Page 127 - The Miracle of Human Creation

THE CREATION OF A HUMAN BEING FROM A CELL

As all these operations continue, one more important formation
must take place: the central nervous system. The central nervous system
(the brain and the spinal cord) arises from an elongate thickening of the
ectoderm, the outermost of the three primary germ layers of the embryo.
The sides of this neural plate elevate as neural folds, which, by growing
further, meet and fuse, thereby creating a neural tube. The anterior part of
this tube thickens and expands to form the brain; in the meantime, the
posterior part forms the spinal cord.
All the developments we have summarized here in one or two sen-

tences surpass the limits of human imagination. The other stages in the
formation of the nervous system again and again confirm the extraordi-
nary character of these developments.
From the fifth week there begins to be produced in the spinal column
special nerve cells called neurons. They are produced very quickly at the
rate of 5000 per second. A large number of brain cells are produced in the
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first five months of the embryo's life, and all of them will have taken the-
ir place in the brain before birth. Cells of the nervous system form very
quickly and then begin to migrate to more distant areas in order to form
the columns of the central nervous system.

The construction of the brain appears clearly in the watery environment of the mother's womb. This
construction is accomplished by cells which have no intelligence or awareness. At the end of this won-
drous process the baby will have a total of 10 billion brain cells. Every cell acts with prior knowledge
of what cells it must connect with. From among endless possibilities, it finds the place where it be-
longs. It unites with the cell that it must unite with. In the end, it will have made 100 trillion perfect con-
nections in the brain. That will which allows unconscious cells, working in the dark, to construct the
world's most excellent computer—the brain—is the eternal knowledge of God.
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