Exchanging The Truth of God for a Lie
When I read this news item, currently linked over at Drudge, I can't help but think that the human race is doing what Paul is describing in Romans 1, a recurring theme in all of human history: exchanging the truth about God for a lie, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator.
The story in question today is about new animal-human hybrids that scientists around the globe are creating for diverse purposes. By playing with genetics, they're actually creating manimals of sorts -- a pig with human blood pumping through its veins, for example (thank you, Mayo Clinic); or mice with human brains (kudos, Stanford U.), planned for later this year.
There are a host of reasons to oppose this move, many of them existing independently of any sort of religious worldview or concern. They're explored in the article above, but I'd like to focus on a possible Christian response to these "manimals" (called chimeras, after monsters in Greek mythology -- just in case you were unclear about the pagan origins of such a beast).
Are we, in the parlance of Romans 1, exchanging the truth of God for a lie, serving creation (humans, mostly) rather than the Creator?
What will we deny ourselves? Is there anyting we can think/dream/imagine/conceive/create that we shouldn't be free to do?
This entire scientific endeavor, to create these chimeras, is tinkering with the created order for one seemingly noble purpose: to promote human life.
We signed off on this principle as being noble long ago. Christians have embraced it as doctrine. Choose life has come to mean, in the extreme, to do ANYTHING humanly possible to protect, promote, expand, create, and sustain LIFE. After all, God gives life, God loves us and wants only what's best for us (the God as Big Daddy or God as Big Nipple construct that plagues facile American spirituality these days), and what's best for us is what WE determine is best for us, because God made us stewards over everything else. Right? So we determine that human life at all costs is worth it.
I mean, He's a loving Father, who will deny his children nothing, if they only ask!
Didn't Jesus say that?
Not really. Suddenly the bread and stone principle from Matthew 7 has expanded to include pig valves for our hearts, collagen for our lips, botox for our brows, and 7 kids at a time from freakish fertility treatments for our quivers. Thank you, Daddy God!
Chimeras, the thinking goes, will help us conduct more precise medical experiments on animals, which will in turn save human life. Which is a good thing. It's even a God thing!
Right?
But what about the truth of God? What about His intent in creation? Is He allowed to create anything that we can't ultimately overturn, correct or improve? Is He allowed to have purposes that we don't understand or embrace? Was God lying when he looked at creation and said it was good?
Good, but we could do better...is that our position!?
Are we to discard what has been given to us in nature, simply because we anticipate such tinkering MIGHT be useful to US?
Might our science, our experimentation - from stem cells to cloning, to chimeras, to genetic maniputlation and beyond - be a metaphoric tower of Babel, getting us closer and closer to God?
Is there room for humility, caution, reverence to God before we act in His name, supposing to work on His behalf?
We need God less and less. Wonderfully reasoned, faithfully logical, and scared to death of charismatic or hyper-spiritual excess, we have come to believe that God moves principally through US.
He heals through us - our medicine, our doctors; he creates through us - our scientists, our architects; he restores through us - our psychiatrists and social workers and humanitarian workers; He governs through us - our politics, our systems of organization; he provides and prospers through us - our industry, our capitalism, our democracy; He saves through us -- our churches, our gospel, our efforts; He saves the environment through us -- our UN treaties, our curbing of emissions, our re-forestation efforts.
I'm not denying the human-divine partnership that is a beautiful and fundamental part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He allows us to participate in His work. But my concern is that we've elevated ourselves in the cosmic drama, to the detriment of the Divine.
God works for us; shouldn't we be working for Him?
Somehow God, in the year 2005, in the United States of America, desperately needs us!
But I ask you:
Do we need Him, desperately, for ANYTHING?
When I read this news item, currently linked over at Drudge, I can't help but think that the human race is doing what Paul is describing in Romans 1, a recurring theme in all of human history: exchanging the truth about God for a lie, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator.
The story in question today is about new animal-human hybrids that scientists around the globe are creating for diverse purposes. By playing with genetics, they're actually creating manimals of sorts -- a pig with human blood pumping through its veins, for example (thank you, Mayo Clinic); or mice with human brains (kudos, Stanford U.), planned for later this year.
There are a host of reasons to oppose this move, many of them existing independently of any sort of religious worldview or concern. They're explored in the article above, but I'd like to focus on a possible Christian response to these "manimals" (called chimeras, after monsters in Greek mythology -- just in case you were unclear about the pagan origins of such a beast).
Are we, in the parlance of Romans 1, exchanging the truth of God for a lie, serving creation (humans, mostly) rather than the Creator?
What will we deny ourselves? Is there anyting we can think/dream/imagine/conceive/create that we shouldn't be free to do?
This entire scientific endeavor, to create these chimeras, is tinkering with the created order for one seemingly noble purpose: to promote human life.
We signed off on this principle as being noble long ago. Christians have embraced it as doctrine. Choose life has come to mean, in the extreme, to do ANYTHING humanly possible to protect, promote, expand, create, and sustain LIFE. After all, God gives life, God loves us and wants only what's best for us (the God as Big Daddy or God as Big Nipple construct that plagues facile American spirituality these days), and what's best for us is what WE determine is best for us, because God made us stewards over everything else. Right? So we determine that human life at all costs is worth it.
I mean, He's a loving Father, who will deny his children nothing, if they only ask!
Didn't Jesus say that?
Not really. Suddenly the bread and stone principle from Matthew 7 has expanded to include pig valves for our hearts, collagen for our lips, botox for our brows, and 7 kids at a time from freakish fertility treatments for our quivers. Thank you, Daddy God!
Chimeras, the thinking goes, will help us conduct more precise medical experiments on animals, which will in turn save human life. Which is a good thing. It's even a God thing!
Right?
But what about the truth of God? What about His intent in creation? Is He allowed to create anything that we can't ultimately overturn, correct or improve? Is He allowed to have purposes that we don't understand or embrace? Was God lying when he looked at creation and said it was good?
Good, but we could do better...is that our position!?
Are we to discard what has been given to us in nature, simply because we anticipate such tinkering MIGHT be useful to US?
Might our science, our experimentation - from stem cells to cloning, to chimeras, to genetic maniputlation and beyond - be a metaphoric tower of Babel, getting us closer and closer to God?
Is there room for humility, caution, reverence to God before we act in His name, supposing to work on His behalf?
We need God less and less. Wonderfully reasoned, faithfully logical, and scared to death of charismatic or hyper-spiritual excess, we have come to believe that God moves principally through US.
He heals through us - our medicine, our doctors; he creates through us - our scientists, our architects; he restores through us - our psychiatrists and social workers and humanitarian workers; He governs through us - our politics, our systems of organization; he provides and prospers through us - our industry, our capitalism, our democracy; He saves through us -- our churches, our gospel, our efforts; He saves the environment through us -- our UN treaties, our curbing of emissions, our re-forestation efforts.
I'm not denying the human-divine partnership that is a beautiful and fundamental part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He allows us to participate in His work. But my concern is that we've elevated ourselves in the cosmic drama, to the detriment of the Divine.
God works for us; shouldn't we be working for Him?
Somehow God, in the year 2005, in the United States of America, desperately needs us!
But I ask you:
Do we need Him, desperately, for ANYTHING?
posted by jules at 3:57 PM
3 comments
