My last post ended with the statement that nothing that I say is intended to offend, and that I am not an easily offended person.  To quote myself, “If a person says, I’m sorry, I can’t accept your beliefs”, it’s not the same thing as saying, “If you believe that, then you’re stupid”.  The point being, if we disagree, let’s do so agreeably.  So, to be clear, I don’t feel that anyone who disagrees with me is stupid.  They just disagree with me.  That’s it, and nothing else.  That person just disagrees with me.  Or, I disagree with that person, however one would wish to view the matter.

Before considering Worldview Possibilities, allow me to provide some personal back- round.  I would be considered to be relatively well educated by many.  By others, not so much.  My education after high school consists of a BSE in Health and Physical Education/Secondary Education from Arkansas Tech University, 1974.  Additionally I have twenty-four masters level credit hours from Henderson State University.  Many, many of these hours are in science.  Yes, science.  Science, the Holy Grail of the Twenty-first Century.  Science as in STEM.  STEM, you know, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Science courses such as Biology, Vertebrate Zoology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Kinesiology, Chemistry, Sports Motion Analysis, Human Development, and more.  I didn’t just go to school to learn how to play Hop Scotch and Dodge Ball as some critics of Physical Education would suggest.  I studied real science, and especially how science relates to the human body.  Additionally, I have never stopped reading or thinking.  The life long study of science has affected my worldview.  Personal knowledge in the sciences provides the mortar that binds my beliefs.  I believe what I believe about the universe and the life that inhabits this universe and beyond because of science.

“Where did it all come from”?  Most, if not all, adults have considered this question. Perhaps multiple times.  I am convinced of only two legitimate possibilities.  The two choices are that one, all we know to exist is either the result of pure chance, or two, the result of pure intent.  An accident of unknown origin, or the brainchild on an unseen superior.  Happenstance, or the intentional design of someone, something greater than man.  What is your choice?  Don’t accept my belief, or the belief or someone that you consider more knowledgeable than you.  It is your choice to decide.  Remember, THINK.  The decision involves your free will.  The gift of the freedom to choose.  As an American, use your gift of liberty wisely.

My personal worldview is based upon my personal scientific knowledge.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the most intelligent person that’s ever lived, nor am I the most knowledgeable.  I do know some stuff, however.  Some science stuff.  The science stuff provides the mortar, remember.

Let’s consider just one area of science.  Do you have knowledge of stem cells?  If you don’t, you should.  And don’t take someone’s word for what stem cells might be and what they might do, find out for yourself.  Do the research.  Books, articles, the internet, it’s out there.  Let’s consider only human stem cells.  You exist because of stem cells.  You remain alive because of stem cells.  The end of your life, unless your death is accidental or intentional, will be due to stem cells, or rather, the failure of your stem cells.

Does this sound complicated?  It should, because it is.  No scientist has a complete knowledge of stem cells.  Perhaps someday someone will, but not yet.  I’m going to keep this stem cell explanation simple for two reasons.  One reason is to insure understanding, the other is because I would never be considered a stem cell expert.  My stem cell knowledge is elementary compared to one who devoted a lifetime to stem cell research.  I have enough stem cell knowledge, however, to be amazed, fascinated, and compelled to share the knowledge with others.

So here goes.  Stem cells are cell factories.  Stem cells produce other cells.  Who cares?  You should, you’re made of cells.  Billions of cells.  Billions of many different kinds of cells.  Skin cells of different types.  Muscle cells of different types.  Bone cells.  Multiple categories of white blood cells .  Red blood cells .  Specialized cells that make up your brain, nerves, spinal column, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, on and on and on.  All different kinds of cells.  Cells have a life span, just as you do.  The life span of a cell is determined by the type of cell, injury, and disease.  Cells can die if attacked by disease, or cells can die if injured.  Most cells die of old age.  Old age for most cells is much shorter than the life of the person those cells have constructed.  Cells that die must be replaced, or the functions of the person the cells comprise will be compromised.  If certain functions of a human body fail, the end result is the death of that person.  Some cells have a life span of a few days, some a few months, others somewhere in between.  Stem cells replace our cells that die.  Millions of our skin cells die of natural causes daily and must be replaced.  A couple of cuts, scrapes, and a rash or two and the production of replacement cells must be increased.  During the growth spurts of childhood and adolescence stem cells work overtime.  Stem cells monitor and adjust production as needed.

