Today’s Devotional Theme
Crashing Down
Daily Scripture
Genesis 11:6-8
“And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So theLord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.”
Encouragement
“NIH plans to lift ban on research funds for part human, part animal embryos” was the first headline out of the newscaster’s mouth on today’s evening news on the venue I listen to. That stuff alarms me. Biological science is edging ever closer to being able to engineer a mouse by building a genetic complement from scratch. From mouse to…? Genetic engineering took a huge leap forward with the development around 1990 of a technique called CRISPR. In a nutshell, it enables a researcher to cut out a section from a strand of DNA and replace it with a different piece, potentially made up of DNA of the researcher’s choosing. CRISPR is by no means a perfect gene editing technique, but it’s far more precise than what they had before it came along. Pick up any biological or medical journal today and you’ll see prominently displayed ads for kits to apply CRISPR. Practically any scientist who knows how to use these widely available kits can now build a partially artificial gene. Now that the National Institute of Health (NIH), by far the biggest funder of biological science, has opened the floodgates for funds, we’ll hear more and more reports of genetic engineering in the popular news venues. “Part human”? Look out!
Take Action!
Admittedly, that’s not a very encouraging “Encouragement.” Take heart. We have Bible precedent for God’s never allowing a totally artificial string of genes to come to life in a synthetic organism. In any case, several decades of further research stands between the present and any attempt to build an animal. Now look at today’s scripture. God took away the people’s ability to communicate with one another, and they had to abandon the city and tower of Babel, leaving behind an unfinished skeleton. I hold a view that God will do a similar thing if mankind ever stands on the verge of creating an artificial flesh-and-blood man.
Come into His Presence
Lord God, I’m confident that you’ll never let become real a scary scenario like a group of researchers create totally artificial life. You’re still God on the throne! In Jesus’ name amen.
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