The Quick and the Dead.

                                                              

The onset of quickening, the moment when a pregnant woman first feels foetal movement, is a thrilling moment for prospective parents. 

Approximately 18 weeks after the first day of the incubating mother's last menstrual period (about 4 lunar months after the obligatory beast-with-two-backs moment) and after emesis gravidarum has finally abated, there's something moving about down there. 

Religion may desire to mystify this physiological event by asserting that quickening signifies the entry of the foetal soul (hence the fundamental dichotomy of "the quick and the dead"), but the mundane mechanics of foetal development include the development of foetal joint cavities at this time.

And the "entry of the soul" proposition doesn't hold water if one considers the mobility of most conservative politicians, some of whom can be seen to move (as long as you line them up against a stationary vertical structure), and most of whom are clearly without a soul.

But hang in there, mum and dad, all you are required to do is to enjoy the delight of their childhood and survive the inevitable sweet torment of their adolescent years, and the basic logic of your existence will have been realised.

Survival of the species, irrespective ot the value or desirability of that particular goal, depends on you.