Mar
7
Playing God
The following excerpt follows closely after my “Creating Life in the Lab” post, as it comes from the epilogue to Fuz Rana’s Creating Life in the Lab book. This time, Dr. Rana examines what it means to “play God” and whether or not Christians should worry about scientists’ research in synthetic biology and origin-of-life scenarios versus support it.
“Movement toward the generation of artificial life through laboratory manipulation is taking place at an ever-increasing pace. It is just a matter of time before Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith produce Mycoplasma laboratorium and multiple variants derived from this minimal life-form. And other investigators, including Jack Szostak, are hot on their heels. In the next few years, the production of a variety of protocells from the bottom up will undoubtedly be accomplished. And when these milestones are achieved, the floodgates will open. The rapid pace of discovery and invention will quickly translate these ‘firsts’ into turnkey operations. The generation of new life-forms will soon become ‘old hat.’
The prospect of creating life in the lab yields excitement — as well as consternation. For most in the scientific community, the production of artificial life will be welcomed with open arms, and for good reason. The creation of artificial life will be a boon for science and technology. The creation of artificial life will help shed light onto life’s fundamental structures and processes and also provide insight into the very nature of life itself. Attempts to create life will help scientists better define what life is. The ability to create novel, non-natural life-forms from scratch and redesign and reengineer existing microbes represents the next revolution in technology. These human inventions will have industrial applications and uses in agriculture and biomedicine that at this juncture seem nearly limitless. The technology associated with the capacity to create artificial life will transform our world in unimaginable ways.
At the same time, however, the creation of life in the lab will raise concerns. For the first time mere humans will possess the ‘elixir of life,’ control over life itself — power and authority that many people would maintain are safe only in the hands of God. The idea of humans creating life conjures images of Frankenstein’s monster or worse.
And yet from a Christian perspective there is considerable reason to desire the types of technological advances synthetic biology will make possible. Scripture teaches that humans are to serve as Earth’s caretakers (see Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15). The opportunity to design and reengineer microbes to produce renewable sources of clean energy, for example, will help us to carry out this mandate.
The Bible also teaches that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves (see Matt. 22:39). This command compels work in biomedical research, for example. Biomedical advances provide the means to treat diseases and debilitating injuries, and the use of artificial life toward this end will play an ever-increasing role in these endeavors. Surely providing treatment, comfort, and hope for the sick is one way we can love our neighbors. Again, artificial microbes will play a role in finding new therapies and possible cures for sicknesses that impact countless lives today.
So is it wrong for Christians to support research and technology that encourages humans to assume God’s role as Creator? As we think through the response to this question, let’s keep in mind the implications of this research for the creation-evolution controversy. While some may suggest the creation of artificial life makes the need for a Creator obsolete, in reality it does the opposite. As both the top-down and bottom-up approaches demonstrate, only by deliberate effort, inordinate ingenuity, and astonishing skill can synthetic biologists even begin the process of making artificial life. This work reinforces God’s status as Creator, whether skeptics like it or not, because it empirically demonstrates that even the simplest life-form cannot arise without the involvement of an intelligent, intentional agent. When Christians support work in synthetic biology, they are encouraging scientific advance that adds to the weight of evidence for God’s existence.
The attempts of scientists and biotechnologists to ‘play God’ are really no different from any other human creative activity. Everything we do as human beings can be rightly understood as ‘playing God’ because we are made ‘in God’s image’ (see Gen. 1:27). In this sense, we create because we bear the image of a God who is the Creator. And since God made life, it was only a matter of time before we would discover how to make life from the materials and templates he provided.
The ability to create artificial life comes with great risks, just as does the acquisition of any new power God has allowed us to discover and use. If and when we use that newfound capability as a means to wrongly supplant God, as did those who built the Tower of Babel (see Gen. 11:1-9), we will pay a terrible price. But if we use it for good, recognizing that the ability to make artificial life comes from the Creator, this work can bring glory to God. It all comes down to one’s worldview — and a willingness to be guided by God’s goodness. Humility is key, because with humility comes the all-important reverence for God and an awareness of the innate moral weakness of human nature.
The ability to create artificial life will usher in a brave new world, but it need not bring a future of icy darkness, a world that Christians fear or eschew. It can be one that we engage and embrace and influence for good.”
I might add here that the vaccines being used to fight COVID-19 utilize synthetic viral mRNA, which lead to the production of the required antibodies to fight the virus itself.
In any case, I hope Dr. Rana’s comments have at the very least provided good food for thought even if, like me, you are still concerned about the misuse of these new technologies (e.g., “designer babies”) due to ignorance, greed, malice, and/or moral misguidance.
