Now
that we have successfully put a name to what our ancestors called ‘magic’, the
world, with all its knowledge and expertise, is expanding in the blink of an
eye under the cover of ‘science’. The question is, does our ability to pursue
humanity’s never-ending quest to unveil the mysteries of the world already
overstepping our bounds as ‘creations,” not “creators”? Religious conservatives
have put it succinctly in the phrase: “playing God”. But is humankind truly
playing god?
The phrase "playing God" is not a theological term; rather, it
derives from secular culture and functions as a warning, an accusation if you
will, to people, particularly scholars, who “substitute” themselves for God
through the idolization of science resulting in moral injunctions against their
pursuit of total and unrestrained control over nature. But the truth is, the
term has been used to describe even a mundane activity as “doing anything or making any
decision that places anyone else's life in your hands, or making judgments
about someone that can [a]ffect them”. However, I do believe that it’s all a matter of perspective,
and scientists are no closer in finding the secret ingredients to Creation than
in measuring the distance between heaven and earth.
A blunt assessment of the Holy Bible describes the
one true God as loving, patient, and omniscient; thus, I believe that He would
never want to stand in the way of the advancement of His people. The revelation of natural
wonders, by scientists no less, has never signified that humans are on the
threshold of acquiring God-like powers, especially in matters of life and
death. In fact, couldn’t it be argued that the process is only feasible with
the utilization of the gift of intelligence from God? Aren’t we His workers,
disciples, if you may, planted here on earth to make the world a better place? Human
abilities are merely mirrors of God’s power; our own strength can never equal
His for ours is limited in nature, not because we are not like God but because
He is not one of us.
When the media
talks about the risks of scientists playing God, with genetic engineering and
creating hybrids and other strange life forms in the laboratory, we tend to
think about so-called Frankenstein foods and the risk posed by our interfering
with the natural order. However,
while Western critics fuss about the morality of stem-cell research and
genetic engineering, Asian
religions champion biotechnology as “[t]herapeutic cloning in particular [that]
jibes well with the Buddhist and Hindu ideas of reincarnation.”
In 2010, genome-mapping pioneer J.
Craig Venter has successfully created artificial life in a laboratory for the first
time, sparking debate about his “playing
god” and the potential dangers of his invention. Professor Julian
Savulescu, an expert in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, said:
“Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity’s history,
potentially peeking into its destiny. He is going toward the role of a god:
creating artificial life that could never have existed naturally.”
For many of us, this is not a problem. But some will see the discovery as
usurping the proper role of God, or taking an arrogant and hubristic attitude
to life. “They are not just tinkering with life, they are designing and
creating it.”
However, Dr. Venter only dismissed these allegations,
saying: ''That's [playing god] a term that comes up every time there is a new
medical or scientific breakthrough associated with biology. It's been a goal of
humanity from the earlier stages to try and control nature…that's how we got
domesticated animals.”
Like Prometheus, scientists are said to be
overstepping finite limits; out of pride or hubris they are risking a backlash
from nature. But our
era is limited only by our imagination. Anything is possible
but not everything can be deemed as truly the work of a god, not even by a
human-god. To breathe life into a bacterium using genes assembled in the
laboratory is not similar to giving life to a human being out of thin air.
Scientists may try to prove themselves capable of ‘playing god’ but there is
more to creating life than meets the eye. The key is to approach science with a
grain of caution and with an eye open for an infinite number of possibilities. To
appreciate science is to appreciate the One who created it.
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