Re: [asa] Can we create life?

MessageThe Bible says that only God can create anything - in the basic theological sense that everything depends for its existence on God. But the widespread notion that this is somehow more true of life than of non-living things is false. In Genesis 1 it is the living things which are said to have been created mediately - i.e., by God acting with materials which he had already created: "Let the earth bring forth ..." &c.

Nothing in the Bible says that human beings could not "create" living things in the same sense that they can "create" artificial rocks, e.g. Of course whether we actually can do that is another matter.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Jon Tandy
  To: '_American Sci Affil'
  Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 5:24 PM
  Subject: [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 19:02:03 2007