I heard this on the morning news and thought I just had to bring it up here as the Pope has added a whole bunch of new sins that will send you to hell. Some of these I can somewhat understand, but a couple are just a little narrow-sighted in their intention:
“You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbour’s wife, but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos,” he said.
Morally debatable experiments? Does that mean anything you disagree with? The part about genetic manipulations of embryos could be understood from the point of view of making humanity into some sort of “perfect” vision of some deranged group or individual, but there are many valid reasons to manipulate the genome of an embryo such as in the case of hereditary genetic diseases. These sorts of blanket rulings are not going to be conductive to bringing people back to the Catholic church or convincing anyone that the church isn’t still sticking itself firmly in the dark ages.
Edit: Dr. Myers has some more commentary here.
Amen
Just came across your blog and the posting caught my eye so I just thought I’d comments since, well I’m on vacation and have nothing else to do.
First off, I’m not Catholic but I am a believer in Jesus Christ and I’ve been studying the Bible for years in school. So I can most definitely tell you that the Bible is not specific about scientific experiments and genetic manipulations that may compromise embryos. This being said, the Bible certainly does not speak specifically to many things in today’s world, but I believe it speaks to the root of all things and I believe the Pope (though perhaps he did not express it well) believes the same.
As far as the morally debatable, as far as the Bible is concerned it has nothing to do with what you don’t agree with, but what God does not agree with. If in conducting scientific experiments, one offends the morals communicated in the Bible, then yes I would say it was sinful because it is in violation of God’s Word.
In regards to genetic manipulations that alter DNA or compromising embryos, I believe this goes back to the understanding of life which again is communicated in the Bible. If the genetic manipulations are done with the goal of improving that embryo’s own life, then I don’t see the Bible having any issues. However, compromising the life of an embryo is tricky because it is human life and that life must be respected and cared for.
I know that I am speaking from a Christian perspective with the belief that the Bible is the Word of God, so I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. But I will say that any Christian, Catholic or non-Catholic, would do well to put their trust and beliefs in the Bible than the claims of another human being, even a pope.
However, there are many of us who are not Christians (or Muslims) and who would like to see research into genetics and immunology pushed forward as fast as possible, so that people may be cured of painful or fatal diseases.
We do not believe that if you are born with a genetic defect that is God’s Will and nothing must be done about it.
Nor do we see why the beliefs of the religious should be allowed to have a veto on medical research. The relief of human suffering is more important than following some obscure text in the Bible or the Quran.
After reading through the article, I just feel that I need more information on the topic. Can you share some more resources please?
Whatever it takes to cured fatal disease is allow in Muslim. Especially research that not being done as profit matters only. Maybe pope refers it to the wrong doing while doing the research not as a whole.
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