Playing God, who said that's sinful?

[sno-man]

First artificial life 'within months'

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 6:42am BST 29/06/2007
From reading DNA to writing it Audio: Roger Highfield on the significance of the breakthrough
Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they turned one bacterium into another.


In a development that has triggered unease and excitement in equal measure, scientists in the US took the whole genetic makeup - or genome - of a bacterial cell and transplanted it into a closely related species.
This then began to grow and multiply in the lab, turning into the first species in the process.
The team that carried out the first “species transplant” says it plans within months to do the same thing with a synthetic genome made from scratch in the laboratory.
If that experiment worked, it would mark the creation of a synthetic lifeform.

The scientists want to create new kinds of bacterium to make new types of bugs which can be used as green fuels to replace oil and coal, digest toxic waste or absorb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
But this pioneering research also triggers unease about the limits of science and the inevitable fears about “playing god,” as well as raising the spectre that this technology could one day be abused to create a new generation of bioweapons.
Producing living cells from synthetic genomes of lab-made DNA would require the ability to move and manipulate whole genomes.
To that end, a milestone was passed today by a team led by Craig Venter, the first person to have his entire genetic makeup read, and which included the Nobel prizewinner Ham Smith.
Dr Venter said that, in the light of this success, the culmination of a decade’s work, he will be attempting the first transplant of a lab-made genome to create the first artificial life “within months.”
Dr Venter said: “We would hope to have the first fuel from synthetic organisms certainly within the decade, possibly within half that time.”
The breakthrough occurred at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, the team reports today in the journal Science.
One of its editors called it “a landmark in biological engineering.”
Since the 1970s, scientists have moved genes - instructions to make proteins - between different organisms.
But this marks the first time that the entire instruction set, consisting of more than a million “letters” of DNA, has been transplanted, transforming one species of bacterium into another.
They are attempting to build a microbe with the minimal set of genes needed for life, with the goal of then adding other useful genes, such as ones for making biofuels.
It recently submitted broad patents for methods to create a synthetic genome from such lab-made DNA.
In anticipation, the team wanted to develop a way to move a complete genome into a living cell, chosing the simplest and smallest kind, a bacterium.
In all, of the millions of bacteria that they tried the transplant on, it only worked one time in every 150,000.
Dr Venter likened it to “changing a Macintosh computer into a PC by inserting a new piece of software” and stressed it would be more difficult in other kinds of cells, which have enzymes to snip the DNA of invaders.
But he said to achieve the feat, without adding anything more than naked DNA, “is a huge enabling step.”
“This is a significant and unexpected advance,” commented Robert Holt of the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, Canada.
“It’s a necessary step toward creating artificial life,” added microbiologist Fred Blattner of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Antoine Danchin of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, calls the experiment “an exceptional technical feat.”
But he told Science “many controls are missing.” And that has prevented Glass’s team, as acknowledged by Ham Smith, from truly understanding how the introduced DNA reprograms the host cell.
“We are one step closer to synthetic organisms,” said Markus Schmidt of the Organisation for International Dialogue, Vienna.
He said the experiment will drive discussions about the safety issues related to synthetic biology and the implications for society.
Dr Venter stressed that the work had been halted for some time for a review to ensure it is ethical, though acknowledged concerns that synthetic biology could pave the way to new kinds of biowarfare.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=4SHVMBW02V3FNQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/06/28/nlife128.xml


Just some simple comparative thinking with the common notion made when stating, “playing god,”, to actual scriptures from the Bible (God's Word). I'll let you guys draw you own conclusions.

Psalm 82
 1God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.

 2How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

 3Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

 4Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

 5They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

 6I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

 7But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

 8Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

John 10:33-35 (King James Version)

 30I and my Father are one.

 31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

 32Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

 33The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

 34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

 35If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

 36Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

 37If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

 38But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

1 Corinthians 6:17
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Matthew 23:9
And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Genesis 3:21-23 (King James Version)

 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

 22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Genesis 9:6
"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.

Genesis 1:26
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

John 14:7
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

John 14:9
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?

Titus 2:12
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

John 5:19
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

John 14:12
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he (Christians or Church the body of Christ) do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

John 15:3-5 (Amplified Bible)

3You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].

    4Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

    5I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

17(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Romans 8:17
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (New King James Version)
1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

[Bloodlvst]

I like the twist on this. When you take that, it's almost liek the whole "eternal life" thing can be meant to say that as we progress we may eventually find a way to live forever, and that is the true "eternal life". This opens so many doors and new interpretations. It'll be interesting to see what other ways this info can be interpreted.