James Pinkerton wrote a new article that raises a serious, but little discussed issue, called transhumanism.
Hold your nose and please speed read through all of the threadbare, vacuous objections to "religous" intelligent design. Pinkerton gets to something really interesting at the bottom.
Start with the paragraph that begins with "But here's something coming that's real, replicatable, and thus inarguable. "
Pinkerton is right about where we are headed: transhumanism, which he calls SID. This is exactly why bioethics should be at forefront of worldview issues on the table. Money is ultimately driving us there ... which is why this article appears on a web site with the subtitle "where free markets meet technology".
Dembski exposes the duplicity in Pinkerton's argument about ID. My purpose is different.
I simply want to use this article to raise awareness about the area of transhumanism ... something that only a few blog about or are informed enough to discuss.
For the followers of Christ out there ... the ethical debates being waged today involving technology will turn into laws tomorrow ... and possibly protected under the rubric of constitutional privacy concerns. In my opinion, many Christians are equipped to engage in the areas surrounding death and life ... but transhumanism presents a new ethical challenge. Be forewarned.
(HT: ID The Future)
This is definitely an issue Christians need to keep their eyes on. It is the kind of thing that at first glance seems too fictional to be true, but at a closer look, is actually quite frightening. Thanks for dealing with it!
Posted by: Phil S | June 11, 2005 at 20:23
None of this should surprise us. We live in a nation where it is legal for a butcher to pull a fully-formed, obviously human baby halfway out of his mother, stab him in the back of the skull, and pull him the rest of the way out, dead, to the tune of approx 300 a year (stat courtesy of the Guttmacher Institute, PR arm of NARAL, etc). Designer babies are simply a logical extension of this mindset.
But, after all, why not, eh? I mean, if we're the unintentional byproduct of a cosmic burp some umpty-billion years ago, and descended from some one-celled something via some ape-like something else, and our minds are nothing but a function of our brains, then it hardly matters (in any transcendent sense) what we do, right?
Doc
Posted by: Doc | June 16, 2005 at 09:15
Doc,
It does not surprise me in the least. What does surprise me is when Christians support genetic tinkering or ethically objectionable therapies.
Unfortunately, Christians are just as susceptible to utilitarian thinking. Witness the embryo stem cell debate in this country. I know of a Christian who has a child with diabetes who was adamantly in support of destroying human embryos to provide cells in hopes of a cure for her child.
I have a friend who is a research scientist and strong Christian. He researches genes and proteins for a living. He believes in cloning as long as it is done to provide cells (thus destroying the clone). He sees no issue with creating human life to destroy it because the clone is not created naturally, and therefore is soulless, and therefore is not made in God's image, and is therefore discardible.
If gene therapies or technologies were available to make us or our children smarter, taller, faster, stronger or live longer ... is it morally right to pursue such things? This goes beyond cures ... and gets into using therapies to advance the abilities of perfectly healthy human beings.
Anyway, I want to raise the issue and get the terminology out there so Christians can be more aware of this issue.
Posted by: Jeff | June 16, 2005 at 09:43