The Spark of Life: From Birth - A Journey Till Death

 

I received this comment from a close friend and former medical colleague of mine.   

‘Dear JB, I am very fascinated by all your thoughts in your enlightening articles here and there throughout your blog, especially this one.

Can you explain to us exactly what life is, as I knew you as a former colleague who was so prolific in medical research and was able to interpret and explain results so clearly

Sincerely,

SM Tan

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The above comment from Dr Tan was published under ‘Creation or Evolution? The Bible vs. Science’ in July in this blog here:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/07/

 

Thank you, Prof Dr Tan, for your question.

So far no one, no scientist, no theologian that I know has ever defined, explained or told us exactly what life is that is present inside a body that makes us and all creatures alive and living.

The best scientists could do so far is merely describe the characteristics of life such as it reproduces itself, it feeds and nourishes, it moves, it respires, it excretes, it responds to stimuli such as given in the acronym – MRS GREN to mean the same - Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion and Nutrition.

But this definition still falls short to describe what living inside a body that gives it all these characteristics of life.

It miserably failed to tell or explain exactly what life is, and why does it give these characteristics as in the acronym - MRS GREN? 

Personally, I am not happy at all with such a definition. It does not describe exactly what is inside a something that is living to cause it to move, feed by itself, produce by itself, breathe by itself, and respond by itself when stimulated. This ‘definition’ merely explains the things they do when they are alive, and they stop instantly when the life in them vanishes.  Everyone, including the biologists try to avoid explaining them, but at best came out with this MRS GREN definition which is highly unsatisfactory, at least to me.  

Allow me to try to explain with an analogy just like Jesus using parables. We shall try to explain using a car to compare with a living species of life or anything that is living and compare this with a life that is already dead. We shall explain them side-by-side for comparison. Ready?  

Imagine a manufacturer of a car, let’s say the German engineer Karl Benz who invented the Mercedes Benz 136 years ago till the present 2022. But it could also be any other car manufacturers for any other models of cars as they are now manufacturing.  We are only giving Mercedes Benz as an example. 

Imagine each year a new car model is produced by Karl Benz, assuming he is still alive, each new model representing each species of life emerged over the millions of years through evolution.  As each new model is churned out, the newer model of the car is better and more adapted, and better looking too than the previous, like newer and better species of life evolved through adaptation and natural selection.  

Let us say the first model of the Mercedes Benz in 1886 was a three-wheeled motor car, known as the "motorwagen,", and as more and more new models are produced, they become better and better, more and more durable and better adapted to wear and tear just like the evolution of better and better adaptable species of life here on earth till now we have the stylish highly efficient and the current more expensive Mercedes Benz EQS costing US $ 160,000

Let us now park all these different models of Mercedes Benz over the years on the road. What happens? Nothing happens no matter what the model.

Absolutely none of the cars, no matter which model, moves. They do not represent something similar to life that is able to move (locomotion) on its own as one of the definitions of life unless the cars are ‘fed’ with petrol - power and energy pumped into each of them. Cars too ‘breathe’ in air for the petrol to be burnt in their combustion cylinders similar to the air we breathe for food to be metabolized.

Similarly, neither would any of the air-breathing (aerobic) species of life be able to creep without feeding itself for energy.

Is that the answer? Not yet, not quite. Even if we pump petrol full tank into every model of these cars, none still can move by itself unless there is a spark (plug) to ignite the petrol in the cylinders. This is similar to the food we eat that enters the stomach before entering into the bodies of every species of animal for energy. But the nutrients need a spark of life to ignite them.  

Now we are getting closer to understanding, but not quite yet. The car represents the body, the petrol represents the biochemicals such as sugars, amino acids, fats, vitamins, minerals, microminerals, enzymes, hormones. etc in a living body before they can be metabolized (burnt) for locomotion. But in order for the nutrients (‘petrol’) in a living body to be metabolized (burnt) the body it needs the fire (sparks) of life to ignite them since none of the sugars, fats or amino acids in the body can burn (metabolize) by themselves.

Another way to make this clearer to understand is, if a body is already dead without that mysterious “spark” or “fire” inside, we may put in as much food as we like inside its mouth, stomach, intestines, none of those food will be burnt or metabolised, not even if we infuse nutrients directly into the bloodstream like we do for parenteral nutrition - feeding intravenously through a vein to bypass the digestive tract.

The nutrient (“petrol”) will still not be metabolized inside a dead body as much as the petrol will not ignite in the cylinder of a car without the spark plug. That spark represents life. It must be present first in all things living.  That “spark” is the definition of life. 

Unfortunately, this was missed out, unthought off by scientists trying to define life until today. They have not offered this explanation except to describe the characteristic or behaviour of life as its definition. Is that the final explanation?

No, not quite yet. That spark to give life, plus the nutrients to the body, as petrol to the cars are still not enough. It needs a driver to drive the car. That driver is God to give directions where to go, when to go, and when the journey has to stop and end (die).

The car, whatever the make or model, just cannot move by itself without a driver to turn on the ignition key even if it has all the ingredients – the body, wheels (limbs and legs), lamps (eyes), petrol (food and nutrients). It needs a driver to turn on the ignition keys to the spark plugs of life to direct it when to start and when to begin the journey and when to end a journey (birth-journey in life till death). 

God is the driver of our life. He decides when and where to turn on the ignition key to our car. He decides what journey He is going to take for us. It may be a short one, it may be a very long one, the scenes we saw and experienced on the way, and when and where He will end this journey for us. 

