Face Theory
I have a theory about facial genetics and inheritance that I would like to post online just in case I can ever make some money off of it. In case anyone ever tries to patent, copyright, or trademark this, I need to publish it publically first.
I have made an observation that I think is quite profound. It startled me and still startles me that I had never heard this before. Perhaps I simply overestimate the amount and quality of things I have "heard" in my short life.
This is the basic statement of the observation and theory:
The facial features / resemblance of children to their biological parents can be predicted by their birth order.
Firstborn daughters look like their fathers.
Firstborn sons look like their mothers.
Secondborn daughters look like their mothers.
Secondborn sons look like their fathers.
By "looks like" I only mean they have
similar facial features.
Hair color, skin tone, etc are another part of the theory.Examples:
Family #1 has two biological sons with the same parents: The older son looks like the mother. The younger son looks like the father.
Family #2 has two biological daughters with the same parents: The older daughter looks like the father. The younger daughter looks like the mother.
If Family #1 adds a daughter, she will look like the father.
If Family #2 adds a son, he will look like the mother.
The observation seems 100% consistent and is supported by a great deal of observed cases.
There is not enough data from families with 4 children, let alone 2 daughters and 2 sons, to make any observations about them.
Exceptions can be
explained by a variety of circumstances including:
- the adults you see with children are not their biological parents
- the two parents themselves look quite alike
- some people's faces change more drastically from childhood to adulthood than others
- people's faces are affected more or less by weight gain
- people's additional features--hair style, color, length, glasses, etc affect the way they look
- surgery, injury, and other face-altering circumsances
- miscarriages may or may not affect the pattern. It is unclear whether or not miscarried children affect the pattern. For instance, if a first-conceived son is miscarried, will the first-born son look like the mother or the father? Genetically speaking, it would make sense but the little observed data says miscarriages have no affect on the pattern, suggesting something other than genetics is behind this.
Limitations on the theory:
If a family has 3 children of the same gender, it is unclear whether or not the pattern continues. There is not enough observed data to make a conclusion at this point.
What has been observed so far leads me to conclude this:
If Family #1 adds a 3rd son, he will either look like the mother or be an undiscernable cross between the two parents.
If Family #2 adds a 3rd daughter, she will look like the father or be an undiscernable cross between the two parents.
Consistency of the theory:
If a family includes children with a variety of different combinations of parents, the pattern follows for each unique set of parents.
For instance, in a family of 4 children with one mother and 3 different fathers:
Daughter #1 from Parental set #1 looks like the father
Son #1 from Parental set #2 looks like the mother
Daughter #1 from Parental set #2 looks like the father
Daughter #1 from Parental set #3 looks like the father
Implication for absentee fathers:
If a man wishes to have as many children as possible with different women, he will not be able to reproduce a likeness of himself in a son unless he has two sons with the same woman.
Implication for paternity tests:
Once upon a time I was watching a television show about a woman seeking to find the father of her young son. She had no less than a dozen possibilities of who the father could be. Sad, I know, but thanks to blood tests she was slowly narrowing it down. What was funny to me was she was trying to compare the young boy's face with the faces of all the different possibilities. Meanwhile, it was exceedingly obvious that the boy looked just like her!
Seldom observed affect on other genetically inherited features, may or may not have value:
In some cases, the firstborn son (who looks like the mother) will have the skin tone and hair color of the father. He will have the hair and skin texture of the mother. ie. If the father has thin hair and the mother has thick hair, he will have thick hair.
The firstborn daughter (who looks like the father) will have the skin tone and hair color of the father. She will have the hair and skin texture of the father.
Interestingly, this has been observed in families where one parent is significantly 'darker' than the other.
It is obviously less consistent when there is an extreme differences in pigmentation, hair color, and texture in the parents.
In conclusion, my wife and I are expecting our secondborn daughter later this month. I fully expect her to look like my wife and probably have my hair color and skin tone. Our firstborn daughter looks so much like me that people will tell my wife, "She must take after the father," even when I'm nowhere around.
Preaching Christmas Day
Background.:
I originally planned on preaching part 3 of my Christmas series on Christmas Day and finishing ir up. Then I got the service plan and realized I wouldn't have enough time to do what I wanted with that sermon. Instead I decided to take all the parts I had cut out of parts 1 & 2 about the Incarnation and preach those.
Message.:
This was part 2.5 of the series of Christmas Messages. It was on the "Christmas Miracle." I talked about the incarnation with a lot of cues taken from J.I.Packer's Knowing God chapter 5. I gave him credit and quoted him at least four times in the sermon.
I talked about how the Christmas Message (fancy term for the Gospel) depends on the Christmas Miracle. If the wiggling, wriggling, noise-making baby in the manger wasn't God, we're sunk.
I talked about the power of believing in the miracle and compared it to how other belief systems handle the Incarnation.
There was one funny part that I didn't know how it would go over. Our congregation isn't exactly used to hearing funny parts in sermons. You really have to give them a heads up. But the biggest problem with this 'joke' is that it's totally horrifying until you figure out Mormons believe a lot of wild things like this and you don't take them too seriously any more. Anyway, the part came when I was talking about how JW's and Mormons deal with the virgin birth. I said the JW's don't have a problem with it--it was just an angel and not God in the flesh, so they don't believe in the incarnation. The Mormons don't have a problem with it either except they have to define it in a special way. In Mormonism Mary was just a "technical virgin." They believe God the Father literally came in the flesh Himself and fathered Jesus the traditional way and that, apparently, "doesn't count." Shocking at first, but later extremely ridiculously funny. No one laughed whatsoever. A couple of jaws dropped. I probably ruined the joke part of it myself by sounding angry when I said it.
J.I. Packer points out that believing this miracle makes everything else obvious. If that baby was God, of course He could atone for sins. He's the same one who will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty! If that baby was God, of course He could rise again. He's the author of life! (Peter seems to be thinking of this same logic in Acts 3:15)
This idea was not attacked as part of the Christian faith for the first 1500 years after it happened. Then in the age of enlightenment it was assaulted with all manner of human wit and fallen wisdom. The attacks continue today.
Jewish people call it a fable and one that wasn't even prophesied. Muslims would say it demands a blasphemous belief in polytheism. Any Jewish or Muslim person assenting to it would have to convert.
The admonition/ application came with a commendation to believe everything the Bible says about the Christmas miracle. Jesus was 100% God. 100% Man. 100% Awesome. There were a lot of visitors that day so I wanted to make sure the Gospel call came across clearly. And at least one guy in the congregation (not a member) doesn't believe that and still thinks he is a Christian. Pray for him.
Analysis.:
It was great preaching on Christmas day. What a great thing to do on the day. On the other hand it was kind of hard. I believe this was the first time I had ever been to a church meeting on Christmas Day. All growing up we either didn't have any church services during the week for Christmas or the service was on Christmas Eve. So, it was my first time to go to a church meeting on a non-Sunday Christmas Day and my first preaching on Christmas all at once.
The sermon went really well. It felt great.
God especially helped me in the re-preparation for this sermon. I was just preaching from some simple notes stuck in my Bible. Sometimes that is great. Sometimes it is disastrous. My sermon manuscript had been stolen two days before... more on that to come.
Love y'all.
