Thursday, 11 December 2008
Judge Under the Spotlight
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Jesus and The Scientist
On Sunday afternoon (7th Dec) I will be speaking at a launch/vision presentation for a project I am heading up called 'Jesus and the Scientist'. There is some preliminary information up at the (starter of) the project website if you would like to know more including details of Sunday afternoon's event.
Monday, 1 December 2008
Holiday Papers
I've been off the last couple of weeks and have been catching up on some books and papers that I've been meaning to read for a while so thought I would just share a couple of quotes from two of the papers that have both particularly stood out to me.
In a paper speaking on how humans conceptually limit God's power to things that we cannot yet do and hence become uncomfortable when humanity achieves these powers via technology Patrick Hopkins says:
"With every new invention, humans intrude on God's most recently established realm; technologists fight for control, religious traditionalists try to push humans back, fail, and then claim that God is God because there are still things God can do that we cannot. But how long does this new defining last?
Dozens of religious thinkers claim that while humans may now be able to manipulate life, they cannot simply create it. Yet even as I am writing this, a story comes across the news that scientists have discovered the minimum number of genes it takes to create to create a living organism and should someday soon be able to create lie 'from scratch'.
So should we move God's defining power up to creation ex nihilo (out of nothing)? But what if our quantum physicists discover a way to control the random popping into existence of odd particles? Will this intrude on the last defining power of God?"
In a paper speaking on how humans conceptually limit God's power to things that we cannot yet do and hence become uncomfortable when humanity achieves these powers via technology Patrick Hopkins says:
"With every new invention, humans intrude on God's most recently established realm; technologists fight for control, religious traditionalists try to push humans back, fail, and then claim that God is God because there are still things God can do that we cannot. But how long does this new defining last?
Dozens of religious thinkers claim that while humans may now be able to manipulate life, they cannot simply create it. Yet even as I am writing this, a story comes across the news that scientists have discovered the minimum number of genes it takes to create to create a living organism and should someday soon be able to create lie 'from scratch'.
So should we move God's defining power up to creation ex nihilo (out of nothing)? But what if our quantum physicists discover a way to control the random popping into existence of odd particles? Will this intrude on the last defining power of God?"
Protecting God from Science and Technology: How Religious Criticisms of Biotechnologies Backfire
Patrick D. Hopkins
Zygon vol. 37 no.2 317
Patrick D. Hopkins
Zygon vol. 37 no.2 317
And secondly from a paper concerned with concepts of the image of God and the probable emergence of techno sapiens beyond homo sapiens:
"...neuroprostheses and neurochips combined with human will seem to fulfill too many of the dreams of the good to be easily dismissed. After all, they tend to realize what marks the messianic age, at least according to the Gospel of Matthew. When John the Baptist was in prison and heard what Jesus was doing, he sent his disciples to ask, "Are you the one [the Messiah] to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them" (Matthew 11.-2-6NRSV).
In this sense, the development toward techno sapiens might very well be regarded as a step toward the kingdom of God. What else could we say when the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are at least virtually alive? So far, the requirements of the Gospel and the aims of technical development seem to be in perfect harmony.
I am more concerned, however, about the last requirement in the Gospel, about good news being brought to the poor. Who is going to benefit from these technological developments, and who is going to pay the price for them?"
"...neuroprostheses and neurochips combined with human will seem to fulfill too many of the dreams of the good to be easily dismissed. After all, they tend to realize what marks the messianic age, at least according to the Gospel of Matthew. When John the Baptist was in prison and heard what Jesus was doing, he sent his disciples to ask, "Are you the one [the Messiah] to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them" (Matthew 11.-2-6NRSV).
In this sense, the development toward techno sapiens might very well be regarded as a step toward the kingdom of God. What else could we say when the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are at least virtually alive? So far, the requirements of the Gospel and the aims of technical development seem to be in perfect harmony.
I am more concerned, however, about the last requirement in the Gospel, about good news being brought to the poor. Who is going to benefit from these technological developments, and who is going to pay the price for them?"
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