I do not believe that life is handed down from generation to generation. On the contrary the Creator strikes “the vital match” when each fertilized ovum is formed; and every such human ovum is directly and specially endowed by the Creator, with the power to develop into a man or woman.
Sec. 32. Nature has no Power to Generate a New Human Being; nor to Evolve one from the Germ-Cell
Nature is defined as: “The forces or processes of the material world conceived of as an agency intermediate between the Creator and the world, producing all organisms and preserving the regular order of things; as in the old dictum, ‘nature abhors a vacuum.’ In this sense, nature is often personified.” (Cent. Dic. 5, p. 3943.) It follows that “nature” is not a substantial nor a material entity or thing, like a man, a tree, or a stone; but is only a name for certain real or imaginary “forces or processes.” The word does not indicate by what agency these “forces or processes” are generated, guided nor controlled. But we use the word to indicate or describe certain phenomena, which we do not understand, in the same manner that we use the word “gravitation.”
The naturalist or materialist would say that nature generates the spermatozoön and ovum; that it unites and fuses them into the germ-cell; and that it develops this cell into a man or woman. One might as well say, historically, that the spermatozoön and ovum are generated and fused; and that a man or woman is produced from it. But this statement does not explain anything. It does not tell us what force selects, assembles and groups the atoms into the spermatozoön and ovum; nor what endows it with life; nor who nor what creates its soul; nor what force or agency causes the embryo to develop and grow to manhood or womanhood.
To say that “nature” generates and evolves new men and women, is no explanation of the phenomena of reproduction. Nature has no physical body, no weight, length, breadth, nor thickness, no intellect, memory nor will-power; nor can it voluntarily generate force nor motion. It follows that “nature” cannot form the spermatozoön nor the ovum; cannot cause them to unite and fuse into a germ-cell; nor cause the necessary atoms and cells to assemble and group themselves into the chemical combinations and mechanical arrangements required to build up the embryo body, its organs and parts.
In other words, “nature” works by and through the spermatozoön, the ovum and germ-cell or fertilized ovum. It has identically the same powers and potentialities that they have—no more nor less. It follows that nature cannot, automatically, generate nor evolve, a new man, nor a new woman.
Sec. 33. Every Human Being is a New, Direct and Special Creation by Almighty God; this Question to be Determined, How
To determine this question it is necessary: first, to ascertain what work has to be done in order to create a new human being; secondly, to consider whether this work can be done, spontaneously and automatically, by the germ-cell or fertilized ovum and its daughter-cells, or whether a supernatural psychic and creative force is necessary to do it.