Featured Post

The Christian Perspective on the Old Testament

Unfortunately, too many Christians have allowed themselves to harbor extreme views with regard to the role which they permit the Old Testame...

Thursday, May 16, 2019

What hath God/Nature wrought?

It has been estimated that about 6% (six percent) of all of the babies born around the world enter this life with serious birth defects. https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/birth-defects-causes-and-statistics-863 Fortunately, the number of babies born with birth defects in the United States is about half (3%) of the worldwide rate. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/data.html Unfortunately, those defects account for about 20% of infant deaths in the U.S.! (same source)

Authorities on the subject inform us that "Although some birth defects are inherited, others are a product of harmful environmental factors known as teratogens, and still others are multifactorial, resulting from a complex interaction of genetic and environmental influences." https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/birth-defects-causes-and-statistics-863 We also know that birth defects arising from genetic causes can be attributed to chromosomal abnormalities, single-gene defects and multifactorial causes. (same source)

And, as we have already noted, birth defects make a significant contribution each year to what is commonly referred to as infant mortality ("the death of an infant before his or her first birthday") https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm The CDC informs us that "In 2017, the infant mortality rate in the United States was 5.8 deaths per 1,000 live births." (same source) In addition to birth defects, they tell us that there are four other major contributors to this rate: preterm birth/low birth weight, pregnancy complications, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and injuries. (same source)

What is the point of all of this? That the natural world functions in ways that are not always friendly to us, and that we tend to classify things as aberrant/abnormal that regularly occur in the natural world. Add to the above mentioned phenomena the existence of pathogenic viruses, bacteria and fungi in the natural world and a few questions come to mind: What was God/Nature thinking? OR Is it possible that WE have misunderstood the nature of these phenomena? Is it possible that OUR notions about what is normal or abnormal could be flawed? And, when we seek to ameliorate the impact that these phenomena have on humankind, are we resisting the will of God? If it is good and proper to intervene in these instances by manipulating genetics or formulating other treatments (like drugs and surgeries), is it possible that we might want to rethink the way that we respond to things like psychological problems/mental illness, gender identification and sexual orientation? And, if death and spontaneous abortions occur in nature, does that have any implications for our notions about things like euthanasia and therapeutic abortion? And, if you say that we have to defer to God's judgment in those last two instances, why don't we have to defer to God's judgment in the other instances mentioned above (birth defects and diseases)?   

No comments:

Post a Comment