A Planetary Engineer explains:
"'Whole bacteria were assembled long ago. It was just a matter of reproducing and accelerating the chain of physicochemical reactions which led to the first life on Earth.'" (p. 182)
Energized complex molecules changed randomly until one became self-replicating. The Engineer adds:
"'Nothing more than microscopic organisms have been made yet, and I see no reason why humans should ever be produced synthetically even if it is possible. Nature has a much more interesting way of achieving that result.'" (ibid.)
Like the Engineer, I have encountered very strong religious opposition to the idea that human beings could ever be produced synthetically. "God wouldn't allow it!" someone shouted. "Can a thing out of a laboratory ever be holy?" someone else asked. "Life comes from life," a Krishna devotee proclaimed. A Muslim exhibition in Lancaster Library spelt out that Allah created Adam without a father or mother and Jesus without a father. Traditions that have stayed with scriptural fundamentalism have not been able to accept the full implications of scientific discoveries.
8 comments:
Human beings -could- be produced 'artificially'; it's just extremely complex and difficult and basically, given current and immediate future tech, not really worth taking any trouble about.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: The Catholic Church takes science seriously. So don't lump us in with evangelical Protestants and Muslims.
Mr. Stirling: I suspect, however, that some billionaires may well be quietly paying for efforts at getting themselves cloned
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But the Catholic Church is no longer Fundamentalist.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree. The Catholic Church is Christianity at its most fundamental, in the true sense of that word.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
By "Fundamentalism," I meant only scriptural literalism.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I believe, as does the Church, in Biblical literalism, PROPERLY understood. E.g. , the books of Kings is literally a theological interpretation of the Jewish kingdoms. And so on for other examples like the Book of Jonah, a fiction told to make theological points.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
By "scriptural literalism," I mean believing that the universe was made in six days and that Jonah really was inside the big fish. There are literalists in this sense.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, mostly by evangelical Protestants.
Ad astra! Sean
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