In a Newsweek article published over twenty years ago (March 3, 1997), there was a special report on “How a Child’s Brain Develops”. Although King David was not privy to any of this scientific research, he still marveled long ago: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).
Three items mentioned in this special report help to add to the sense of awe that we ought to feel. These are:
- The cells in a developing embryo’s “neural tube” multiply at the rate of 250,000 per minute until the brain and spinal column are formed.
- At birth, a baby’s brain contains 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons (or nerve cells). This number is roughly the same as the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
- By birth, 1,000,000,000,000 (1 trillion) glial cells—the protectors and nourishers of the body’s neurons—are in place in the baby’s brain.
According to the article’s author, “What awes scientists who study the brain, what stuns them, is not that things occasionally go wrong in the developing brain but that so much of the time they go right.”
To be able to document and stand in awe of the amazing design and precision of an unborn child’s development and yet deny the fact that there is a Designer of it all is utterly incomprehensible and reprehensible to any clear headed person. Equally so is the preposterous notion of abortion advocates (i.e. murderers) who contend that the unborn, still-developing child (which will produce 1 trillion glial cells and 100 billion nerve cells, not to mention the multitudes of other cells and tissues in its body in forty weeks) is not actually a living human being.
A fool is known by his folly.
