When and where does life begin?

Question

I am a christian and want some honest truth, I don't want your theory or abstract beliefs, I want scriptual backup that states that life begins and the moment of conception or it does not. I am just 16 and want to know for myself if it is true, I do not want to jump on a bandwagon.

Answer 1

Okay, scripture states in Psalm 139: 1-16 especially verse 16 that even before our body was formed God saw us and that all of our days are written down even before they began. So at least our lives were known even before we were conceived. Now for the actual biological life - Leviticus 17:11 & 14 say that the life of a creature is in its blood. Therefore, we may conclude that physical life begins when we have blood...blood is formed around 3 weeks after conception which is also the time when the embryo attaches to the uterus wall - which is when a woman truly becomes pregnant (until the baby attaches and produces hormones to stop menstruation the woman will have her period and lose the embryo never knowing she was pregnant). The heart begins to beat around the 21st day after conception. So based on scripture physical life begins when there is blood which is when the woman actually is pregnant (embryo attached to womb). With that said, the creation of the spirit begins before even conception based upon the Psalm mentioned. So in terms of abortion, physical life is killed because the woman would have to know she was pregnant first which will occur after the 3rd week after conception. No matter the case, once the spirit is created it will live on forever it will just never consciously experience physical life.

Answer 2

If the Bible clearly stated it, there would be no debate among Republicans would there, now. It's all about perspective - not just this question, but all of life. Everyone looks out at the world with a unique lens that is wrought from their experiences. So I don't see how you can ask for something other than theories or abstract beliefs. You want absolute truth? Maybe you'll get it if God is real and if you find yourself in Heaven. My opinion is that life starts when the baby gains the capability to sense things, to feel, to touch, etc. Only then are they unique in their own sense, experiencing the womb, the world. Before this moment, they are merely a ball of cells, no different from a dead lizard or withering plant.



EDIT: @ Christian Apologist. LOL You're scripture basically says, if a man kills an unborn baby, then he can make reparations with money. Therefore, that possible life was worth a few bucks, nothing more. What a caring God.

Answer 3

It's not that clear-cut.



First, since there was no real understanding of reproduction in Biblical times, looking to the Bible for advice about when life begins is about as sensible as looking to it for information about rocket science.



For real information about most medical and scientific processes, a science book would be a better source.



Second, there is no agreement as to what constitutes life - if there was a consensus as to how to define life, there would be no abortion controversy. However, opinions differ radically...for some, there must only be a physical presence. To these people, two cells constitutes a human life. To others, there must be some chance of the organism sustaining it's own independent life, so life begins at some point in the late second trimester when a fetus has at least a chance of surviving outside the womb.



Third, there is a great deal of confusion as to the difference between the medical definition of when life begins and the legal definition of when life begins - to have standing under the law, a person must be born.

Answer 4

You will find that there are a great number of questions the Bible does not answer directly and some it doesn't address at all. If the Bible told us all we needed to know in a perfectly clear way, we wouldn't need the Church. It sounds like you don't want to need the Church and I can only suppose that the Church would fall under what you call a "bandwagon". But Christ himself founded the Church and said to his Apostles "whoever hears you hears me and the one who sent me. Whoever will not hear you will not hear me or the one who sent me."



The consistent teaching of the Church is that abortion is an intrinzicly evil act.

Answer 5

My theory or abstract beliefs you don't want -- but dude, I am not the Supreme Creator, and I don't have perfect knowledge into the nature of things.



So how can I give you anything EXCEPT for "theory or abstract beliefs," since I can't directly access the secrets of life with either my eyes or my brain?



As for your main question: I can't give you scriptural backup for this, but I think "life" began in a chemical soup in the primordial seas of Earth, perhaps 2 billion years ago or more.



And I think it's perpetuated itself and become more varied and gloriously complicated ever since. Life today is organized into natural food chains, arranged in complicated ecosystems, perpetuated by the sex lives of most animals and plants and by the asexual reproduction of certain plants -- eg ferns -- and by the mitosis of unicellular plants and animals.



Are viruses alive? I think it's disputed, but to the extent that viruses are alive, life also is perpetuated by the spreading of viruses, by the ability of their DNA and RNA to penetrate the cells of other living things and turn those cells into little chemical-biological factories for the production of more viruses.



That's my personal sense of where life begins and how it continues, based on my science classes.



If you're looking for Christian scriptural authority, however, I suppose you could say that "life" began when God allegedly created the heavens & the earth & all the living things that cover the earth an estimated 6,600 years ago, as per the Book of Genesis.



If you think the spirit of God is also the "breath of life," however, if you think that things come alive only when God breathes his spirit into then, then maybe you should conclude that life in the ultimate sense is as old as God is, although it's only for about the last 7,000 years that God's spirit has been lent to living creatures on Earth to give us animation.

Answer 6

You want some honest truth? Everything is alive. Everytime you scratch your arm, you flake off thousands of dead and living cells. Every time you take a crap, bacterial holocaust occurs in your colon. Every little cell is alive. You are made up of trillions upon trilliions of cells, each of them alive.



This starts with one sperm cell meeting an egg cell, making a union of these two cells. This is conception of a human.



The thing with abortion is; when do we want to start caring about bundles of cells? I, personally, don't give a crap until the fetus can feel pain, which is like, second trimester or so, and abortions are almost never done then anyway. Beforehand, maybe it's killing, but so is masturbating in the regard that you just ejaculated thousands of living!!! sperm into your sock, so it really makes no difference to me whether you kill that bunch of cells or you kill another bunch of cells.

