The Bible Not Fit For Today (II)
Christians, I have some questions for you, and I would like some honest answers. These are all very important questions and I want them treated as such, with "book, chapter, and verse" from the Holy Bible. No other answers, rationalizing, speculation, or philosophizing will be accepted. I am looking for straight-up biblical answers...
To which passage will you direct me to provide me with the Bible's take on cryonics? Will it be a scriptural practice with humans once we learn how to safely freeze, and in the future, unfreeze a human to find a cure for a disease? Or are we dodging your God's will on the fact that he wants us to face the consequences of any condition/ailment he sends our way?
To which passage will you direct me to show Bible authority for the cyborgization of replaceable/repairable body parts. If I lose a hand, I do have Bible authority to replace it with a genetically engineered one, no? If I don't, are all the old people with pacemakers and artificial joints going to Hell along with me? Surely not, right? For that matter, why not show the Bible authority for removing a non-life-threatening mole or deformity, or for allowing an extremely homely person to undergo plastic surgery? If our bodies are the temple of God, how dare we alter them, right?
To which passage will you refer me in an effort to show me that life begins at conception? Which passage(s) deal with artificial insemination, invetro fertilization, test-tube babies, contraception, etc. I, for one, would love to know just how you determine as a Christian that when the first cell division occurs at conception, you have a life. I would have thought that perhaps it is after the initial cell divisions occur and the embryo splits...say, into twins or triplets, and that is the point at which life really begins, but I'm not a Christian. You tell me, and please don't fail to direct me to the Bible passage from whence you arrived at your conclusion.
To which passage of scripture would you advise I adhere to, to provide a doctor counsel on how to deal with a baby born with the anatomical parts of both the male and female sexes? Would there be any bible authority to surgically fashion a newborn baby into a complete male or female? Which passages deal with how we should treat transgender people? I would really like to know.
To which passage would you lead me to find authority and the motivation to pursue a space program? Should we even try to visit far distant planets? By what authority? As far as the Bible is concerned, we shouldn't even expect to find pond scum on those distant worlds, and their certainly wouldn't be any sentient, intelligent life out there. So why should we even bother investigating those lofty matters when earth was created as our portion for life and well-being? Should we ever discover aliens from another world who are sentient, what should we do? Evangelize them? Do they have souls? Do they have sin? On the one hand, if they have no souls and are to be considered as mere sheep and oxen, what if they are capable of doing the same moral things we humans do, like exhibiting advanced forms of love and compassion? What if they are truly moral beings? What if their morality actually exceeds our own? On the other hand, if we say yes, that they do have souls and sin, and need to be evangelized, have all those who died on their planet thus far without our "gospel of Jesus" headed to hell? These are some pretty serious issues!
Then, of course, there is the issue of cloning - where in the Bible do we find the go-ahead to proceed with this branch of science? Was it wrong to clone Dolly, the sheep, like we did back in the nineties? Will it be wrong to clone humans? Does cloning somehow encroach on God's plans for man? Will these future human clones have "souls"? Will they be able to go to hell for sins? Will they get off scott-free for wrongs committed? If these soulless things reproduce, will they be capable of having offspring with souls if one of the partners is a normal, "ensouled" human? Won't the children have to get the soul from the non-clone parent who has a soul? Or is the soul sent down from heaven at conception? Might God decide to send down souls for these clones since, for all practical purposes, they are still created in God's image?
Also, what about DNA banks, sperm banks, egg banks, and fertility treatments? Please give me the scriptures on these deep topics. I have other questions on the creation of artificial intelligence, but I think I know what the answers will be. All I want is a good and hearty "Thus saith the Lord" from the word of God to help mankind on these morally crucial matters.
As a former minister, I myself tried many times to find the answers to these questions in the "good old book", but never could. I give up! I am curious to see the Bible's teaching on how to proceed on these subjects from some current believers who are confident that they can do better than I did. I am now fully convinced that the Bible doesn't have these answers, and therefore, is a book that is far from fit as a reliable and applicable guide for matters of life today. Maybe someone can yet prove me wrong on these things.
Now I do hope that any wayfaring Christians who take to answer these questions will realize how much I appreciate their effort in doing so, but I also hope they realize that if their answers don't match up with the answers of their fellow believers, then this suggests that their book does not clearly offer these answers, if at all. Either all that is in the Bible is only what we have authority for (then we'd have to eliminate anything extra-biblical, like cars and planes, etc.), or the Bible implicitly authorizes and guides us today, authorizing a number of extra-biblical things that must be carefully and tediously studied out. However, it is worth stating that this has proven to be an impossible task to undertake, since no one has yet reached a consensus on these "answers" provided by the bible.
