The usual row errupted a couple days ago when the Pope was quoted as saying that (I'm paraphrasing) "some uses of biotechnology are incompatible with and diminish human dignity." Like having 3 genetic parents?
On a lighter note, if there's a divorce (a 3-way divorce?) none of them will pay child support.
Yeah, but the Dalai Lama does, in fact, make moral pronouncements. And people disagree with the Dalai Lama. But they seem to do it in ways that aren't so viscious, eh?
It is disheartening to see bigotry & hate speach alive & well on Slashdot. Here's another thought experiment. Try replacing the word "Catholic" with another group of your choice. Words and attitudes that are rightfully condemned in another context are suddenly permissible when speaking about Catholicism. What does THAT have to do with reason?
Lets try a thought experiment: pretent that the Dalai Lama had spoken the Pope's words. Are those words more or less palatible based on who says them?
You don't even need to be religious to see that the commodization of human life, to say nothing of unfettered transhumanism, are not, on their face, good things. Call me a pesimist, but I'm more with Bill Joy than Ray Kurzweil.
A final thought: if there was the slightest chance that, by a snap of the fingers, I could remove all the harm to others attributed to the Roman Catholic Church, I'd do it - and I'm Catholic. Unfortunately, none of the evils attributed to Catholicism in particular or religion in general would disappear. So the cause must be elsewhere.
If Venter and company royally screw-up, and create some bug that kills us all, or turns the biosphere to a pile of gray goo, nobody's going to make any money off of dandy, new, commoditized designer life forms. Where do I complain?
Slashdot Mirror
The usual row errupted a couple days ago when the Pope was quoted as saying that (I'm paraphrasing) "some uses of biotechnology are incompatible with and diminish human dignity." Like having 3 genetic parents?
On a lighter note, if there's a divorce (a 3-way divorce?) none of them will pay child support.
...or I'll yank that phone right out of your head!
Mary Shelley wrote a great book that way. Its not anachronistic to say the concerns she raised in Frankstein haven't remotely been dealt with yet.
Yeah, but the Dalai Lama does, in fact, make moral pronouncements. And people disagree with the Dalai Lama. But they seem to do it in ways that aren't so viscious, eh?
Oh, like our mothers did?
It is disheartening to see bigotry & hate speach alive & well on Slashdot. Here's another thought experiment. Try replacing the word "Catholic" with another group of your choice. Words and attitudes that are rightfully condemned in another context are suddenly permissible when speaking about Catholicism. What does THAT have to do with reason?
Lets try a thought experiment: pretent that the Dalai Lama had spoken the Pope's words. Are those words more or less palatible based on who says them?
You don't even need to be religious to see that the commodization of human life, to say nothing of unfettered transhumanism, are not, on their face, good things. Call me a pesimist, but I'm more with Bill Joy than Ray Kurzweil.
A final thought: if there was the slightest chance that, by a snap of the fingers, I could remove all the harm to others attributed to the Roman Catholic Church, I'd do it - and I'm Catholic. Unfortunately, none of the evils attributed to Catholicism in particular or religion in general would disappear. So the cause must be elsewhere.
If Venter and company royally screw-up, and create some bug that kills us all, or turns the biosphere to a pile of gray goo, nobody's going to make any money off of dandy, new, commoditized designer life forms. Where do I complain?