Doomsday or bust..

We are always trying to improve ourselves, aren't we, and what is wrong with that you ask? The goal to improve the human condition is now being stretched beyond what previous generations could have imagined. We will pay almost anything to keep from aging and to look younger, fitter, buffer. We want to stay strong and free of disease forever, no matter the cost, and the cost is very high.

The cost of a fitness machine is astronomical. I, myself, boast of being a Bowflex man. Botox injections, wow and genetic manipulation, who knows the cost of that in the future?

So far, it's mostly amusing, but we must now face the undeniable truth that at least some of our fellow citizens are ready to use genetic enhancements, cloning technologies, and germ line engineering to achieve what some now call a post-human future. All plastic surgery and even sex-change operations will pale in comparison.

"What if a father could insert a gene to transform his daughter into the concert pianist he always wanted to be, or an atheist do likewise to ensure that his children would be genetically predisposed (if it proves possible) to shun religious belief?" Wesley Smith asks in Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World, adding, "And what if these modifications passed down the generations?" Is that playing God or becoming a god?

Remember the movement to limit childbirth to those 'fit to breed?' Their motto was "more children from the fit, less from the unfit." Smith further explains that "inserting animal DNA into human embryos, inserting or removing chromosomes, inserting artificial chromosomes into a genetically engineered embryo, or perhaps altering human capacities through nanotechnology" may become commonplace in the search for the perfect human or 'new human.'

Will we one day choose children as we now choose pets? Will we breed them like dogs and choose the best of the litter?

What is going on. Are we so dissatisfied with the human condition that we will experiment with anything? Or, are we angry with God because he said 'from dust to dust?' Perhaps we even aspire to becoming gods ourselves.

I believe that this is the ultimate sin. Cast out of Eden, human beings have been frustrated with the limitations of our nature. The first sin was an attempt to defy God's authority by wanting forbidden knowledge. Since then, we have had a legacy of continuing efforts to rise above the human condition and, by doing so, we do even greater sin. We are not about God's business. Psalm 10:4 "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." I believe we shall rue the day we took the powers of creation into our own hands. When a germ or a microbe or a mutation goes free and forever changes the human condition or destroys it, we shall cry out to God for mercy, but it will be too late. As 1John 2:16 says "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

Some will say 'Oh John, you are a doomsdayer, just a preacher, what do you know?' I do not know much, but I know enough not to meddle with the unknown, that so dangerous as to destroy the world. It takes a special kind of coldness and arrogance to proceed with such research when the fate of mankind hangs in the balance. As for me, I will hold my babies close to my chest, protect my family as best I can, love my fellow man and my God and pray for salvation for me, mine and you. What else can I do?