Transcript Biotechnology: A Theological View

BIOTECHNOLOGY
(A THEOLOGICAL VIEW)
A PRESENTATION
BY
PETER N. MURIITHI
2 Tim 3:16
Ps
1:2
THEO LOGY
(God)
(Study)
Theologians believe:
 All life is initiated and controlled by God.
BIO
(Life)
TECHNO
(design)
LOGY
(study)
Biotechnologists are “claiming” to know how to design life
This is seen as encroaching on the role of God.
 A human being is
PSYCHO
(Soul)
SOMATIC
(Body)
THEOLOGY deals with SOUL
SCIENCE deals with MATTER
If the two disciplines were to work together,
humanity would be wholistically satisfied
But unfortunately, they have never done it!
Virgin Birth (Parthenogenesis) - Galileo
Theologians work on faith on
a God they have not seen
Scientists work on matter they
do not understand the source
Hosea calls theologians fools
Psalms calls scientists fools
Scientists tell us that the earth was in existence 5
billion years ago
And that there was life on earth about 500 million
years ago
Ever since the creation of the world, his eternal power and
divine nature, invisible though they are, have been
understood and seen through the things HE has made
[Rom 1:20]
So what has God made?
• Powerful computers…
• Airplanes…
• Radar…
• Digital cameras…
• Sensitive microphones…
• Speakers…
• Fantastic Biochemical factory…
(Romans 1:20)
God is the greatest
Biotechnologist!!!
The story of Creation confirms that the universe
was not created on a whim but was a thought out
and planned orderly series of events
Plants before animals
(Photosynthesis)
Fish and birds before antelopes
figure “1” (era)
figure “7” (Ultimate. Perfection eternity)
Man is a designed creation.
“Let us make man in our image, in our
likeness”
The 2 important words are
Image
and Likeness
or Essence
Discuss on:
The first Test Tube
(Jeremiah
18)
baby
Jesus said that in heaven, there is no sexuality
So the first Adam, in the image of God was Asexual
This presented 2 major problems:
• Adam was seeing what the birds and bees were
doing and might be tempted to try it with a lion
• Because he was asexual, he could not multiply and
fill the world like the other animals
So it was back to the laboratory
It is at this stage that the sex chromosomes were
added
The result was two different people
Adam and Eve who are sexual
And humanity could reproduce
Eve says so when she bears her first Baby.
“I have produced a man with the help of the LORD." (Gen 4:1)
God made Humanity the Stewards
creation:
of His
“let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the wild animals of the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creeps upon the
earth." (Gen 1:26)
And from then on, God became Deus Absicaditus
But Humanity seemed to have acquired a gene
of rebellion
All scientists know that this can happen in any
laboratory (Biosafety rules!)
This gene seems to have got in during the time the
woman was being engineered
Even the first offspring Cain had the gene, and he
killed his brother Abel and the rebellion is
continuous up to date
God decided to make a people whom he would
teach and guide so that they could set the
standards for the rest of humanity (Canon)
He chose Abraham whose wife had gone
beyond the menopause Stage
• Despite leaders like Moses and Joshua and
the prophets, the Israelites were a failure
as the role model
• For the first Adam, burdened with an evil
heart, transgressed and was overcome, as
were also all who were descended from
him. [2 Esdras 3:21]
There was no clean source of tissue
from any descendant of Adam
The only perfect tissue had to come from God
Himself
So back to the laboratory again for a new
Adam who would not succumb to sin
Notice what the angel said to Mary,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child
to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of
God.” [Luke 1:35]
In this setting, Mary is not involved in the
conception
None of her genes enter into Jesus.
She is only the feeding vessel
This problem of the epistemology of Jesus was to
cause problems for many years, (and even today)
with many heresies
This led to the formulation of the Creed of Nicaea
in AD 325 in which the early church stated that
Jesus was both fully God and fully human
Jesus as God shows us what God wants humanity
to be and to do
Jesus as human shows us how we humans should
do the will of God
He cured mentally disturbed (Mathare)
He gave sight to the blind (Glasses)
Cured incurable diseases (Leprosy, TB, Cancer, AIDS,)
He fed the hungry (and food for export)
He taught us about the environment (birds and flowers)
He controlled storms (dykes)
Told us to pay taxes (coin in fish)
Taught us agriculture (the sower)
• BUT note the story of the fig tree
• Jesus fed both the soul and the body
• He was a Theologian and a Scientist
If Jesus was to be reborn in Kenya today, He
would be faced by a high population of
hungry people and a degraded environment
According to latest data by the Government, He
would have to feed more than 10 million people
but with only one fish and one loaf of bread.
And for the world one Billion according to FAO
estimates (June 2009)
He would also find a land of terrorists, Political
turmoil, Mungiki, kidnappings, drugs etc
What is Jesus demanding from us as Good
stewards?
"The first man, Adam, became a living
being";
The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
(1 Cor 15:45)
St. Paul, says “We are grafted (which is a
biotechnological phrase) to Jesus” who is the
second Adam (Romans 11: 17-21)
Through the first Adam, we have the body and
the scientists have to meet the needs of the body
like food, health, clothing, shelter
Through the second Adam, we have the Holy
Spirit and the theologians will preach peace,
joy, hope, faith, and forgiveness
BUT, one-sixth of the world's hungry and poor,
pose a "serious risk" to world peace and security
Note the Contradiction: Just 15 million people hungry
in the developed world (with abundant technology; In
sub-Saharan Africa: 265 million and limited technology
• No more arrogance from the scientists
• No more Sunday School Theology from
the theologians
SYNERGY
THANK YOU