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kleinbl00  ·  4837 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Cloning - Human cloning - why so taboo?
Cloning taboo comes from the same place as Golem, the same place as RUR, the same place as Frankenstein's Monster. We view the creation of other beings to be akin to magic - you have sex, you wait, and there's a new soul there, borne of blood, pain and miracles.

Cloning taboo speaks to the same innate feelings as the abortion debate - you're "interrupting the miracle" to coin a phrase. Many people would say "playing God."

Otto von Bismarck had a phrase: "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." The cloning taboo strips away the miracle, strips away the blood and strips away the pain and illustrates that we are not made of stardust, we are made of water, trace minerals, lipids and starch, arranged by an information-rich organic molecule. Any sort of genetic engineering, no matter how rudimentary, essentially screams "there is no God." Through simple anthropomorphism, Dolly the Sheep becomes a Death's Head: "If a bespectacled nerd with a brogue can build a sheep, how miraculous can your existence be?"

Darwin was controversial. So was Galileo. Discontinuity is always painful and the notion that people could be designed and replicated is abhorrent to anyone with a gnostic sensibility about their origins.

Percentage of Americans who believe there is no god: 7.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/147887/americans-continue-believe...

Percentage of Americans who believe Elvis is alive and walking the earth: 8.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,60353,00.html

You get all GATTACA on these guys, you're gonna get grief.