So I was driving home tonight after English class, wondering how in the world John Calvin could conceive of the idea of a predetermined elect (?!) when a car beeped at me and (after I made the turn) I started thinking about what it really means to “conceive” of an idea.

The word “conceive” implies creation, namely the creation of a child, or a new life. When a person conceives an idea, then, is the idea like a child – developing in the mind as in the womb, eventually growing and changing after birth as a child does – becoming more mature, if growth proceeds as it should, eventually growing up and contributing to the lives of other ideas? This brings to mind the whole controversy of when life begins, too. When does the “life” of an idea begin? Is it at conception, the first sparking and formings of an idea within the mind? Is it at birth, when an idea is put to paper or to speech, told to another or inscribed in one’s consciousness? What constitutes the birth of an idea? What determines its life? If the idea grows, matures, reaches out to others, sparks ideas in them, is that fertility, generativity? Is that its purpose, to spark other ideas, or does it have innate value within itself – or both? And does an idea ever really die?

I was also wondering about the responsibility of a person who “has” an idea, what is their duty to that idea? Do they take on the role of a parent, who nurtures and guides the idea-child to grow, to become fully realized, to gain depth, to welcome others while still retaining its own essential and important identity? Is that the calling of one who has an idea? But there are many ideas who are not born to one who is willing to develop and give attention to that idea – where does such an idea go, then? How does it survive? What of an idea born into an unfriendly environment, like Darwinism into the religion-infused 19th century England, or Lutheranism into Catholic Europe? And yet so many of those ideas do survive, do grow stronger, revolutionize worlds. Some have tremendous transformative power, which some turn into help for humankind, and some turn into tools of destruction. Some go both ways. Can one split an idea, creating new entities like a reproducing amoeba? Factionalism would seem to prove this true, as well as sectarianism, forms of government, and almost every difference of opinion and practice in the world.

Ideas, it seems, are more fertile than rabbits. What of people who try to impose population control on ideas? Can there ever be an overpopulation of ideas? I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. Can society be peaceful when ideas multiply constantly and constantly clash and collide?

I’m not sure about any of this. But it’s an interesting phrase, to “conceive of an idea.” It brings interesting questions.