Thursday, January 27, 2011

How a Body is Made

Many years ago, sitting through an AP Biology class in High School, I saw the Creator in every turn of the page. I still think it’s a paradox how some people could turn the pages of a Biology textbox and see no God, while others (like myself) see nothing but God. Biology became one of my favorite subjects.

This post gets down into the nitty gritty details of some fascinating Biology about how your body was made. But before we start, let’s pause to review a small glossary of terms…

  • Gene
    Genes make up the blueprint of your body. There are genes that provide detailed instructions for how your cells should replicate, and genes that define what eye or hair color you have. It would take you almost 10 years to read all of your genes, out loud, without stopping. In a nutshell, your genes contain the portions of DNA needed by your cells to live.
  • DNA
    DNA is what genes are made of. You might think of DNA has the whole library (containing books of every detail about you), while a gene is one book in the library. But DNA is also a bit more than that: part of your DNA makes up your genes (the blueprint of your body); the rest of your DNA is involved in how your genes are expressed.

    DNA looks a twisted ladder. The ladder is made up of 4 chemical bases abbreviated as A, T, G, and C. These four bases are paired in different combinations to make the code that represents you. Put another way, the alphabet of your body has only 4 characters, A, T, G and C.

    dnaillustration
  • Chromosome
    In the nucleus of each cell, the DNA molecule is packaged up nice and neat in what is called a chromosome. Normally you can’t see a chromosome even under a microscope, but when a cell begins to divide the DNA in the chromosome packs tight enough to become visible under a microscope. If you could pull and tug on a chromosome until it was stretched out, it would be about 3 inches long. A human zygote will contain 23 chromosomes from the mother, and 23 from the father, which together make 46.

    A chromosome looks like this.
    chromosome
  • Egg (Ovum)
    The human egg cell is one of the largest cells in the human body. It’s so big, you can see it without a microscope (but you might have to squint)! The egg contains 23 chromosomes from the mother, waiting to be paired with 23 chromosomes from the father to produce a zygote with 46 chromosomes. The egg doesn’t move, it just sits around waiting for sperm to come by; it’s been described by some scientists as an "inert globule of organic matter”. It’s waiting on a spermatozoon to bring it life.
  • Sperm
    A sperm cell (spermatozoon) contains 23 chromosomes from the father. A spermatozoon has a long, whip-like tail that propels it to an egg cell by an amazingly complex series of chemical processes. A sperm cell has no intelligence of its own to guide it to its goal, but is directed completely by outside forces.

Overwhelming Odds

A single male or female can produce up to 8 million different combinations of chromosomes. Out of around 300 million sperm, only about 1% (about 3 million) actually find their way into the uterus. And if they make it that far, the 3 million still have to swim to one of the fallopian tubes, where hopefully an egg is already making its way down to meet them. If not, they wait, and wait, for up to three days. If an egg shows up and fertilization occurs, there are 70 trillion possible chromosomal combinations that can result from the sperm and egg uniting.

Already, it should be apparent that it’s a miracle that you were every born. But let’s take a closer look at your odds.

If you go back just 10 generations (250 years), the chance of you ever being born at all is at most

1 in 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

I don’t even know what number that is, but it means that 250 years ago no one would have made any wagers on you ever being born, no matter who you are or what your ancestry.

But wait, it gets even more amazing! The above calculation only takes into account the father’s lineage; your father, his father, his father, and so on. The mother’s contribution isn’t accounted for. Also unaccounted for are men and women that died as a result of disease, war or famine, which in some generations was around 50% of humanity. Or men and women who died from natural causes, children who died before the age of reproduction, or fetuses or fertilized eggs that died and were naturally aborted. All of your ancestors have something amazing in common: they survived long enough to reproduce part of the genes you now have.

So, in the past, the predicted likelihood of your ever being born would be essentially zero. Think about that.
This is a part of His way. This is the way that He manifests Himself to us, manifests the Eternal Word, God, Jehovah made flesh. Like in Saint John 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the... In the beginning was Elohim, and Elohim was... became the Word, and the Word was Elohim. And the Word was made Elohim." See? It's the same thing, just unfolding. Like the attribute, see, it is in God. A attribute is your thought. God in the beginning, the Eternal, He wasn't even a God. He was the Eternal. He wasn't even God; God is an object of worship, or something. See? So He wasn't even that. He was Elohim, the Eternal. But in Him was thoughts He wanted to become material. And what did He do? Then He spoke a Word, and the Word was materialized. That's the whole picture, from Genesis to Revelations. Is nothing wrong. It's Elohim materializing so He can be touched, feel. And in the Millennium, there is Elohim sitting on the Throne, see, that's right, with all of His subjects around Him, that He predestinated before the foundation of the world. Like a man building chimes or making chimes, the molder. Each bell has got to ring different from the other. The same materials, but so much iron, so much steel, so much brass, to make it give the "ting." That's the way God did. He bred this one to that one, to this one to that one, to this one to that one, till He got exactly what He wanted. That's how He come down. God unveiled Himself in a Pillar of Fire down through the prophets, then into the Son of God, which, He was God. See, it's the same God bringing out exactly, from perfection to perfection, from glory unto glory. That's the way the Church goes.
The Unveiling of God – 64-0614M

