Craig Venter explains genetic modification
Is Craig Venter a God?
If we pray to God because “he created us”, who should the species that scientists create pray to?
God at his computer
Scientists may say we don’t need to answer that while we are creating microbes, but what happens when we develop the ability to string together the code for 3 billion bases and produce our first “human”?
However, long before we create a human from scratch, we will have developed the ability to genetically modify babies. Who is the God when we engineer a fetus to produce “children to order” whether to insert a specific trait such as immunity to a virus or to delete an inherited gene that causes a disability? This question is just as relevant if you have the technology available to do it, but choose not to or if you use the technology to do it.
At What Point, Do You Become God?
So the question arises, when do you become a God? Is it when you create a single cell life form or must you wait until you have created a complex human life form? Or is there some halfway point at which this event happens? I find it hard to justify distinguishing between the point where we create single cell life and a complex one.
The question is not merely one of hypothetical speculation any more. The science is here, the technology just needs to be refined.
What will be the position or the status of species, especially complex species that may resemble humans, if not actually be human that are created by man to serve his needs? Whatever we call them, will they be slaves?
Apart from all the economic arguments regarding why slavery is not an efficient way to organise an economy, the ethical argument against slavery was basically that all humanity is created equal in the eyes of God. If we assume there is a God, then no matter who creates the species, surely they are our equals in God’s eyes. Therefore, the answer must be that they have equal rights. Of course, that argument could equally apply to animals.
Is It Ethically Acceptable to Create A Slave?
But if we prove that life was created by a one in a billion chance chemical reaction, does that change the philosophical position on the equality of humans, or man versus animals or vis-à-vis a species of human like “Hubots” that are created by man?
A long held belief in God has not endowed animals or the many disadvantaged humans with equal rights, so what will happen when we take God out of the equation? Is it ethically acceptable that if man can create a form of human that has similar traits to a human (a Hubot) that is genetically programmed to serve man’s needs, should he do so?
Will we regard this species as human, animal or android? Should it make any difference?
What if that species looks human, breathes air like us, has a human life span and dies like us? If it eats, feels pain and bleeds like a human? What if it has feelings? Is it ethical to produce a species that has a brain and can learn but is genetically programmed to be a servant or a soldier or a baby maker?
In this experiment, Venter’s team injected synthetic DNA into a living cell and watched it take over that cell and ultimately wipe out the previous DNA. The cell then turned blue, which the new DNA was programmed to do when it took control of the cell.
The aim is that one day we can inject DNA into a cancer cell and watch it self-destruct. I’m sure everyone would say that’s great. How would we feel about injecting a male with DNA code and watch him turn into a female or vice-versa? Some would prefer this to the current situation, which requires surgery and drugs to achieve a partial solution.
The options are endless but at what point are they the person God created or the person Craig created? Or do we do away with the notion of God?
Bad With God – What Will We Be Like Without God?
In this increasingly secular world, some would say that it doesn’t matter if you take God out of the equation, but until we can formulate a better foundation for an effective ethical and moral code, we should not rush to throw out the old. Archimedes said it eloquently when he cried, “Give me somewhere to stand and I shall move the earth”. Unfortunately, secular humanists have yet to create a philosophy anywhere near as motivating as a faith in God which can move mountains.
This is the challenge that we now face, to find a philosophy that can move men to put their own self-interest aside for the benefit of all humankind. A philosophy that can give them a basis on which to build an ethical, moral code to live by and still give them enthusiasm for life.
Unfortunately, even as believers in God, we have still not reached a philosophical position of full equality among all members of the human race as we know it, so how will we incorporate these new man made species when they come? And they will come. The only question is when?
My prediction is that our attempt to address these issues will have consequential effects on our views about race, human equality, the rights of women and children, minorities and even animals.
This debate could be the impetus that we have needed from the beginning to approach a worldview that is more encompassing, fair and compassionate for all.
But it will probably mean that we never get that slave, or, maybe, that once again, more people will be in danger of becoming one.
When it comes to making the important decisions that affect our future, our track record so far is 50:50 at best.
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Thank you and welcome to Shadow in the Flame.
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Ha ha Good Ol’ Dylan Thomas. A truly great writer. Pity they didn’t have blogs in his day (or the Internet). 🙂
Thanks for your comment Jorgen, I appreciate it.
Cheers,
Ric
You completely left out sin in your logical thinking. If u really are the christian that you claim to be, u would know that original sin explains most of these questions and eliminates a lot of others. Without sin you should just leave the church because there is no point in still being in it.
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Hello,
What is a good name for a blog on Philosophy, Theology, Religion, and Politics?
Really great post, enjoyed reading it. Thanks
Great post
I want to start a Philosophy blog. Do you think it will pick up?
