[asa] Can we create life?

Many quotations could be given on the YEC view, showing the idea that "any
science which contradicts the 'clear teaching of scripture' is incorrect,
because God's revelation is true, but man's knowledge is limited." The
Bible says that people (and life itself) is created by God. If that's the
case, then it should be impossible (from a feasibility standpoint, not a
moral one) for us to artificially create life, whether by artificial
insemination, cloning, etc.
 
When Christians oppose cloning, they do so on a moral basis: "This shouldn't
be done because..." (it devalues human life, it opens the door to all sorts
of nasty behaviors such as eugenics, it puts the power of life or death in
the hands of people for selfish or other motivations, etc.) In other words,
the opposition to cloning is a moral opposition to "creating life",
something that's technically possible but not morally acceptable.
 
But to be consistent with the YEC message, shouldn't the response to cloning
be, "The science of cloning (or artificial insemination) is false, because
the Bible says only God can create life. Either we admit the possibility
that humans can create life, or we accept the infallible revelation of God
in scripture which says only God can make things alive -- it's one or the
other. Therefore, it's wrong for Christians to oppose the practice of human
cloning, because doing so affirms an anti-Biblical possibility. Instead we
should be affirming the truth of the Bible by opposing the mistaken claim
that cloning is possible."
 
Am I drawing a logical and consistent analogy?
 
Obviously, you won't find Christians opposing cloning because it's
scientifically and Biblically impossible, because the facts are that science
has already done it. It would be laughable and an embarrassment to oppose
cloning as an impossibility, when everyone know that it's already been
demonstrated. My point is, if other things have been reliably demonstrated
scientifically (old earth, fossil record, etc.), would it be equally
laughable to deny those things based on a certain interpretation of
scripture? Is this a valid line of reasoning (or, substitute a solid
firmament or an earth-centered universe as other equally demonstrated facts
which modern Christians accept uncritically)?
 
There are other unrelated questions that come up, which I know have been
discussed before. Can humans really create life? What does it mean to
create life? How does a test tube baby or cloned individual (assuming human
cloning should ever become a reality) become a "living spirit" if created
artificially by human processes? Where does the "image of God" come in, if
the conception process doesn't come through natural processes?
 
Do these questions lead to a more evolutionary view of humanity, suggesting
that humans develop what we would call "spiritual characteristics"
(morality, conscience, religious awareness) through more natural and
cultural influences than from a divine insertion of a spirit into a body?
Or does God supernaturally grant a spirit to human embryos (assuming a
dualistic body/spirit theology), regardless of the process of their
formation?
 
 
Jon Tandy
 

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Received on Tue Nov 27 17:25:31 2007