Run Fast, Run Well

Sperm are not “normal” cells, and so are covered with a glycoprotein that acts like a sign-post to the immune system. The sign reads: “Do not attack!” The glycoprotein sign will be read (and honored) by literally any body, anywhere; no one’s immune system will attack when they see this glycoprotein. Satan saw this cool trick and decided to copy it and use it, and so we find some cancerous and bacterial cells, some parasitic worms, and HIV-infected white blood cells using the same glycoprotein to keep the immune system from attacking. What a nasty trick!

As the sperm get closer to the egg, a combination of calcium ions, hormones (progesterone), and other chemical processes cause the sperm to enter hyperactivity, which means they swim faster and harder. The race is on. It’s literally a matter of life and death, because if you don’t finish you die.

Sealed In

To get into the inner-most chamber of the egg, a spermatozoa has to break through two layers: the jelly coat, and the vitelline layer. Just beyond the vitelline layer are the cortical granules, which are the gatekeepers to the inner chamber. Once a spermatozoa reaches the cortical granules, they release enzymes that cause the space between the jelly coat and the vitelline layer to become depolarized, closing the door. The front runner is sealed in, all others are sealed out, and the sperm and the egg have become one.

The seal has a mark on it, shows ownership. When you are bought by the Blood of Jesus Christ and sealed by the Holy Ghost, you no longer belong to the world or anything pertaining to the world. You are owned by God. And another thing is: a seal is a security. Seal means you are secured. Now, you that don't believe in eternal security, I don't know, but now... But a seal signifies security to its destination. Woe unto that guy that would try to break that seal. And the Holy Spirit Seal cannot be broken. You all have heard me say that people said, “The devil made me do this.” No, no, the devil didn't do it. You just wasn't sealed in, so then (You see?), 'cause when you're sealed in, he's sealed out. See?
63-0317E

Once fertilization occurs, the egg is not an egg anymore, because it’s been fertilized. That’s right, it’s literally not an egg anymore, because now its chromosomes have doubled; its been completely changed from what it used to be. It’s still a single cell (not for long, though), and might still look like an egg on the outside, but now it’s called a zygote, and is now capable of reproducing itself by cellular division.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15

Over the next few weeks the zygote will divide into two cells. Then those cells divide into 4, then 8, until there is a mass of millions of identical cells. Cells that, until now, had never really been given anything purposeful to do besides making copies of themselves. But then comes gastrulation.

Positioning

At this point, the zygote is made up of millions of roughly identical cells, all stuck together in a ball the size of a pinhead (called the blastula). But all at once, the cells begin to form into three groups. The ectoderm, which will become the skin, nails, hair, and nervous system. The mesoderm, which becomes muscle tissue, blood and blood vessels, and bone and connective tissue. And the endoderm, which becomes the digestive and respiratory systems. The cells that form each are not necessarily the cells you would think would form that group. For example, many of the cells that form the skin may at first be nowhere near the outside of the blastula. Likewise, many of the cells that will form the internal organs may start out on the outside.

During gastrulation the chromosomes in any particular cell will begin to selectively activate or deactivate, just like someone is switching on or off a light switch. This is necessary for each cell to become part of a toenail, an eyelash, or part of the heart, and switches the cell from being just another cell, to part of the body. After gastrulation, each cell has been given a very specific purpose.

That's pulling His Bride out, now. He's creating His Bride. Justification under Luther; sanctification under Wesley; and so forth, you see. He, the evolution of the Spirit being given more and more, 'cause the Body is building, coming to the Head, which is Christ, the Body of Christ.
65-1125

Once each cell takes its place in the body, it’s only a matter of time before the complete body comes fully into view.

2 comments:

Marie said...

Wow. That-- is amazing. I love the connections between the Message and science--who couldn't see the Creator at work!?

Anonymous said...

Well now.. I certainly enjoyed this! Was kinda sad to come to the end. This was very interesting! Wow!
love, Dad