SUNDAY THOUGHTS: Accounting for DNA through Generations
From the Sunday Column of Nelly Favis Villafuerte, Gentle Breeze, in the Manila Bulletin (3 August 2008)
Can DNA cells be transformed to allow conversion to a godly life?
This is a well-known story narrated in many books. I got this from the collection of stories by R Strand:
Max Jukes lives in a the state of New York. He was not a Christian and did not believe in any sort of Christian training. His was the life of a reprobate. The girl he married was of the same opinion and had the same sort of questionable character. Out of this union, they had 1026 descendants. Each of these descendants were followed through their lifetime with these results:
Three hundred of them died prematurely. One hundred of these descendants were sentenced to spend an average of 13 years each in prisons. One hundred ninety of the girls were public prostitutes. There were more than 100 drunkards . . . this family of descendants ended up costing the state and federal governments millions of dollars –dollars that were spent to care for them on the welfare rolls, as well making room for them in the prisons –let alone what they cost in their immoral influence. Not one of these descendants made any kind of a positive contribution to society that could be found.
Jonathan Edwards lived in the same state at about the same time. He believed in Christian training. He was a well-known preacher in his day. The girl he married also was a committed Christian and set about to raise their family in these same concepts.
From this union, they had 729 descendants that were studied. Out of this family have come 300 preachers. Further, 65 went on to become college professors and 13 became college presidents. Sixty of these family members became authors of what would be considered good books with a positive influence. Three were elected to become United States congressmen, and one was elected vice president of the United States . . . The Edwards family was a family who impacted the nation in a very postive way.
What do you think? Can Christian upbringing change DNA cells?
images from Microsoft Clipart
