Science teaches life begins at conception. When does life begin according to the Holy Bible?

Answer 1

Luke 1:44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Jer 1:5 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew [a] you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Id say its conception. However, you're wrong, science does NOT say life begins at conception, according to them, babies are just a "fleshy mass" until about 3 months gestation.

Answer 2

Some info from "When Does Life Begin" chapter in DEVBIO: A Companion to Developmental Biology by Scott F. Gilbert.

Under Greek influence the Septuagint version of Exodus 21:22-23 came to make a distinction between an unformed and a formed fetus, the latter was considered an independent person (Buss 1967).

Christian tradition that disputes the Jewish view apparently resulted from a mistranslation in the Septuagint, where the Hebrew for "no harm follow" was replaced with the Greek for "imperfectly formed" (Jakobovits 1973).

Tertullian, a prominent Christian theologian, and later church fathers accepted this interpretation, distinguishing between an unformed and a formed fetus and branding the killing of the latter as murder. The formed fetus was to be accorded full human status, and this distinction was subsequently embodied in canon law as well as in Justinian Law (Jakobovits 1973).

Tertullian opposed contraception and early abortion, because he regarding them as "proleptic murder"- the prevention of a birth that should occur (Buss 1967). In his Apology (A.D. 197) Tertullian denounces infanticide and abortion. Tertullian's views on abortion were reinforced by St Basil the Great, writing in 374, when he declared that abortion was murder, and that no distinction between the formed and the unformed fetus was admissible in Christian morality (Buss 1967). In 1140, when Gratian compiled the first collection of canon law that was accepted as authoritative within the church, he concluded that "abortion was homicide only when the fetus was formed." If the fetus was not yet a formed human being, abortion was not homicide.

Throughout history, even the Catholic Church has held varying declarations about the beginning of human life. For most of the history of the Catholic Church, its thinkers viewed immediate animation/ensoulment as impossible, and under the traditional Catholic doctrine, a male fetus became animated—infused with a soul at forty days after conception, and the female fetus became animated at eighty days after conception (Tribe 1990). In 1588, Pope Sixtus V mandated that the penalty for abortion (or contraception) was excommunication from the Church. However, his successor, Pope Gregory IX, returned the Church to the view that abortion of an unformed embryo was not homicide. This was largely the view until 1869, when Pope Pius IX again declared that the punishment for abortion was excommunication. The current Catholic Church doctrine maintains the belief that immediate animation, the instant at which the zygote is endowed with life including a soul from God, is concurrent with the moment of fertilization (Shannon and Wolter 1990).

Answer 3

Science teaches NO SUCH THING.

Science doesn't attempt to define when life begins or ends - it merely
describes how the genes are exchanged and what happens to those
genes.

Indeed, Science has a very hard time defining life. Reproduces?
So do crystals. Consumes? So do crystals. Passes its form on
to new generations? crystals crystals crystals.

Has lots of complex bio-molecules involving carbon? OK, not crystals.

A particular genome does indeed "begin" when the genes comprising
it come together for the first time - conception.

However, I doubt the Bible would define the soul as the initial connection
of gametes and genes, would it?

Answer 4

The bible teaches life begins at conception. The guy who talks about VALUE doesn't know what he is talking about. Value and Life are TWO different things. If we were using that reasoning then It would be ok for me to Kill my children under 5 if I just paid the fine. And I KNOW you don't think that. oh and the the guy who says Breath is the first indication of life... LOL there are Billions of Living things that do not breath.

Answer 5

If life is defined by a heart beating then there are many living things that are not alive such as bacteria, plants, etcetera. The zygote has diploid human DNA, preforms cellular and metabolic functions and has the capability to grow. If human zygotes aren't alive then neither is that apple tree growing in the backyard. Life begins at conception, either way.

Answer 6

I guess it should be stated that HUMAN life begins at conception.

Science also used to teach that blacks were inferior to whites.

Scientists do the Ralph Kramden "humunahumuna" when asked to define when life begins, because most are pro-abortion. So much for objectivity.

What if they discovered the gay gene, and then couples had their fetuses tested for gayness? And if their fetus turned out to be gay, would they be justified in aborting it on those grounds? Wouldn't that be a hate crime?

Or what if they found the gene for child molesting? And a fetus had BOTH genes - one for gayness, and one for child molesting. Some couples might say "We don't want no child molestin' gay baby!" and would abort it. Would that be right???

Answer 7

Science does not teach that life begins at conception. Sperm are alive. Eggs are living prior to fertilization.

"Life beginning at conception" is a concept driven by morals.

Answer 8

Depends.

Old Testament (and Judaism, generally) teaches it begins at birth, when "God" breathes life in the new, now seperate entity.



It is clear from Psalm 139, however, that life actually begins long BEFORE(!) conception, since each of our lives is already written. Considering this "predestiny" we can all stop worrying about personal responsibility or anything!

"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb....Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them" (Psalm 139:13, 16).

Answer 9

Actually science doesn't teach this. They teach that it has to reach a certain level of cell division before it is viable, but that doesn't mean that life has begun. Fertilization can occur, but if cell division does not begin, it will never be a fetus. We get birth certificates, not conception certificates.

Answer 10

Conception.

Answer 11

First of all, science doesn't teach anything. Second, when life begins is a matter of opinion (but where human life may be concerned it is better to err on the side of caution).