Scientists Create Life

Scientists in American have created life! Well, if you believe the headlines they have, a closer examination with a little scientific advice shows that they have successfully rearranged some of the components of life to make a synthetic microbe capable of reproduction. This is a remarkable achievement and whatever reservations we may have the imagination, ingenuity, skill and sheer persistence of the research team deserves our admiration and applause.

Two comments – firstly, as ever in these breakthroughs scientists are accused of “playing God”, as though this were a knock down argument against human arrogance. Allow me to let you into a little secret – according to the Christian faith human beings were actually made and designed to “play God”. In the Bible humanity is said to be made “in the image of God” – with the capacity to imitate God and to be intimate with God. Created not to be God, or replace God but to imitate God. It is our very purpose for being here that we should honour God by becoming a people who are shaped by the same qualities that God has shown towards us – love, patience, grace, justice, compassion and yes creativity! So “playing God” is precisely what we are to. To suppose God made a mistake when we were made with minds capable of synthesising DNA is what I find arrogant – not that scientists should venture to do this.

But secondly: This discovery clearly has both dangers and opportunities attached to it. Part of “playing God” is learning about restraint. A God who can do anything doesn’t chose to do everything. Some things are not to be done not because they are impossible but simply because they are harmful and demeaning. We are told that there are big moneyed interests behind this development, and that worries me more than the success of the scientists. Market forces are notoriously difficult to control when they conflict with ethics.

So let us pause. Let there be plaudits (and Nobel Prizes?) for the scientists, but we need to do some more ethical thinking before we start to use this new technology. If we want to play God that is the way to do it – creativity and wisdom hand in hand. If there is any arrogance in science I find it not in these discoveries but the false notion that we can imitate the creativity of God without seeking to imitate his wisdom.