Editor:
Sure. Why don’t you try submitting an article to this one just to help you get the hang of it.
Best Wishes,
Ric
Текст перспективный, добавлю сайт в избранное.
Which translated says:
Text promising, I will add this site to my selected items.
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Хочу открыть свой бизнес, Ваша статья навеяла хорошую мыль!
Which Translated says:
I want to open my business, your article blew good soap!
Ed:
I hope that is good?
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Editors’ Note:
Hi, it’s that big ugly sign at the top of the page above the image of the candle. 🙂
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Which translated says:
It is actually interesting resource, there is that to read a little. Thanks for a good work!
A wonderful web-site. Gives bless you for the hard work to help people
Мне понравилось… Хотя по большему счету тема раскрыта не до конца… Но все равно спасибо.
Bing led me to this blog post, and it is absolutely what I was looking for.
Great read! But, I had a hard time viewing this article in Safari 5. Just wanted to bring that to your attention! Thanks.
Неплохо-неплохо, понравился стиль автора, возьму себе на заметку 🙂
Which Translated says:
[Neplokho]-[neplokho], I was pleased by the author’s writing style, I will take note of it, think about it more.
I have no idea what [Neplokho]-[neplokho] means so if you can translate this for me, I would appreciate it.
Ric
Мне понравилось… Хотя по большему счету тема раскрыта не до конца… Но все равно спасибо.
Which Translated says:
This article is interesting to me… Although while addressing a lot of issues you have not followed through to the end. (my interpretation:i.e. you have not provided any answers or thought the issues through completely)… But nevertheless thanks.
Reply from Ric
Thank you for your comment. I was worried about the same thing. The questions I raised require more than one brief article to cover them thoroughly. I would be very happy to receive an article from you on any or all of the issues and we will print it here.
Вы для вашего комментария. Я был потревоженной приблизительно тот же самой вещью. Вопросы я поднял требуют, что больше чем одна кратко статья покрывает их тщательно. Я был бы очень счастлив получить статью от вас на любом вопросов и мы напечатаем его здесь.
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From The Editor
Thanks for the very gentle reproof. I apologise that my posts are not as regular as they should be or as I would like. I have so many topics on my list to write about and so little time.
I will try harder and I do note what people say. I had a few requests to add video to my posts and a translation tool and they have both been added recently. Thank you for bookmarking this web site. Much Appreciated.
Ric Vatner
I agree
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thanks for the help!
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Reply from the editor:
Thank you for your suggestion. We added them last week but obviously they are not big enough to be visible. I like the way you have done yours. I will have a talk to our programmers and get them to do something more like yours. Cheers.
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Editor’s Note:
Our Policy on Comments
We normally don’t approve comments like this one that link to a web site but don’t make a comment about the article to which they are attached. In this case the web site seems to be one of value to our readers so I thought I would approve this comment and use it as an opportunity to explain our comment policy.
All comments on this blog are read and approved or declined manually. We do not approve comments or sometimes remove offending parts of a comment if the comment breaches some fairly basic rules of good conduct. These include:
1) We do not approve comments that Link to porn or junk sites that just advertise Viagra or similar items.
2) We do not approve comments that Do not “comment” on the blog article. For example you can say what you like about the article, you can agree with it or disagree, you can even say you hate it but you can not just advertise a link to a web site with either no comment or, as we often get, just a bunch of words meant to trick the filter into thinking it is a genuine comment.
Our Filter is a human so you can not full him so easily.
Note: we now translate foreign language comments so all genuine comments in any language are approved but that means we also catch those spam messages that we previously may have let slip through in the “hope” they were genuine.
3) We do not allow a Link to an empty web site – we are very aware that such a web site could later contain material we would not approve. If you add real content to it – please come back and make another comment and it will be approved or email the editor and we will add your url to your previous comment.
Yes we still allow the comment but we delete the link to any web site that does not have any content on it or is just an advertising web site with no topic related content.
Last but not least, we would love to have more detailed comments with your views on these topics. If your comment is too long for the comment box we will add it as an article with accreditation to you and a link to your web site. Note we do a lot of social media promotion for our articles so your comments and articles get good coverage and hopefully bring you a lot of traffic. We see this as a two way street – we love getting your comments and we want it to benefit you as well.
Please don’t feel you have to agree with our views, we will never decline or delete a comment just because it doesn’t agree with or doesn’t like a particular article. Philosophy is about discussing different points of view to the enlightenment of all.
Cheers,
Editor
Nice blog , how can i join your email list ?
Excellent job.
Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a lot and never seem to get something done.
Editor’s Note:
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your compliment.
This is a superb post Confronting the Future-Part 2 .
But I was wondering how do I subscribe to the RSS feed?