Post by Bret Walker on Jul 25, 2003 10:59:42 GMT -5
I suppose I can understand the recent flap over human cloning. Who would want a clone of Uday and Qusay Hussein running around? Or a clone of Hitler, Stalin, or - God forbid - Christ. It's a sacrelige! It's playing God! It's dabbling in realms where human beings don't belong!!!
It's bullshit.
Anyone with a spiritual attitude will tell you that the human body is merely a shell, a host vessel, a place to hang our hats. The true nature of human existence is derrived from the soul, not from the body. Cloning a body will give you an identical vessel, but you cannot clone a soul. The soul will come from wherever souls come from. Whatever you believe - that the soul originates in Heaven, or that reincarnation perpetuates the lifeforce that is the soul, or even that the soul is born and dies with the body - you must understand that it's impossible to clone the soul. The body is merely a collection of cells in a complex organism. The organism needs replenishment through nourishment, and it needs to cleanse itself through the expulsion of waste. Without the soul, the body is merely a series of chemical and biological reactions.
It's the soul that sets animate objects appart from inanimate objects. And if the soul is a guest in the body, then certainly the soul can be governed by the physical principals governing the body. If the body is damaged in any way, the soul is limited in its function. Hence, when a person is of diminished mental capacity, the soul is only allowed to feel and experience life as well as the body can afford. It is because of this that I believe that all souls, no matter what form of body they inhabit, are identical in their lifeforce and inherent abilities. But it is the body, and particularly the brain, that dictates the souls ability to cope in the physical realm. A dog's soul is the same as a human's soul; a fish's soul is the same as an amoeba's soul. But it is the physical limitations of the body that decides what life is like for the soul.
So when you get to the level of human thought and reasoning, the advanced nature of our brains, it stands to reason that the paths we may take in our lives are limitless, and every turn we make in our lives offer another set of infinite possibilities ahead of us.
It is this path that we take that decides the kind of person we are, the decisions we make every day define us. It is not our cellular structure that makes us who we are, but our souls and the decisions our souls make during the course of our lives.
Hence, to clone a body is to merely offer another vessel to host another soul. It's not a form of resurrection, or duplication of another person. A clone will share the same cell structure as that of the body from which it was cloned. But it certainly cannot share its soul.
Yes, I can certainly understand the flap over human cloning, but I certainly don't agree with it. There are some ethical questions that must be asked, however. For instance, is it ethical to create a clone in order to harvest healty body organs when one's own organs have failed? I think not. Again, you've created a vessel for another soul, and you are stealing that soul's organs, not harvesting your own.
To be honest, I can't think of any reasons why human cloning would be a necessity in society. But I also cannot think of any reasons why it should be banned.
It's bullshit.
Anyone with a spiritual attitude will tell you that the human body is merely a shell, a host vessel, a place to hang our hats. The true nature of human existence is derrived from the soul, not from the body. Cloning a body will give you an identical vessel, but you cannot clone a soul. The soul will come from wherever souls come from. Whatever you believe - that the soul originates in Heaven, or that reincarnation perpetuates the lifeforce that is the soul, or even that the soul is born and dies with the body - you must understand that it's impossible to clone the soul. The body is merely a collection of cells in a complex organism. The organism needs replenishment through nourishment, and it needs to cleanse itself through the expulsion of waste. Without the soul, the body is merely a series of chemical and biological reactions.
It's the soul that sets animate objects appart from inanimate objects. And if the soul is a guest in the body, then certainly the soul can be governed by the physical principals governing the body. If the body is damaged in any way, the soul is limited in its function. Hence, when a person is of diminished mental capacity, the soul is only allowed to feel and experience life as well as the body can afford. It is because of this that I believe that all souls, no matter what form of body they inhabit, are identical in their lifeforce and inherent abilities. But it is the body, and particularly the brain, that dictates the souls ability to cope in the physical realm. A dog's soul is the same as a human's soul; a fish's soul is the same as an amoeba's soul. But it is the physical limitations of the body that decides what life is like for the soul.
So when you get to the level of human thought and reasoning, the advanced nature of our brains, it stands to reason that the paths we may take in our lives are limitless, and every turn we make in our lives offer another set of infinite possibilities ahead of us.
It is this path that we take that decides the kind of person we are, the decisions we make every day define us. It is not our cellular structure that makes us who we are, but our souls and the decisions our souls make during the course of our lives.
Hence, to clone a body is to merely offer another vessel to host another soul. It's not a form of resurrection, or duplication of another person. A clone will share the same cell structure as that of the body from which it was cloned. But it certainly cannot share its soul.
Yes, I can certainly understand the flap over human cloning, but I certainly don't agree with it. There are some ethical questions that must be asked, however. For instance, is it ethical to create a clone in order to harvest healty body organs when one's own organs have failed? I think not. Again, you've created a vessel for another soul, and you are stealing that soul's organs, not harvesting your own.
To be honest, I can't think of any reasons why human cloning would be a necessity in society. But I also cannot think of any reasons why it should be banned.