Peace: A Familiar Model - I

It turns out that the life cycle of the human race is very similar to the life cycle of individual human beings. This is very important in our search for peace as it provides insight into how we can solve this problem using information we have already discovered and are familiar with. Let us start by taking a look at the life cycle of the average human being.

Each human begins life as a zygote. The zygote is formed through fertilization, when the male sperm combines with the female egg. It is interesting that everything about the beginning of life is automatic except for the act of placing the sperm and the egg in the same environment.

From then on everything is driven by cell-division. Cell division is the basis of life. Each of us have about a trillion cells that all came out of a single zygote through this process of cell division. One cell divides into two, two divide into four, four divide into eight, eight divide into sixteen, and so one, until you have a trillion cells.

Of course, this is not all. During the early divisions cell begin to differentiate. Some cells take on specific characteristics and become heart cell, muscle cells, bone cells – all types of cells associated with the eleven organ systems in the human body. By the time a child is born the zygote has become a fully equipped human being, ready to take on the world. The organs are maintained through continued There is a limit on the number of divisions that All of these processes occur automatically under the guidance of the DNA molecule which contains all the instructions for building and maintaining a body. Each zygote has a copy of human DNA and this copy is replicated each time a cell divides.

The human race went through a similar process. I base this conclusion on some ancient writings that present a relatively accurate view of the early years of the human race. Most people know these writings as the book of Genesis in the Scriptures of the Jewish and Christian religions. I would not be surprised if other religions have similar accounts.

In any event, according to Genesis the human race began with one individual, Adam, who would be the counterpart of the zygote. Adam was then divided resulting in two individuals, the woman and the man Adam and Eve. Just as we see in the body the division continued and there obviously was some differentiation that resulted in a number of unique people groups.

Under Attack
Each of the organ systems in the body is important but one of the more important is the immune system. The immune system protects the body from daily attack from a variety of pathogens. The immune system knows which organisms are part of the body and it attacks any organism that it does not recognize as a friend. Because of the immune system the body is able to fight off disease caused by foreign organisms. But there are a set of diseases that the immune system is powerless against. It can fight the symptoms of those diseases but it cannot fight them.

Scientists have discovered that somewhere in the division process mutations in the genes occur, resulting in the DNA giving wrong instructions to certain cells. One type of these instructions results in auto-immune diseases in which the immune system falsely identifies parts of the body as being foreign and launches attacks against them. In the other case cells continue to divide beyond the natural limits on cell division resulting in cancers that threaten the life of the organism.
It is easy to see the connection between these diseases and the lack of sustainable peace (dis-ease) that humans experience. We can use developments in the fight against cancer and immune diseases to inform our next steps on the road to health and peace.