Does God create people's bodies as well or does He just give people souls?

[Guest]

Does God create people’s bodies as well, or does He just give them souls? You know how some people are born with disabilities and diseases while others look like they won the genetic lottery? This makes me think that God doesn’t create people’s bodies, I guess He simply lets the genetics play along? I’ve heard people say that disease and disability and sickness of any kind come from our fallen state in the world but God does not dwell in sin nor does He create with sin. So why are some people born very ill and others are not? If he willingly creates some with illness while blessing others with perfect bodies then He must really be unfair. Does God just let the genetic frameworks play out by sheer luck and chance, and then proceed to give the body a soul?

[Luigi]

My thoughts on this topic are not definitive, and may not even be correct - they're just my thoughts. 

One of the foundational concepts of Catholicism is that 'God is with us' - the idea of Emmanuel. A related concept, which I don't hear expounded nearly as often, is that God wants us to work with him. I do hear this preached in terms such as "We are the hands of God when we minister to our sisters and brothers." 

So when Catholics marry, they promise to "accept children willingly and lovingly from God." Even when non-Catholics or non-believers marry, they're really doing the same thing. That is, they're promising to 'work with' God to create new lives. 

I think, in general, God lets the genetics of the mother and father play out in the bodies of the newly-created children. In other words, if the parents have a proclivity toward diabetes, that may show up in the child; the genetics also control eye color, hair color, height, body form, etc. 

However, we are not meat puppets dancing of the end of strings that God controls completely. Both the father and the mother have free wills. So if the mother doesn't (or can't) eat properly during her pregnancy, the child may be born with certain defects. If the mother or father drinks too much alcohol, or abuses drugs, or in some other way abuse their own bodies, that might have a negative effect on their unborn child. Likewise, if the expectant mother suffers any sort of physical trauma - being hit or kicked, falling down stairs, being in a car accident and the seatbelt pressures her midsection, etc. - that may have a negative effect on the unborn child. In the 1960s, many pregnant women were exposed to three-day measles, and their children might be born deaf or blind. 

Another idea to keep in mind is that the perfection of bodies has nothing to do with the value of a person, nor with their relationship with God. A person is a person is a person no matter what physical abilities she has. A person is a child of God no matter what physical abilities he has. And I know any number of parents who love their 'disabled' children just as much as they love their non-disabled children. I've known parents who cared for their children with Down Syndrome until the day they (the parents) died; and those who cared for their children with cerebral palsy; and those whose children were deaf, or blind, or unable to walk, or whatever. Those parents demonstrate God's love and care for all people by showing their love and care for their 'disabled' children. And the children demonstrate to us the value of all all human life. 

Lastly, your question is about how children are born, but it could be expanded to include what happens to people after they are born. For instance, Christopher Reeve who played Superman in the 1970s movie was thrown from a horse, broke his neck (or spine?) and lived the rest of his life paralyzed and in a wheelchair - did God do that to him, or was it just an accident? People who are burned in a house fire - did God will them to be burned, or was someone (with a free will) just careless with fire? People who are killed in a car accident - did God will those people to die, or did someone (with a free will) drink too much and then start driving? When someone is shot and killed in a bank robbery - did God will that person to die, or did the robber with a gun (and a free will) make a bad decision and pull the trigger? 

Whoever we are and whatever happens to us, it's not always directly attributable to God; that would mean that we are meat puppets without free will. We are all subject to the laws of nature (including genetics, the effects of alcohol & drugs, the speed of bullets, or whatever else), which God created, but we're also subject to the effects of the actions of other people who have free will. 

As I say, these are just my thoughts on the subject.