Stereo instructions for a type of stereos might be well written, useful, and relevant for a whole product line of a given stereo type, but as time passes, those instructions will inevitably become obsolete. Time and learning will render them useless. The same, I contend, is true of the Bible. It cannot be a valid means of answering today's complex questions and issues. We must look for answers elsewhere.
(JH)
To which passage will you direct me to show Bible authority for the cyborgization of replaceable/repairable body parts. If I lose a hand, I do have Bible authority to replace it with a genetically engineered one, no? If I don't, are all the old people with pacemakers and artificial joints going to Hell along with me? Surely not, right? For that matter, why not show the Bible authority for removing a non-life-threatening mole or deformity, or for allowing an extremely homely person to undergo plastic surgery? If our bodies are the temple of God, how dare we alter them, right?
To which passage will you refer me in an effort to show me that life begins at conception? Which passage(s) deal with artificial insemination, invetro fertilization, test-tube babies, contraception, etc. I, for one, would love to know just how you determine as a Christian that when the first cell division occurs at conception, you have a life. I would have thought that perhaps it is after the initial cell divisions occur and the embryo splits...say, into twins or triplets, and that is the point at which life really begins, but I'm not a Christian. You tell me, and please don't fail to direct me to the Bible passage from whence you arrived at your conclusion.
To which passage of scripture would you advise I adhere to, to provide a doctor counsel on how to deal with a baby born with the anatomical parts of both the male and female sexes? Would there be any bible authority to surgically fashion a newborn baby into a complete male or female? Which passages deal with how we should treat transgender people? I would really like to know.
To which passage would you lead me to find authority and the motivation to pursue a space program? Should we even try to visit far distant planets? By what authority? As far as the Bible is concerned, we shouldn't even expect to find pond scum on those distant worlds, and their certainly wouldn't be any sentient, intelligent life out there. So why should we even bother investigating those lofty matters when earth was created as our portion for life and well-being? Should we ever discover aliens from another world who are sentient, what should we do? Evangelize them? Do they have souls? Do they have sin? On the one hand, if they have no souls and are to be considered as mere sheep and oxen, what if they are capable of doing the same moral things we humans do, like exhibiting advanced forms of love and compassion? What if they are truly moral beings? What if their morality actually exceeds our own? On the other hand, if we say yes, that they do have souls and sin, and need to be evangelized, have all those who died on their planet thus far without our "gospel of Jesus" headed to hell? These are some pretty serious issues!
Then, of course, there is the issue of cloning - where in the Bible do we find the go-ahead to proceed with this branch of science? Was it wrong to clone Dolly, the sheep, like we did back in the nineties? Will it be wrong to clone humans? Does cloning somehow encroach on God's plans for man? Will these future human clones have "souls"? Will they be able to go to hell for sins? Will they get off scott-free for wrongs committed? If these soulless things reproduce, will they be capable of having offspring with souls if one of the partners is a normal, "ensouled" human? Won't the children have to get the soul from the non-clone parent who has a soul? Or is the soul sent down from heaven at conception? Might God decide to send down souls for these clones since, for all practical purposes, they are still created in God's image?
Also, what about DNA banks, sperm banks, egg banks, and fertility treatments? Please give me the scriptures on these deep topics. I have other questions on the creation of artificial intelligence, but I think I know what the answers will be. All I want is a good and hearty "Thus saith the Lord" from the word of God to help mankind on these morally crucial matters.
As a former minister, I myself tried many times to find the answers to these questions in the "good old book", but never could. I give up! I am curious to see the Bible's teaching on how to proceed on these subjects from some current believers who are confident that they can do better than I did. I am now fully convinced that the Bible doesn't have these answers, and therefore, is a book that is far from fit as a reliable and applicable guide for matters of life today. Maybe someone can yet prove me wrong on these things.
Now I do hope that any wayfaring Christians who take to answer these questions will realize how much I appreciate their effort in doing so, but I also hope they realize that if their answers don't match up with the answers of their fellow believers, then this suggests that their book does not clearly offer these answers, if at all. Either all that is in the Bible is only what we have authority for (then we'd have to eliminate anything extra-biblical, like cars and planes, etc.), or the Bible implicitly authorizes and guides us today, authorizing a number of extra-biblical things that must be carefully and tediously studied out. However, it is worth stating that this has proven to be an impossible task to undertake, since no one has yet reached a consensus on these "answers" provided by the bible.
Stereo instructions for a type of stereos might be well written, useful, and relevant for a whole product line of a given stereo type, but as time passes, those instructions will inevitably become obsolete. Time and learning will render them useless. The same, I contend, is true of the Bible. It cannot be a valid means of answering today's complex questions and issues. We must look for answers elsewhere.
(JH)