Science and Religion… Have we gone too far?
“The Creation” by James Weldon Johnson
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;
Then into it
He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
In this world of advancements in science, medicine, and technology; it is no wonder that many in our society still debate the creation theories. Much like our current scientific controversies- cloning, abortion, and contraception; the creation stirs emotions within many in religious and scientific communities. Victor Frankenstein decided to create a living being. He “played God”. In the news we are daily bombarded with controversies regarding Intelligent Design, the Big Bang, Evolution, Abortion, Stem Cell Research, Cloning, etc.
Everyone has an opinion. Your opinion may be based on research, science, religion, morals, or the media. Choose a current controversy (from the above list or others) and take a stance on it. Explain your reasons.
Keep in mind that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Don’t attack others’ views. Keep an open mind, but be firm in your own ideas and beliefs.
I have always felt very strongly about the issue of abortion. I guess that is because three of my cousins, who are like brothers to me, were adopted and their birth mothers were choosing between abortion and adoption, and I cannot imagine my life without them. I am pro-life and consider abortion to be murder. I dont understand how the baby, or “fetus”, is not a life right before it is born, but the second it is out of the womb it is a life and it cannot be touched. While in the womb it has all the vital signs of life, so i am embarassed and ashamed to say that it is legal in our country to kill your child if you do not want it. I think we will pay for the millions of human lives we have destroyed.
Personally, I don’t think that anyone will ever clone a person, mainly because that would just kind of not be that cool. However, I do think that certain types of cloning could be beneficial to the welfare of many individuals. A lot of people need an organ transplant or maybe a new arm or leg, but there is never enough organs and even though modern prosthetics are awesome it still isn’t the real thing. With my very limited knowledge of cloning I think that it would be cool to clone organs and arms help out those that really need them.
I do not think it responsible to clone a human being. However, to clone body parts for medicine/medical purposes seems alright to me. Though, once body parts are cloned naturally people will gradually want to clone a human, so maybe it would be better off if we stopped cloning at all. It is going to be a controversy in the future, and I would like to see cloning used for medical benefits but not the cloning of an actual being. On a side note, we should stop looking for the fountain of youth and just accept that death is a natural part of human life. Perhaps we should stop seeking life on earth and start seeking the life Eternal.
Oh yea, contraversial issues….. I have many differents tances on different issues, but one that has been really making my hair stand up lately is abortion. I just ahve a hard time with some big hancho in the government telling a woman that she can’t stop something that is binding for the rest of her life. To be a pregrant is a woman’s choice, not some withdrawn president. It’s not his body, its hers. What about a woman who has been raped? Do you make her go through with the birth of a child that wasn’t even her choice to try and have? Or a woman who is in deep proverty and has no way of providing for her child? I do think that there should be some rules a regulations on the procedure. If we can find a happy medium and somehow keep abortion from being a killing machine, I think that it can be very benefical. Its just a frustrating issue being a christian woman, because I deeply believe that it is a womans body, but I also don’t think that we should kill just to kill, it shouldn’t be a safegate for sex, but it should be left an option.
The issue of cloning seems like one that our society is not ready for yet. I cannot say that I know enough about cloning to really have a legitimate opinion, but I from what I know, I think it is human beings trying to play God. It seems frightening to me that humans could have this much control. Maybe there are a great deal of benefits from it that I do not know enough about, but I think unless it would be a huge help in some significant ways that humans should not bother with spending time and money on cloning living things.
Cloning-
Cloning to us is like when we are about five years old and we accidently rip an earth worm in half, only to find both halves are STILL moving and apparently alive. What we discover can be dangerous and/or beneficial depending on the discovery. However, the concept of cloning, although currently in its premature stages of development, could be stretched too far and too thin.
Money=power. I don’t care WHAT you say. That analogy is true. As is this one: Life=Death.
Those two concepts put together can be dangerous. A loved one dies, those successors who are terribly distraught may then be provided with the money to clone said loved one. The problem(s) from that point on can only be imagined.
I think that scientific research is fine up to a certain point. I think it’s ok to clone animals and stuff like that, but i don’t think humans should ever be cloned. There’s no need for cloning humans, and there could be tons of thing that could go wrong with it. I think its also just really morally wrong to do that. Vegetables and animals and stuff is fine, but humans is too far.
Cloning people is a really bad idea and it is going to make God angry. God created people and animals different. Making animals the exact same is going against God. If we start cloning people there will be no telling them apart and send the world into confusion.
