I heard something about cloning today. There was the suggestion that death doesn’t occur when the body dies. It occurs when there aren’t any living cells that are left that can be harvested to be cloned. I have a really difficult time with that idea. I know that cloning of animals has taken place, but in my mind, there’s a big difference between animals and humans, spiritually speaking.
After all, we have in a sense eaten from the tree of knowledge. We know the difference between right and wrong. Animals don’t really have that. My dog loves me, but it really doesn’t have morals. My dog knows what makes me happy and what makes me angry. It has instincts. Humans, on the other hand, make choices about their behavior based on values. When cloning comes into the equation, things get complicated.
I believe there’s something more to a person than just the chemical reactions in the cells. I don’t know if that spirit can be copied once a person has died. What really scares me is that if a scientist has cloned an animal, how long will it be before they try to clone a human being? And if they do, what happens when that person is missing the very thing that makes them human? Even worse, how do I protect myself from being cloned when I die?
It is an age-old question of science and religion. Just because you can do something, should you do something? Are there somethings that should be left to the hands of God? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but there’s a part of me that thinks a hint is in the greatest commandment. I shall hold no other Gods above Him. Science shouldn’t be more important than God. Maybe there’s a good reason for that.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
