Stem Cell Research and medicine vs belief in God
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:26 am
I was wondering if people who believe in God might tend to think that since God is in charge, we don't need to worry about curing cancer. When I look at the evidence, it appears that God believers are just as concerned as others for finding cures to various inflictions of mankind. But is this rational? I mean, if God's in charge then why not have Him fix, or not have the problem happen in the first place?
I was thinking along these lines while trying to understand various ways one might look at the stem-cell issue. On the one hand we see people vehemently opposed to it onthe basis that it is mucking about with innocent human life and nothing is worth that. One might well ask why these same people are OK with humans that are incidentally killed as a result of war, inadequate health care, or even in accidents that could be prevented if we were to outlaw all automobiles. Extreme I know, but I'm just thinking along the lines of no benefit worth killing innocent humans (or embryos) as a side-effect.
On the other hand, we have the Bible clearly commanding the slaughter of innocent children with no medical benefits. And this killing of children wasn't even a byproduct of research or war. No, the innocent children were specifically targeted.
But somteimes I also wonder about those who do not believe in God. Why are they so passionate about it too? Many believers feel that if there is no God then you sholdn't worry about life at all. Non-believers demonstrate that they do not feel this way in general. In fact I find the idea of this life being worthless an ironic statement from believers. Do believers not agree that the next life is more important than conditions in this life?
Non-believers--do they fight for stem-cell research much more because they believe that we need to make this life as good as possible since one life is the only chance anyone has to live? Do they in some sense actually (and perhaps ironically) hold life more sacred than those who forbid embrionic stem-cell research as immoral?
I was thinking along these lines while trying to understand various ways one might look at the stem-cell issue. On the one hand we see people vehemently opposed to it onthe basis that it is mucking about with innocent human life and nothing is worth that. One might well ask why these same people are OK with humans that are incidentally killed as a result of war, inadequate health care, or even in accidents that could be prevented if we were to outlaw all automobiles. Extreme I know, but I'm just thinking along the lines of no benefit worth killing innocent humans (or embryos) as a side-effect.
On the other hand, we have the Bible clearly commanding the slaughter of innocent children with no medical benefits. And this killing of children wasn't even a byproduct of research or war. No, the innocent children were specifically targeted.
But somteimes I also wonder about those who do not believe in God. Why are they so passionate about it too? Many believers feel that if there is no God then you sholdn't worry about life at all. Non-believers demonstrate that they do not feel this way in general. In fact I find the idea of this life being worthless an ironic statement from believers. Do believers not agree that the next life is more important than conditions in this life?
Non-believers--do they fight for stem-cell research much more because they believe that we need to make this life as good as possible since one life is the only chance anyone has to live? Do they in some sense actually (and perhaps ironically) hold life more sacred than those who forbid embrionic stem-cell research as immoral?