Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 2
2 Christianity – A Journey from Facts to Fiction The Scientific Basis of Parenthood First of all, let me remind you that the mother and father partici- pate equally in producing a child. The cells of human beings contain 46 chromosomes, which carry the genes or character- bearing threads of life. The ovum of a human mother possesses only 23 chromosomes. This is half the total number of chromo- somes found in each man and woman. When the mother’s ovum is ready and available for insemination, the other half of the chromosomes which it lacks is provided by the male sperm, which then enters and fertilizes it. This is the design of God; otherwise, the number of chromosomes would begin to double with every generation. As a result of this doubling the second generation would have 92 chromosomes; humans would soon be transformed into giants and the entire process of growth would run amok. God has so beautifully planned and designed the phenomenon of the survival of species that at productive levels of regenerative cells, chromosomes are halved in number. The mother’s ovum contains 23 chromosomes and so does the father’s sperm. As such, one can reasonably expect half the character- bearing genes of the child to be provided by the female and half by the male partner. This is the meaning of literal son. There is no other definition of a literal son, which can be ascribed to any human birth. There are variations in the methodology of course, but there are no exceptions to the rules and principles just ex- plained. Focusing our attention on the birth of Jesus as , let us build a sce- nario about what might have happened in his case. The first