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Scientists Attempting to Create Simple Life Form
derubergeek writes "The Washington Post is reporting on an apparently credible project to create a simple life form in a petri dish. The goal is two-fold: 1) to actually create a unique life form essentially from scratch and (more importantly) 2) to extensively analyze and model the entire biology of this critter. Exciting and scary at the same time. From the article, it sounds as if they are quite wary of their project and fascinated at the same time. I usually refer to that sensation as 'That little voice that I should have listened to...'" There's also a NY Times article.
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Do we really need to go down that road? Does an advanced degree in biology give a person the right to do something so dangerous? Haven't we learned that somethings are better off left alone and that we should appreciate each moment we live? Does this seem incredibly foolish to anyone else?
...We've got other problems to look at first: cancer, AIDS, pollution, et al. Could we ever have too many scientists looking at these problems? Do we really need scientists wasting away captial on something as reckless as this?
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
The origins of Micheal are a little known subject but perhaps the following can shed some light on the issue:
Back in the 90's Micheal was born in the lab of a University in Michigan, a retarded chimpanzee, he was relagated to cleaning toliets with his face. The students liked to beat micheal, resulting in more brain damage, hence his "commentary" on stories.
One day, CmdrTaco, who hung out at the university because he wished he was a geek, found Micheal, and immediatly they became friends. Well, ok, CmdrTaco immediatly began ass raping the poor retard. After a couple a months of such abuse, CmdrTaco felt sorry for Micheal (read always wanted a retard chimp fuck buddy), and rescued him from the university. Eventually he employeed Micheal with slashdot, figuring his retard status gave him all the qualifications for a moderator.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise."
Psalm 111:10
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools [1] despise wisdom and discipline."
Proverbs 1:7
I'm a Christian myself, so I'm not going to jump on the "what's God got to do with it?" bandwagon.
But the Old Testament quotes you gave don't lead me to the conclusion that this is a Bad Thing.
Psalm 111:10 - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding" could be used by a scientist of faith to show how his/her success in the lab comes from following the way that God has shown.
Proverbs 1:7 - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline" would seem to be perfectly suited to science, where wisdom and discipline are highly revered.
You've given biblical quotes that would make a great cross-stitch sampler above the petri dish where Life, Jr. is peacefully sleeping.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Are you incapable of rational thought? Must you use the crap spewing out of hollywood as justification for your beliefs?
between the greater and lesser infinities sleep the dreams undreamt