When Did I Become Me?

I've been thinking lately about the idea of the soul.

In the abortion debate, it is an important point: "When does the soul enter the body?" The Bible talks about how God breathes the Breath of Life into the body of Adam - many believe that this is a reference to the Soul - that our souls are the Breath of God. And so, in the abortion debate it is important to determine when the soul is present.

The Bible also talks about how God knew us before we were born, implying that our souls existed before our bodies here on earth, and that they were "sent down" when we came to be, here in the physical world.

Many of the difficult questions arise from this idea - namely, "Why did God send us down to this 'fallen world' full of pain and evil? What kind of God would do this? Why? What is the purpose?"

Religion has basically answered this question: "Life is a test. If we pass the test, we get to go back to Heaven." All this is really based on the foundational idea that our souls existed before, and are sent to this testing ground, refined by the refiner's fire, and allowed to come back home.

But what if that assumption is wrong? What if we did not exist before we were born? What if it is Life itself that creates the Soul?

As a Deist, to understand the idea - or theory, really - of a soul, we need to look to the Creation to understand the "plan" of the Creator. What does Natural Law tell us?

The current theory of Creation is the Big Bang. Basically, matter and dark matter were in a state of equilibrium until something caused matter to "outweigh" dark matter and BOOM! The Universe was born.

One of the theories of what happened during the time period of the Big Bang is that all matter was Helium. Then as matter cooled, Hydrogen formed - then all the other elements as the Universe spread and cooled. Natural Law states that the First Creation begets the Next, and on and on...

The same can be said for Evolution. The First Creation begets the Next.

As we search the heavens for Life, we find that there are limitless possibilities - and if we do indeed find evidence for Life on Mars, all of a sudden Life itself may not be an Accident, but be Natural Law itself. That Life is not rare, but common - that it is inevitable. That the elements of Creation are destined to bring forth Life.

If the First Creation - the "stuff" of Creation formed at the Big Bang - begets the Next Creation - Life itself - what does Life beget?

Perhaps, Life begets the Soul - perhaps, as Life has evolved over the millennia, Creation has created the Next Creation: the Soul. Perhaps God did not "send" us here to be tested, to endure pain and suffering - perhaps we are here, because here is where we are created. That Life brings our souls into being, and when that Life dies, our Souls move on to whatever is Next.

This notion, when considered, is a beautiful thing. It is consistent with what we know of our Creator through the study of His Creation and understanding of Natural Law. It unburdens us from struggling with the idea of a loving, good, and just God sending innocent souls to the earth to suffer and die. No! We are created here. Without it, we would not exist, and not be refined and shaped in this Life to move on to whatever is Next.