The journey even on death may be very far, far away in another world towards the ends of heavens, considering in astronomy there could be an estimated 100 trillion, trillion other stars and worlds out there. That journey could also be a very short one to a nearby world.

Moments before the ignition key is turned off by the Driver of our life, it will be our last journey, the last scenes we saw and the last experience in that journey.

I believe this is true not just for us, but for all living things, including all the animals that creep, feed and reproduce in this world.

But what causes death? Straight away the most common answer almost everyone would offer is, when there is any kind of serious injuries to the body that disrupt the normal biochemical and physiological functions such as from a fatal accident, or from an intractable and incurable disease where the heart, lungs, and all body systems and their functions permanently and irreversibly cease. No one in their thoughts would offer to explain it was because his soul that controls these complex chemistries left the body.

 

But they would tolerate it if you tell them his soul left his body because his / her organs and systems shut down into multiple organ failures due to an accident or some illness.

 

Furthermore, when we say a person, let’s say, Mr. A telling Mr. B that Mr. C left has the house this morning, Mr B will normally ask Mr A where did Mr C go? But hardly anyone this far whom I know, or have heard someone ever asked or enquired where did his soul go, especially to which world when told someone has passed away?

 

I have often asked myself this very perplexing question, which is which? – when a person dies, was it the body that shuts down first, before the soul leaves, or is it the reverse, the soul leaves first, and the body shuts down?

 

As far as I know life residing inside a living body is an undefined and an unmeasurable “vital force” that controls all the body’s biochemistries and physiological functions. Would this unknown, unmeasurable entity, yet to be defined by science leaves the body first after being harassed by accidents and disease?

 

 

I have given the illustration that a car presents our physical body powered by petrol. In a living body, the petrol represents the energy from the food we eat that drives our normal body’s need for energy. The energy is needed to drive all our body’s biochemistries in life. But in a serious accident the car is “dead” and will not move. The spark within its combustion chambers is also “dead”

 

It was actually the sparks from the spark plugs representing the actual sparks of life that burns the petrol (food) without which the petrol in the car would never be able to ignite to cause the car to move as much as food is needed for locomotion as one of the characteristics of life defined by scientists

 

But then this still have not answered whether it was the spark or the car that came to a standstill first in an accident?

 

I thought over this question for a day or two. Suddenly a vision came. If the car was taking a journey till it came to the end of a voyage without incident, we, as well as all living creatures would live out our normal lifespans. But what, if a car suddenly meets with an accident halfway in its journey?  Would it be the car representing our body suddenly come to a grinding halt with death, or was it the spark plugs that gave it life and motion? In a serious accident when the car is completely smashed up it would not be able to move anymore.  The car needs to be towed away and the remains put away (buried). It can no longer be repaired

 

However, if it was a minor accident, we can “resuscitate” it into working order immediately by turning on the ignition key for the spark plugs to fire into life as much as we do Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on a heart that temporary stopped.

 

After the spark in the combustion chamber is ignited by turning on the ignition key again, we can continue with our journey to the workshop for some repairs as much we would go and seek treatment in a hospital after CPR was instituted, or for any injuries to our body or in the event when we are sick and less functional

 

This spark clearly answers my own question that any irreparable or irreversibly damage to our body, whether sudden as in a fatal accident or long-term as in a chronic illness, it will cause the soul, the spark of life to leave the body almost together with all the chemistries in the body it controls. These functional body chemistries it controls need to stop irreversibly at once when physical death ensures,

 

However, the flame of life cannot be extinguished when the body returns to the soil from where it came, and the life force that is the soul of the body returns to where it once came to bring life to another body.

 

I strongly believe all life on earth, from the tiny organisms like viruses, bacteria, including the pleuropneumonia-like organisms (PPLO), animals, plants and trees of all species and us will one day reunite with the soil from where all life first came, perhaps not here, but in one of the 100 trillion, trillion other worlds out there across the reaches of heavens some 93 billion light years across.

 

After all astronomers tell us we are all made from star dusts arriving from a distant world through a super nova explosion thousand to millions of light years away millions of years ago. Does that ring the bell and make sense?

 

References:

 

Isaiah 26:19 

Matthew 17:3 

Luke 24:36-39

1 Corinthians 15:47 ES

1 Corinthians 15:51-55 E

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Revelation 7:9 

Then where did that life go after that? That’s another question we ask. See these alternative beliefs of mine here:   

Does Life Exist After Death?

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/

The Body and the Soul:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=soul

The Conveyer's Belt of Time and Life Through a Tunnel:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=time+tunnel

Life in the Universe:  By Intelligent Design or by Accident

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=mystery+of+life

Mysteries of Life: An unmeasurable Vital Force

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2010/09/mystery-of-life-unmeasurable-vital.html

It's all there, beautifully designed for us with a purpose, except scientists though normally immensely qualified with knowledge have not seen this.

This applies to church pastors and all those “learned theologians” too who are spiritually blind. They were unable to see and explain to those who seek and ask because everything they see is physical just like the learned Jewish leader Nicodemus who could not understand what is to be born again, because Nicodemus saw birth as physical.

(John 3: 1 – 15). The verse in 3 that describes ‘spirit’ by Jesus is this mysterious entity – life.  

I hope this analogy helps with the definition of life and to understand what it is inside a living body.

jb