Unnatural Selection III: A Firecracker in Church

When I say unnatural order in the title I mean the act of arranging the members of a set into a sequence or order incorrectly, or, if the set is already ordered, rearranging (reordering) its elements—in a process that is against the nature. Not all alterations are unnatural though. Some of the reordering by those that biohack are attempts to restore the natural order use of the genetic code. Healing blindness, removing disease from human, animal and insect I view as healing or restoration. 

Attempting to create a monstrosity though…is very much unnatural and driven by unnatural desires (akin to Romans 1). So the word unnatural in my series title refers more to the effects of the Fall on Creation in Genesis 3. Healing from genetics in these posts is man taking dominion over Creation and attempting to reverse the Fall's effects on life.

The whole idea of gene modification just screams of Genesis 6, the Nephilim and the ‘Days of Noah’. It simultaneously makes me stare in wonder at the things we might be able to cure and the suffering we could prevent as a human collective. There appears to be positive medical therapies being created to reverse disease in biohacks /genetic manipulation. Additionally, my aforementioned thought needs to be tempered with the opposite. Could we could be creating Frankenstein, genetic Chimera and open Pandora’s Box? A mutated strain or Superflu created by unleashing genetic modifications into nature and species which end up becoming permanent? If biological data is released in the form DNA into a biosphere or environment, it’s no different than information released on the Internet. Once disseminated, it can’t be rescinded as it will automatically reproduce. Copies of copies. The bullet only launches in one direction once it leaves the gun.

The possibility that things may not go as planned or may even have unintended negative consequences in genetic manipulation is one of the main fears around emerging genetic technologies — some of these technologies have little scientific evidence to back them. Science (or lack of it) is literally lighting a firecracker and throwing it in church. That worry tends to be especially pronounced when it’s not experts in labs who are using the tech, but hackers. People who experiment on their own bodies outside the realm of traditional medicine with the hope of boosting their physical or cognitive performance.

I guess from a Biblical standpoint the first thing that comes to mind for me as a theologically minded person is that God created things according to their ‘kind’s in Genesis 1 and 2. God made a very clear order and categorized things. He determined there was a natural order and use of things. From the use of one’s body all the way down to species and kinds. Genetics blurs these lines and categorization. In some cases, eliminates them completely. As I’ve learned so many times studying the Bible, God’s order must be maintained. Obedience. Once this is strayed from sin occurs and the natural order decays.

So restoring order is not necessarily a sin. Creating disorder and discord is.

I’m not so much going to concern myself with the unethical behavior of Big Pharma charging a family a million dollars to try to cure their son’s blindness or the rogue ‘biohacker’ in a backyard shed in Texas trying to make glow-in-the-dark dogs. I am more interested in the holistic picture or asking the theological/ethical question(s): 

Should we be doing it? For health? For cure? For cosmetics? For vanity? For profit? 

I am trying to stick to biblical/theological lines. Let the bio-ethicists argue nuances of how and when. Let activists fear-monger. I want to deal with ‘if’, ‘why’ and ‘should/shouldn’t’. As I’ve already alluded to, I don't believe all genetic ‘tinkering’ is unbiblical.  I believe in many cases reactions are just that, reactions, not reasoning. We need to bring our Theology up to meet the mounting ethical demands of genetics and biohacking. The future is now. If not, I fear we miss a tremendous opportunity to show the Gospel is indeed relevant for another technological leap forward. And thereby another step upward and forward is squandered.

We need to have a valid biblical commentary when people ask. "Why?" or "Why not?" I want to have a Scriptural response to the question not a knee-jerk reaction the Church is often prone to when confronted with a new bewildering technology they barely understand let alone have a theological position on.