Consider this.  There was a point in time that you didn’t exist. For example, I was born on March 12, 1952.  Nine months prior, give or take a few days, I didn’t exist.  Portions of what would become me existed inside both my mother and my father.  Without contributing the unnecessary physical details of human reproduction, my mother and my father each donated a single cell that would, approximately nine months later, result in my certificate of live birth.  Your existence in this world occurred in the same way.  So consider this.  Over a lifetime, men produce thousands of sperm cells, and women thousands of egg cells.  By themselves, these sperm and egg cells have no function.  In fact, if released into the atmosphere, these cells will quickly die.  Standing alone, neither sperm nor egg has any value.  However, if one sperm cell connects with one egg cell, the life of a new human being begins.  Because cells are too small to be seen with the naked eye, cells, including egg and sperm, must be viewed with magnification.  Most readers have viewed skin or blood cells with the aid of a microscope.  Sperm cells and egg cells are similarly small, and must be viewed with a microscope as well.  So if sperm or egg are viewed with the aid of a microscope, what would one see?  Not much.  A human egg cell is not a chamber containing a tiny human being.  A sperm cell is not a microscopic key waiting to unlock the door on an egg cell to release a human baby from captivity to allow that baby to grow within it’s mother’s uterus.  No, not at all.  There is no baby within the structure of a human sperm nor a human egg cell.  The most important substances inside a human egg cell or a human sperm cell are some incomplete strands of human genetic code referred to as DNA.  Neither sperm nor egg contains complete human genetic code.  The portions of genetic code missing from the egg cell is provided by the sperm cell and the portions of genetic code missing from the sperm is provided by the egg cell.  Ingenious system is it not?  Once our father’s sperm joined our mother’s egg, this now complete code determined everything about you, and about me.  The traits that you inherited from your father’s family were contained in the portions of DNA that contributed to your development by your father’s sperm cell.  The traits that you inherited from your mother’s family were contained in the portions of DNA that contributed to your development by your mothers egg cell.  So where do stem cells come from?  That’s a good question, because there are no stem cells within sperm or egg.

Remember, we’re keeping this as simple as possible.  You will not have a degree in genetics or in human development after reading this.  Two general categories of stem cells exist, embryonic and adult.  There are more scientific names than embryonic and adult, but they are more difficult to spell and pronounce and they translate to English as embryonic and adult, so for our purposes, embryonic and adult will suffice.

All of you know that the moment sperm joins egg is referred to as conception.  Soon after the uniting of sperm and egg (conception), the fertilized egg attaches itself to the lining of the mother’s uterus and stem cell production begins.  At this point, all stem cells produced are embryonic.  It is my understanding that during the nine months of initial human development, all stem cells are embryonic.  Embryonic stem cells are amazing little cell factories capable of producing any type of human cell they are instructed to create.  Yes, instructed to create.  Somehow, something provides the instructions needed by the embryonic stem cells in order that the child be constructed in a logical sequence, with all of the necessary equipment that a human being will need to survive outside of it’s mother’s uterus.   A viable human being with a heart, kidneys, five fingers on each hand, two legs and on and on and on?  That, my friends is a major portion of the mystery.  Your guess is as good as mine where the instructions come from.  Scientists the world over are asking the same question.  All we know at this time is that somehow within the fertilized egg, embryonic stem cells receive a unique blueprint that will determine exactly what traits this baby will have when it is born, what characteristics the child will display as it develops, and what talents this person will exhibit as an adult.  So, sperm joins egg, egg implants, embryonic stem cells are developed, stem cells produce individual bone cells that develop into all of the 206 different bones that a human being has,  and heart cells and lung cells, and eye cells, and individual nerve cells until within a few weeks, we have a partially developed being with human features.  This process continues, and a person is assembled within the confines of it’s mother’s uterus until the child is developed to the point that it no longer needs the mother’s own body systems to live.  The child has it’s own body systems that are capable of maintaining the life of this new person outside of it’s mother’s body, and the child is born.  At some point after birth, adult stem cells replace embryonic stem cells.  Adult stem cells are more limited in what they can become, but are still cell factories and produce all of the cells that a person needs to grow, to replace dead and damaged cells, so as to continue the life of this human being.  In old age, stem cell production slows, and with fewer stem cells, a person’s body can longer replace cells as quickly as they die, and aging is apparent.  If the aging person is able to avoid death by accident, or by one of the dreaded diseases of old age, they will eventually die because they will lose more cells than their body is able to replace and vital organ functions slow, or cease.  Scientists believe that if our stem cells remained embryonic throughout life, that we could possibly live forever because we would be able self repair for eternity.  This is not the case however, and we are all doomed to live seventy five years or so, and the life cycle ends.

Is this an accident?  We’re only talking about humans here.  What about all of life and it’s different forms?  What about planets and the sun, the moon, the stars? The water cycle? What about oxygen and carbon dioxide?  Humans and animals need oxygen to live and these living things meet their oxygen needs by removing oxygen from air or water, and then release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or into the water where plants use the carbon dioxide, then release oxygen into the atmosphere or water so that neither plant, nor animal, nor human ever uses all of the available oxygen or carbon dioxide?

Is this an accident?  Is this happenstance?  Is this all the result of pure chance?  I know what I believe, but what I believe doesn’t matter to you.  What matters to you is what you believe.  What if what you believe matters for more than seventy five years.