Re: [asa] Question for all the theistic evolutionists

*Suppose further that he is raised as a normal human and winds up
holding down a good job, performing as a citizen, etc. Does he then
possess the IOG?*

At the very least, I would think some sort of ethical precautionary
principle would kick in, and we'd treat him as if he possessed the IOG, even
if we couldn't be sure.

But why suppose this and not something else? Why not suppose the
Neanderthal clone baby grows up to build a communication device, calls the
mother ship, and summons all the Neanderthals from Alpha Centauri who left
Earth 50,000 years ago to return?

Or is the more reasonable assumption, given what we actually know about
Neanderthal biology and behavior, that the Neanderthal clone baby would
behave in some ways we would consider human-like but in other ways that we
would consider more animal-like, and that he would have zero capacity to
hold down a job and appear in Geico commercials?

It seems to me that the actual scientific record we have so far about
Neanderthals strongly suggests the latter. (And here I'd suggest the "we
could eat them" in terrorem argument is misplaced. Most of us would feel
ethically compelled not to raise very intelligent animals such as chimps and
bottlenenose dolphins for food; I'm sure we'd feel the same about
Neanderthals regardless of whether we considered them human).

On 3/23/07, John Burgeson (Burgy) <burgytwo@juno.com> wrote:
> Bill asked: "Suppose I accept as fact your and Glenn's claim that
> there is no rational basis for claiming that such beings do not have
> the image of God. That does not justify claiming that
> they do have the image of God, only that the proposition is undecided."
>
> I can buy that. What I cannot buy is the claim that, since it is
> undecided, such creatures do NOT possess the IOG. That leads to the
> obvious claim that it would be perfectly OK to eat them. Or put them
> in a zoo.
>
> Another thought experiment. Using time extraction technology, which I
> have not yet invented due to lack of time, we extract a small
> Neanderthal infant from -- say 350K years ago. How would we regard
> him? Suppose further that he is raised as a normal human and winds up
> holding down a good job, performing as a citizen, etc. Does he then
> possess the IOG?
>
> Burgy
>
>
>
> www.burgy.50megs.com
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
>

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Fri Mar 23 17:32:26 2007