effect to everything. God is the cause of all causes, the origin.

There must be some intelligence behind something that is so advanced and working effectively or working at all. Just as if a child sees an automatic door open at an airport, he thinks "oh, how is this working?" Because of his poor fund of knowledge he will think that it is by chance. But the older, more experienced person knows that there was a lot of thought and planning in the electrical design behind the automatic door operation. There has to be a higher intelligence.

How can an automatic door be working with out an intelligence behind it? How can the embryo grow into the stages of a baby without a life force of its own? How can a computer be developed without intelligence? The soul, the life force is part and also parcel of the highest intelligence. The supreme person is making the grass grow, the sun rotate the earth, the wind blow, the rain fall, human intelligence work, and making the computer work.

Abortion is not a right, it is murder. Whether the child is growing inside the mother or outside, murder is still murder. The growing of an embryo means that the "life force" is present. Life is forming the body and making it grow.

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