Playing God

[Chad32]

I've heard this said before, mostly when it comes to cloning. Trying to make a person in a tube, which is bad because surely it wouldn't have a "soul". Only God is allowed to create things.

Which is pretty silly. We're already godlike compared to people living thousands of years ago, just as those people are godlike compared to people who lived thousands of years before them. Lightning was believed to come from the sky because Zeus or Thor or whatever was throwing bolts around. I've met people today that think lightning comes from God. Yet we have studied and harnessed it, and called it electricity.

This thread isn't just about cloning. It's more about the mundane things we see and do that would be considered the realm of gods by people in the past. It's like one movie where witches are fascinated when a teenager "summons fire in his hands" with a lighter, and "summons rain" indoors when he uses it to activate the sprinklers.

To me, the idea of anyone playing god sounds silly. If it's possible, then obviously it's not just the domain of the gods. Meddling in things beyond our comprehension can lead to bad things, but it won't ever be within our conversation unless we experiment with it. And knowledge is the main strength of our species.