Answer 7

The following information leads me to believe that life begins at the point in which blood begins to circulate within the fetus.







Life in the Blood

by Henry Morris, Ph.D.

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11).

This great verse contains a wealth of scientific and spiritual truth. It was not realized until the discovery of the circulation of the blood by the creationist scientist William Harvey, in about 1620, that biological "life" really is maintained by the blood, which both brings nourishment to all parts of the body and also carries away its wastes.



Its spiritual truth is even more significant. The blood, when shed on the altar, would serve as an "atonement" (literally, "covering") for the soul of the guilty sinner making the offering. In fact, the "life" of the flesh is actually its "soul," for "life" and "soul" both translate the same Hebrew word (nephesh) in this text. When the blood was offered, it was thus an offering of life itself in substitution for the life of the sinner who deserved to die.



Human sacrifices, of course, were prohibited. No man could die for another man, for his blood would inevitably be contaminated by his own sin. Therefore, the blood of a "clean animal" was required. Animals do not possess the "image of God" (Genesis 1:27), including the ability to reason about right and wrong, and therefore cannot sin. Even such clean blood could only serve as a temporary covering, and it could not really "take away" sin. For a permanent solution to the sin problem, nothing less was required than that of the sinless "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12). Since His life was in His blood, He has "made peace through the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:20). HMM

Answer 8

Unfortunately, there is no scripture that states exactly when life begins. This is one of those questions that probably won't be answered in this life. The Lord just wants us to have faith on this one. My personal belief is that life begins when the heart starts beating, which is about three weeks after conception.



I hope you find the answers that you are looking for.

Answer 9

The first chapter of genesis explains it. He explains how he spoke things into existence. Go to biblegateway.com and read genesis chapter one...and if you feel compelled keep reading, you want scriptural evidence, so you must go to the Bible! Another good site to check is answersingenesis.org. It has a lot of great information with science and scripture backups! hope it helps! Don't fall away there is so much truth in the Bible, but you have to seek it!

Answer 10

you won't find precise scriptural backup, because much of the process of fertilisation and cell division and embryo development was unknown at the time the Bible was written.



The question isn't where life begins, but how much importance you place on the living tissue. for example, you lose millions of living cell every second through a variety of processes. if you spit your saliva carries your living cells, but you wouldn't place that much importance on it. Or having your appendix or tonsils removed. Some christians believe in a magical 'life force' of the developing fetus that other tissue does not have

Answer 11

By wanting scriptural, rather than scientific proof, you are jumping on a bandwagon of Christianity. Life starts when the brain starts functioning.

Answer 12

In regards to human life, life begins when something, in this case a human fetus, will eventually use the information programmed in its genes to develop into a fully grown man or woman, if left to do its thing. This happens at conception.

Answer 13

the bible says from your mothers womb I knew you, I knit you in your mothers womb. At the greeting of Mary, the baby in Elizabeth's womb lept for joy.

the bible does not say life begins at conception, but science proves that it does. society tries to define what "life" is and when it begins, so they can continue on in abortion, either in practice, or in endorsing it for other people to do it. Either way, the sin, is theirs.

Answer 14

Is Abortion Wrong?



identity unknownYes, abortion is wrong. The Lord has said, "You shall not murder," (Exodus 20:13). The life that is growing within the mother is a child, a baby. The Bible looks at the life in the womb as a child.: Exodus 21:22 says, "And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide," (NASB).1http://www.carm.org/questions/about-sexuality/abortion-wrong

Answer 15

I am also a Christin and i believe that my true life begins after death. In heaven. Life in heaven is descried to be the best of all.

Answer 16

Long time ago, in the garden of Eden, in the middle east God created man and woman and all living beings.

Answer 17

Life begins at the instant a sperm and an egg join and become a zygote. Conscious thought, however, doesn't start until much later. It depends on what you define as 'life'.

Answer 18

A simple answer would be that life begins at conception.



Ask yourself this, when was there not life? Life begets life. Life cannot begin from something that is not alive already.

Answer 19

I think it's when the cells form into a baby shape. Not for the first few weeks.

Answer 20

Psalm 139:13 "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb."



also Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" (this is the Lord speaking to Jeremiah)

Answer 21

It depends on what you consider life. Technically it begins at conception, but it's really just mindless ball of organic matter until neurogenesis (formation of the brain)

Answer 22

"In the beginning He made them, man and woman." Genesis. Life begins at conception, and in the womb, not a laboratory

Answer 23

As Peter Singer once said, "Life begins at law school."

Answer 24

and then god said "quiet on the set..life begins in 3 ..2...1 ......"

Answer 25

Well, if it begins at conception, then spontaneous abortions are actually suicides.

Answer 26

no one knows. only God knows. when you go to heaven, He'll tell you. believe what your heart tells you. there is no real proof, you just have to believe.

Answer 27

I'm not a christian and I believe the same thing, so there ya go.

Answer 28

*Clears Throat* When a mommy loves a daddy...

Answer 29

time of birth

Answer 30

At quickening. When the mother can first feel the baby.

Answer 31

So basically you don't want truth you want fantasy...

Answer 32

maybe it never will begin

Answer 33

it begins when and where you're mom is getting laid