Back to uni today! Relatively excited. Naturally I have a stupid amount of work to do before I even start, just finished a reading on manipulating the human gene line, nice little topic to start the day. It is very interesting though. This is the beauty of religious studies, it is at the heart of so many debates and is why I love doing it.
This argument for example can turn about 38103108547 different ways in terms of arguments you can make. For those of you that don't know, manipulating the human gene line is just a fancy way of saying 'genetic engineering.' You can actually ask whether or not the human race is playing God, leading into a philosophical debate about the possibility of determinism (the idea that everything is pre-determined, thus questioning human free will) and then move into whether or not we should be allowed such power. You can then question if such power actually exists, does God exist? If God is allowing such suffering is he evil by making ground rules preventing the ideal of 'prevention rather than cure?' If we can make these changes to the human genome then is this pre-determined world one in which God is letting us do all this? Well not for me, but I'm an atheist.
Personally any arguments against the human genome on behalf of God will make Him seem petulant and thus will give Him a negative characteristic which will disprove Him. Americans will have bumper stickers saying 'God loves Huntingdon's disease' because by definition he must love it if he is omnibenevolent (all loving) but it is a foul disease that can, one would assume, be eradicated by this treatment along with proneness to certain cancers, and a list as long as my arm (and my arms are LONG).
How can any human being say that this is not a good thing?
I don't disagree with genetic engineering to make your children prettier (as if it were actually possible! ha!) For me, if technology becomes available to allow such characteristics to be brought to fruition then how is this different to cosmetic surgery? I think any parent would pay handsomely to get good looking offspring, as physical attractiveness along with brains is a great step to success. Also, having been brought into this world by a treatment which allows fertility I struggle to see the difference human genome therapy and IVF, for example.
As my title pertains, yes, this is back to normal.
