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"Has Venter Made Us Gods?"

Trent Gilliss, senior editor

Andrew Brown’s provocative post in the The Guardian’s “Comment is free” section starts out with a bold and absolute declaration:

“Craig Venter’s production of an entirely artificial bacterium marks another triumph of the only major scientific programme driven from the beginning by explicit atheism.”

Explicit atheism? Perhaps scientific understanding or unadulterated entrepreneurship might be substituted here.

But methinks that first sentence is intended to capture the eye and engage the reader in a discussion because the rest of his article is one fine piece of writing. He probes the depths of elemental questions needing to be asked about the possession of primary knowledge and the very essence of our imaginations:

“The worry is whether our imaginations will prove up to the task. The trouble with gods, as the Greek philosophers observed, is that they were not any morally better than humans, just more powerful.”

Now that we have the information to create these life forms, what are we gonna do with it?

    • #science
    • #morality
    • #ethics
  • 3 years ago [Fri, May 21st, 2010 at 7:00pm]
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On Being with Krista Tippett is a public radio project delving into the human side of news stories + issues. Curated + edited by senior editor Trent Gilliss.

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