Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Philosophy Wire: Resurrection… Of dinosaurs. Or Christians?

How do we decide which species to resurrect? The resurrection of vanished species - through cutting-edge technologies such as gene-editing - should be targeted towards recently extinct species rather than ancient ones, according to a conservation biologist. He suggests that long-gone species such as the woolly mammoth would not be the best focus for de-extinction efforts. [1] We want to bring back extinct species. We want to become gods. Just to show that we can. But we do not want to bring dinosaurs back. We are afraid of their screams. We are intimidated by their strength. Because it is a strength we cannot control. Frightened gods. Ask a bacterium. It is not afraid that the dinosaurs will come. It really does not care. We are afraid that real power is not hidden in what we do but in what we do not. We are afraid that God is hiding in our very existence and not in how we interpret it. Look at the dirty soil. God is hiding in the mud. Just as a Christian who does not fear whether he dies or not, a bacterium does not fear whether a dinosaur will come or not. The power of being is raw. And all you can do is accept it. This was done by the dinosaurs, as well as the Christians. That's why they both still scare us, even though they are long dead…

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