In the UK right now, the government is debating allowing scientists to create human/animal hybrids so that they might harvest organs. The Church has argued against the morality of this. Scientists have called the Church “anti-science.” ref
People in the US who claim to represent “reason” have joined the attack on the Church. They seem to think that Christians do not understand science. ref
The problem is not that the Church and people of faith do not understand science. The problem is that these people of “reason’ want to act unreasonably. They forget to ask an important question. They see that we can do something, but forget to ask should we do it. We of faith have no problem with the fact that these things can be done. The problem is that they should not be done. Creating new “creatures” that are in part human for any purpose is immoral - it fails to respect the dignity of human life. To create a human life - and this life is at least part human - simply to destroy it is, at its base, evil.
A bishop was criticized for calling this type of science reminiscent of Frankenstein. The bishop was criticized as being anti-science for this. But I think the bishop was too soft. In the story, Frankenstein merely robbed graves in an attempt to play God. In real life, these modern mad scientists want to create a new monster from different creatures so that they can then destroy it. Frankenstein’s fictional fault was not nearly as great as the one these scientists want to make real.
It speaks volumes that there are those who would attack the Church, the real voice of reason. The voice that holds up the stop sign in front of danger. The voice that warns of the icebergs looming ahead of this titanic course. That these people who purport to represent “reason” lack a sense of morality tells me that society already has plenty of monsters. But while these monsters have always been with us, the tools of modern science make them all the more dangerous and make the need for us to stand against them all the more urgent.
