HOME  INTERVIEWS  RESOURCES  NEWS  ABOUT

View by:  Subject  Theme  Question  Term  Person  Event

Can we Play God? - David Perry

Dr. David L. Perry, a Lecturer in Philosophy at Seattle University, contributed to this dialogue by examining three criticisms theology often raises against the use of genetic technology. One criticism, Perry says, is that “Genetic engineering is often judged as ‘unnatural’ or said to ‘violate natural law.” But such an argument is flawed, Perry argues, because “strictly in descriptive or empirical terms, the claim that genetic engineering is ‘unnatural’ is very strange, since if it truly violated natural law it would not be possible for us to do. In this sense, it would truly be ‘unnatural’ for human beings to defy the law of gravity - unnatural because impossible - but it is quite ‘natural’ for human beings to manipulate genes,” Perry says. “I don’t mean to imply that any and all genetic manipulations are ethical,” Perry cautions, but rather “that whatever is in our power to do is in an important sense natural to us.”

A second criticism raised by theologians is that “Genetic engineering is condemned as ‘violating the dignity of human life.” Disabling genes for Tay-Sachs or Huntington’s disease in parents who desire healthy children is not a violation of human dignity, argues Perry; rather, it is “morally acceptable, even praiseworthy.” Similarly, using genetic knockout research to create brainless human organisms for organ- and tissue-donor purposes does not necessarily violate human dignity, Perry argues. “[A] capacity for consciousness is a necessary condition for being a person and having interest, rights and dignity,” Perry says, and “since the human beings created not to have brains will never be conscious persons, harvesting their organs need not represent a violation of human dignity.” This does not mean, however, that such a practice is “morally justifiable,” Perry stresses. This line of reasoning simply points to a weakness in the theological criticism.

Thirdly, Perry says, genetic engineering “is often criticized as ‘playing God.’” The first weakness found in this criticism was first put forth 200 years ago by the philosopher David Hume. “Hume pointed out that if we violate God’s sovereignty whenever we intentionally take human life, then logically we must also violate God’s sovereignty whenever we prolong human life beyond its ‘natural’ length,” Perry says; such violations include inoculations and medical interventions.

An even more fundamental weakness of the criticism of “playing God,” Perry argues, is the mistaken belief “that God intervenes in nature or human events in any way.” If it “is claimed that God has intervened in the past to promote good, limit suffering, prevent evil or establish justice, then the question arises as to why that God manifestly does not intervene in all such cases,” Perry says. “[I]f we are to believe that God is wholly and consistently compassionate, we must therefore abandon our belief in divine intervention and omnipotence.”

“Many people who have reflected seriously on the problem of evil have concluded from it that God does not exist. I disagree with that conclusion,” Perry says, but I think that at the very least the problem of evil forces us to give up many cherished beliefs about God’s providence. Even if God exists and is wholly good,” Perry says, “we are in an important sense on our own. Thus,” Perry concludes, “the ethical questions concerning genetic engineering become all the more acute.

 Email link | Printer-friendly | Feedback | Contributed by: Heather Evans

Topic Sets Available

AAAS Report on Stem-Cells

AstroTheology: Religious Reflections on Extraterrestrial Life Forms

Agency: Human, Robotic and Divine
Becoming Human: Brain, Mind, Emergence
Big Bang Cosmology and Theology (GHC)
Cosmic Questions Interviews

Cosmos and Creator
Creativity, Spirituality and Computing Technologies
CTNS Content Home
Darwin: A Friend to Religion?
Demystifying Information Technology
Divine Action (GHC)
Dreams and Dreaming: Neuroscientific and Religious Visions'
E. Coli at the No Free Lunchroom
Engaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: An Adventure in Astro-Ethics
Evangelical Atheism: a response to Richard Dawkins
Ecology and Christian Theology
Evolution: What Should We Teach Our Children in Our Schools?
Evolution and Providence
Evolution and Creation Survey
Evolution and Theology (GHC)
Evolution, Creation, and Semiotics

The Expelled Controversy
Faith and Reason: An Introduction
Faith in the Future: Religion, Aging, and Healthcare in the 21st Century

Francisco Ayala on Evolution

From Christian Passions to Scientific Emotions
Genetic Engineering and Food

Genetics and Ethics
Genetic Technologies - the Radical Revision of Human Existence and the Natural World

Genomics, Nanotechnology and Robotics
Getting Mind out of Meat
God and Creation: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Big Bang Cosmology
God, Humanity and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion
God the Spirit - and Natural Science
Historical Examples of the Science and Religion Debate (GHC)
History of Creationism
Intelligent Design Coming Clean

Issues for the Millennium: Cloning and Genetic Technologies
Jean Vanier of L'Arche
Nano-Technology and Nano-ethics
Natural Science and Christian Theology - A Select Bibliography
Neuroscience and the Soul
Outlines of the Science and Religion Debate (GHC)

Perspectives on Evolution

Physics and Theology
Quantum Mechanics and Theology (GHC)
Questions that Shape Our Future
Reductionism (GHC)
Reintroducing Teleology Into Science
Science and Suffering

Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (CTNS/Vatican Series)

Space Exploration and Positive Stewardship

Stem-Cell Debate: Ethical Questions
Stem-Cell Ethics: A Theological Brief

Stem-Cell Questions
Theistic Evolution: A Christian Alternative to Atheism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design...
Theology and Science: Current Issues and Future Directions
Unscientific America: How science illiteracy threatens our future
Will ET End Religion?

Current Stats: topics: >2600, links: >300,000, video: 200 hours.