Christians and atheist what do you think about this ?

Question

Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal.

Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.

In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies.

And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains.

Scientists feel that, the more human like the animal, the better research model it makes for testing drugs or possibly growing "spare parts," such as livers, to transplant into humans.

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1214_051214_stem_cell.html

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1214_051214_stem_cell.html

Answer 1

ugggg... thats disgusting. I'm Atheist. Unfortunately, I just ran out of time and I have to go to work. I'll try to expand on this later.

Edit: Ok, I'm on my break. I don't know why but I simply find doing such a thing vile. It goes against nature. Not to mention that we simply don't understand enough about genetics to be playing with the genetic code that way. There's no telling what we'd accidentally create. It could be a virus that destroys all life on earth.

I agree with learning as much as we can but there are limits. As Dr. Malcolm said in Jurassic Park "Scientists were so concerned with whether they could that they didn't stop to think if they should".

Blech.

Answer 2

The ACTUAL quote you have in your question reads: "In August 2003, researchers at the Shanghai Second Medical University in China REPORTED that they had successfully fused human SKIN [YOU LEFT THAT WORD OUT IN YOUR MISQUOTED "Quote"] cells and dead rabbit eggs to create the first human chimeric embryos. The embryos were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory setting, then destroyed to harvest the resulting stem cells. ".

So they reported this, but does that make it true? And what about the previous findings on that same page that say "there are rat/mouse chimeras and a rabbit/human chimera that CANNOT develop beyond a few days."

And if all this was going on 2 to 4 years ago, why have we not heard about these "creatures"?

I'll tell you why. Because they will never develop into a true 'half animal, half human', as you are attempting to push here.

More upseting to me, however, is that you have quoted ALMOST directly from the following page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)#Chimeras_in_research

without giving proper quotation marks and credit....hmmm.

They call that plagarism, don't they?

Answer 3

Science is an on-going study. Because of our great scientists, we no longer live in dark cold caves and wear animal skins. We are a billion miles from those days, but still have a long way to go.
Anything science learns is valuable. Even when experiments do not come out as expected, knowledge is gained. It's like looking for a lost item. You may look in the wrong place, but now you know it's not there.

Answer 4

Mice with human brains? LOL. How does that work, exactly?

I tend to be much less squeamish over the ethical implications of scientific research than most people, it seems. I don't see any problem at all with embryonic stem cell research, for example. As for the kinds of things you're describing, they seem pretty far-fetched, and I should like to read your source before I really form an opinion. I will say that I'd rather test on animals and potentially find treatments for diseases than not.

Answer 5

No such element. An atheist believes in NO god/desses. that could comprise Allah,Ganesh, Kali, Isis, Thor, Gaia, Danu, etc...maximum English speaking clientele are on right here and are raised Christian, yet i could say my morals & ideals are from a mix of empathy & society. i'm professional-selection, and so are many Xians and that i'm additionally vegetarian. The Bible is extremely contradictory. That complete 'no longer killing' element? a brilliant variety of Xians do no longer look to have a undertaking with production facility farms, the death penalty or going to conflict. And in case you study the OT, you do no longer ought to pass some distance to study some tale the place the 'chosen ones' are commanded to kill. There are over 30,000 Xian denom's obtainable...there's a reason.

Answer 6

Faulty human heart valves are routinely replaced with ones taken from cows and pigs. The surgery—which makes the recipient a human-animal chimera—is widely accepted.

All knowledge is good.

Religion is a disease of the mind born of fear that has done nothing but bring untold misery down upon the human race.

Answer 7

This does concern me. I don't think there is any real good that can come of this. I am very concerned about disease that may come from this.

If these are used to grow parts for humans then human will have animal parts transplanted into them.

Where I live there are many poultry farms. There have been reports of genetic altering chickens with human genes to get them to grow larger. There are many over three feet tall, chickens. This seem to be getting close to cannibalism. If this would be true.

However I do not really believe these chicken are so large because of human genes. It is more so because of additive in their feed.

From what I understand about mad cow disease it is because cattle are fed with cow parts in their feed. This extra protein causes them to grow faster. Cattle are not meant to eat meat. What could happen if humans would eat genetic human like meat in animals?

Answer 8

Well, moderate Christians would likely say someting along the lines of, "The potential risks and moral implications of such experiementation are why man should not attempt to play god."

The mere use of the term "god" does not render the basic implications of that statement illegitimate. It just means Christians (deists in general) actually have a way of voicing such concerns more succinctly within the contecxt of their faith.

I can already imagine a Christian fundie "proving" how the utterly blasphemous nature of such experimentation proves that the laws of genetics and biochemistry that allow such experiments to work must obviously be man-made (or worse)...

Answer 9

I am a bit troubled by this. Maybe I have just seen too many sci fi flicks, but it seems like its asking for problems. In particular I would worry about diseases crossing over, that is a disease that is only found in pigs adapting to humans. I am an atheist, by the way.

Answer 10

Amazing, isn't it.

Intelligent, highly educated scientists, using their brain power, have come up with a way to create a"chimera", a cross between a human and an animal.

And yet people still insist that it could happen by shere accident that we even exist in the first place!

Take the lead from these scientists, use your brains, and realize that our existence was no mere cosmic accident (matter, energy, space and time working in random chaos), but rather the results of an intelligent Creator.