Friday,
July 14, 2023
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14
Whatever you can name in the universe, sky-scrapers, objects,
organizations, or the basic building blocks of substance, all are neither good,
nor bad. Ethically, they are neutral – that
is, until they’re taken in hand and used for good or evil. Money, for instance, is simply coin, or
paper, or the trust we place in an exchange of goods or services. In the hands of a benefactor money can feed a
million starving children. It can also
be used to place weapons in the hands of those who might kill children – holy or
hellish. The dilemma is never the agent
used, but the one who holds the agent; is it for a holy purpose, or hellish
purpose?
The Psalmist (King David) considered his composite nature (body, soul,
spirit), and shouted to the heavens how intricately marvellous were the
workings of God’s making. It is true;
the human body is an incredible engineering glory. We are made for an interesting eternity of
possibilities, and yet so simple as to be able to smile at an infant’s gaze, or
laugh because we get the joke (even if it was lame).
Humankind have always tinkered with God’s creation. As far back as Adam and Eve, we were told to “subdue”
the creation and all it holds – to tend the garden. With that assigned heavenly task, we have
seen strong heavenly handling, and destructive hellishness.
Once again, it’s never the substance of creation, but rather the
employment of it which defines heaven and hell’s intent. We all bear the DNA of Adam (which produced
both Mother Teresa AND Adolph Hitler).
In an article on genetic engineering[1] Christopher McFadden lists
eleven reasons why that science is so important. Among those reasons are uses in agriculture,
medicine, and environmental control.
Scientists have discovered the genetic on/off switch (CRISPR), a medical
breakthrough that has implications as wide as curing cancer and Alzheimer’s
disease. That’s the plus-side of genomic
research.
There is also the possibility of being able to manipulate the results of
the kind of children that are born. The
genomic manipulation of human embryos is the ethical bugaboo. I have never heard a (morally) convincing
argument that overturns Scripture’s claim of God’s creation being perfect in
its origin; it is his handiwork and the most magnificent gift to us. The “problems” we attempt to overcome with
manipulating that gift are of our own making.
Scripture also has a word for that – sin.
It’s pretty much explained in the first three chapters of Genesis.
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.
Title Image:
via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain. Unless noted, Scripture
quoted from NLT©
[1] McFadden,
11
Facts about Genetic Engineering and Why It's Important, Interesting
Engineering, April 25, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment