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Genetic Manipulation

Amadeus

Chews the Cud
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Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?
 
Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?

Yes I do. But I would never force my religious beliefs on others through law.
 
To really throw a fly into the ointment - The Almighty gave Man the ability to learn and to reason. That means He gave us full rein to do those things to improve our lives. So, whatever comes from scientific research may be considered a boon granted by The Almighty to Mankind.
 
I don't really see any reason to manipulate genes. Within a few hundred/thousand years, which would be only a blink of the eye for the reign of man, most of the bad genes would possibly breed themselves out naturally? That, and I detest the idea of some baby fifty years from now being genetically altered into a superhuman that's better than me in every way imaginable.
 
Depends on what you mean by genetic manipulation I suppose. If it means we could rid blacks of sickle cell anemia, why not? If it means deciding your child's sex, not so much a supporter.
 
Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?

My aversion to the concept isn't religious. Basically, I don't trust people and there are too many examples of human idiocy in far lesser fields than genetic sequencing. Those rabbits would be introduced into Australia tomorrow, all over again, if it could be done over. Do you have any idea of the consequences of putting animal genes into plant seeds? Neither do the people who are doing it but that doesn't hold them back.
But okay, for the sake of keeping it religious, no problem. If philosophy can never make a man into a God, neither will science. Go ahead, do what thou wilt.
 
It can't come too soon as far as I can tell. We appear to be devolving. Something must be done. How many dysfunctional people can the earth support? Nobodys cool with killing off 20% of the population so lets upgrade them instead.
 
Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?

It depends. I don't have a problem with correcting defects or improving abilities and senses that we already possess.

However, I would be inclined to draw the line at fundamental alterations or additions to the human form. Transforming human beings into rat, cat, lizard, or bird men, for instance, would be a rather questionable development, IMO.
 
Just think of Hitler, and the perfect race...

It's a dangerous path I think. Once we start using such technology, it will surely be abused like anything else is. Then there will be a push for government regulation, and laws that will be twisted by the black and white of the poorly worded text...
 
If anything, I feel that I have a religious duty to promote this technology. Most heathens wouldn't agree with me, though.
 
I have none.

While I'm cautious of our skill, I have no objection to the principal.
I'm OK with the principle as well. I just wish people would stop abusing technology.
 
Though the idealistic part of me yells of course! to this the realistic side screams consequences.
I have no 'religious' objections, but all the logical levels object.
 
If anything, I feel that I have a religious duty to promote this technology. Most heathens wouldn't agree with me, though.

To clarify... Ásatrú teaches that family is paramount. Your highest moral obligation is to your family-- living and dead-- to grow and strengthen it; it helps your living kin for them to have a stronger family to rely upon, and it warms the hearts of your ancestors for them to see that their descendants are doing well for themselves, and when they are reborn, they will be reborn within the family lines that they have left to you and that you have perpetuated. Thus, we have an obligation to birth and raise the best babies possible both to strengthen our living families and to give our ancestors better lives when they return to us.

To that point, nearly any heathen will agree with me.

Where I depart is that I see the genetic substrate of our children as one more area in which we can provide a better life for our children, and thus for our ancestors. We already strive to feed our children the best food and educate them with the best knowledge; when we seek a partner, we seek the best possible mother or father for our children that we can find. How is it different to seek the best possible genetic code for our children, the best possible blueprints for their biological development? We have an obligation to our families to have the best possible children, and an obligation to our children-- to our future children-- to provide the best possible life for them that we can. Seems to me that giving them a genetic head start is fundamental to our moral obligations to them as parents.
 
It depends on what kind of manipulation is being done.

I'm a Christian but I've directly manipulated the genome of cells. I see no problem with it so long as it is done for an ethical purpose. Unethical purposes in my view would be to introduce a disease to someone or if the procedure is unsafe and is likely to result in genetic damage. There is a lot of good that could come from genetic manipulation.
 
'all things are legal, but not all things are beneficial'

When man bows to the creator, he has a tremendous degree of freedom; we lose that freedom when our intentions are corrupted. Then we 'reap what we sow'.

Genetic manipulation is another in the long list of things which can be helpful and harmful, depending on intention.
 
Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?



Christian/protestant/Baptist. No aversion.

Just a sense that we ought to be cautious...
 
Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?

no "religious" aversion. however, I do have a "law of unintended consequences" aversion. until/unless we ever gain full understanding of how human genetics works...I'd be nervous about monkeying around with it too much.
 
We've been genetically modifying things for centuries!

A few examples:

The big, plump turkey you eat.
th


The big, bright red tomato you have on your hamburger:
th


And the source of your french fries:
th


And on and on.
 
Do you have a religious aversion to genetic manipulation? Obviously the science isn't there yet for humans, but in the coming decades and centuries, it will undoubtedly be common practice to correct genetic defects -- or even to improve on 'human design' through genetic resequencing.

What are your thoughts?

I don't think there is anything inherently anti-Christian about genetic manipulation, nor do I think there is anything inherently wrong (morally) with the technology or with its expansion.

Like any form of power, it can be used for good or for evil, depending on the intentions of the one wielding it.

If we can make our children healthier, more beautiful, more intelligent, and if we can select the sex of our babies, then I'm not convinced that would be a bad thing. It's just a lot to wrap our minds around at the moment.

That said, I do believe we think a little more highly of ourselves than we deserve credit for. Genetics is an extremely complicated and poorly understood area, and we are only in the nascent stages of understanding how the whole ball of wax works. If you look at an 80's movie depiction of the future, you'd see a vision of the future that included flying cars and robot maids. People actually believed we'd have these things, because robotics and automobile tech were booming fields at the time.

Much in the same way, I think we overrate what we'll be able to do with genetics. The science is still young enough to have that "wow" factor, to make people's imaginations go wild, but once our knowledge matures, I think we'll find that our ability to manipulate genes is as pedestrian as our ability to build robots or our ability to make hybrid cars.

Let's take a step back here. Yes, it's a pretty cool parlor trick to make glow-in-the-dark mice. Still, that's a long, long way off from making designer uber-babies in a lab. I guess the point is, let's acknowledge how far we really have to go, from a know-how standpoint, before any of this even becomes a moral question.


(btw, great question!)
 
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