I do think science has definitely exceeded its need in some areas of life. When it comes to creating life from a non-existing thing, I think that this is completely unBiblical and should stop. Cloning of animals in my opinion is not necessary. We as humans think that we are all meant to live to be a hundred and I disagree about this. God has diseases and old age so that noone lives to be that long. Charles Darwin talks about the survival of the fittest and he is right it some areas. I don’t think that we shouldn’t try to cure cancer and other stuff, but people are still made to die. If we keep on prolonging people’s lives who are carriers of diseases, their offspring is going to suffer.
Cloning
I do not agree with cloning. It puts the power to give and create life in the hands of men, unperfect creatures who make mistakes. The power of life is given to man as a precious gift which should not be taken played with. Im actually scared of what could be done with this power in the hands of evil. I don’t think the globe is ready for cloning anyway. Although I may just be naive on the possible positives on this subject, but overall I think cloning could be a dangerous thing.
Stem Cell research should no a controversy, but for some reason it has become one. Stem Cell research can possibly help many diseases that are rapidly growing in today’s societys, and that everyone knows someone who could be helped by Stem Cell research. I don’t want to get to into this because I don’t see how stating my opinion on a teacher sponsored blog will help different religions stop seeing there differences and instead bind together against a common disease or act that needs to be ended. I think though that a common misconception to people is that even if someone believes or supports something that another things is playing too much of g-d doesn’t mean that the other person wants to play g-d.
It is important for society to continue studying science. Society is not ready to be cloning people. Making a clone should be out of man’s capability. When man starts making living things, they will be imperfect creations. There is a lot to be learned about cloning and stem cell research, and such research can benefit mankind to a certain extent. It is hard to know how far is to far, but man should not exceed certain boundaries. People will start to think they have control over every aspect. If society continues in the same direction, science will become very dangerous.
I know that abortion has already been talked about before, but, I have my own opinions on this topic:
Although it is a woman’s body, and therefore it is/should be her choice. But it is difficult to say that when it is not just her body that she might harm, there is a human being being formed inside her.
I do think that the woman should be able to choose, but i think that it should only be used in extraneous situations which always are able to show themselves in things like this. There should be strict regulations, and ultimately, it is up to the woman, but government shouldn’t force this upon people, the more restrictions, sometimes the more radical people can become.
I feel like if a woman gets pregnant and for some reason or another cannot care for the child, they should give it up for adoption, don’t kill it to get rid of the problem. I don’t know a whole lot on this, but i know that there is something in a few states where a woman can just drop off a baby at any police station and no questions will be asked. Things like this might be more appealing to woman then the chance that they could get hurt in the abortion procedure. This is one reason why i feel compelled to adopt kids, they need a home and if i am capable of caring for them, I want to help.
I just feel like women should carry the child for the 9 months and if they cannot care for them, give them up for adoption
The human race needs to just stay away from cloning in general. I think this because God created life and that is how it should stay. There should not be some scientist creating anything whether it be plants, animals, and humans. If the population would just spend some time to figure some things out then human cloning would not be needed at all. It is our want for things faster that is a possible cause in this push for the advancement in the cloning process. People need to let life take its own natural course and not try and mess up what has been put in front of us. Laife is a sacred item and shoud not be taken as lightly to clone it.
I think science is a wonderful thing that can be taken too far if allowed, but at the same time i am against government interference with things like abortion. People will do it anyway, so there might as well be safe, legal places to do it.
I find it very hard to believe that anyone will ever clone an individual. First of all I do not believe that anyone will ever be allowed to clone a person. There is just too many problems with taking DNA or genes or whatever from a person and trying to create the same person. Something could go incredibly wrong. And if someone does get the ok to clone a human, I do not believe that it will ever be successful. People are too complex for anyone to complete understand and make a copy of one person with no draw backs or problems. I do not believe that cloning will ever happen
I think cloning is a very hard subject. In some ways I agree with cloning for purposes to cure cancer, diseases, and find out more information about the human body. As long as the humans are not fully developed I think science could really benefit from it. On the other hand, I think if humans are cloned it could result into disaster. There would be mass chaios about if it is right or wrong. The issue of acting as “God” concerns me. I think we should let nature reproduce naturally not chemically.
I personally feel strongly on several of these topics. As for abortion, I feel that you are considered alive the moment you are concieved, therefore, killing a baby still in the womb is no different than killing one once it has been born. As for cloning, I feel that it is not our responsibility as humans to control any aspect of the creation of life. It is obvious that no human on Earth is perfect, and I think that we tend want more control than we should have.
Cloning is an issue that I am seriously against. One reason is that I just do not see the real point in it. Why would we want to make a duplicate of someone? There doesn’t really seem to have any purpose in it. Also, there are many risks involved that would be unecessary. Last, there is the issue that by cloning human beings we are playing God and leaving any kind of natural processes out of human life.
To clone or not to clone…