New International
Version (NIV)
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in
the days of the Son of Man.
In Altering the
Blueprint: The Ethics of Genetics, “Professor Alexander McCall Smith explores the startling, and
occasionally unsettling, ethical choices that humans face now that medical
technology has made it possible to guide the hand of creation with increasing
levels of precision and purpose.”[i] This comes from a
university level course Professor Smith teaches at the University of Edinburgh
in the UK.
Humans are
becoming extremely resourceful in how they can modify many of the species of plants
and animals that we use for our lives. Many voices are calling for avoidance of
using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the food they eat; in the
meantime giant corporations like Monsanto are trying to force the world’s farmer’s
to grow only GMOs.
Even more difficult decisions are now facing us as we have the ability to breed human babies purely for “spare parts” for defective living humans. For decades in some parts of the world people have used the ability to predict the sex of their children to abort the fetus of the undesired sex. This is causing major social problems including human trafficking.
It seems that
very shortly in the future we’ll be able to “enhance” our offspring by genetic
engineering using the human genome. With sufficient money we may soon be able
to increase the size, strength, intelligence, resistance to disease, and a host
of other desirable qualities of our children. Taken to the logical end, this
may mean we can produce a super-race who can tyrannize and enslave us. This dismal
prospect has already been explored by some science fiction writers.
It may be that
God destroyed the long-lived, super-intelligent antediluvians for extensive genetic
experimentation. Christ’s prediction in our verse for today may just be trying
to tell us that something like this will be an immediate precursor to His
second return.
Lord, we pray with John the Revelator, “Even
so come Lord Jesus!”[iii]
[i] A
review of the university course taught by McCall-Smith are at http://www.amazon.com/Altering-Blueprint-Ethics-Genetics-University-Level/dp/076075019X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433767308&sr=1-1&keywords=mccall-smith+altering+the+blueprint
[ii] http://www.theothersideoffood.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/gmos.jpg
[iii]
Revelation 22:20 KJV
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