Jurassic Park and Thomas
I have heard the phrase doubting Thomas all of my life but did not know the history behind it until recently. Thomas was an apostle of Christ who doubted the resurrection until he could actually feel the wounds. After seeing Jesus and touching his wounds, he professed his belief in Christ and the promise of His salvation. Thomas did not have the faith required to trust what Jesus had professed although he had seen Jesus perform miracle after miracle. The phrase doubting Thomas has come to mean the ultimate skeptic. He is a lot like Dr. Ian Malcolm from the movie Jurassic Park.
For those few people who have not seen Jurassic Park, it is about creating a family theme park using live dinosaurs. Where did they get live dinosaurs? They were cloned using the DNA extracted from insects trapped in amber. Amber is the hardened sap of a tree that the insect became stuck in after biting the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago. The dinosaurs included the T-Rex, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, a host of other less known dinosaurs, and the villain of the show, the Velociraptor. The owner of the park must get three experts to agree that the park is ready to go before they will approve the opening. Once the experts get to the park, everything starts to go wrong and chaos ensure. The dinosaurs get loose and the “raptors” start hunting down the humans. All through the film, Ian Malcolm expresses his doubts about the viability of the park. He becomes the self fulfilling prophet that watches everything he is thinking become reality. The rest of the cast is so amazed at the technology that they cannot see beyond the wonders of living dinosaurs. Dr. Malcolm says something like, “Just because you can do something does not mean that you should do something.” There in lies the crux of the biscuit.
The human race is at a cross roads where we are slowly gaining the technological know how to alter the course of our future. Test tube babies were the start of creating families for people that were not capable of making them the old fashion way. Nothing too out of the ordinary other than man is stepping in to assist in God’s miracle. It happens every day. Now we have cracked the genetic code and are producing plants with specific characteristics. Again, where is the harm in producing plants that are more weed resistant, drought resistant, grow quicker, have more nutrients, or any other characteristic that provides a positive for humanity. But what is to prevent man from tinkering with himself. Do we want a boy or a girl? What physical characteristics do we want? Intelligence? Athletic prowess? Musical ability? Where would it stop? The ability to manipulate genes holds great potential to cure disease and improve the lives of millions of people. Like Dr. Malcolm, I question the need to go full speed ahead into the unproven technology no matter how promising. I do not think that it should remain unexplored. I do not see the impending doom that Dr. Malcolm predicted. I just feel that when you deal with life, when you can play with the building blocks of life, you need to ensure that you consider the consequences of your actions before act. I don’t need to see the holes I the body to know that miracles are possible.
Icool
Cobb
For those few people who have not seen Jurassic Park, it is about creating a family theme park using live dinosaurs. Where did they get live dinosaurs? They were cloned using the DNA extracted from insects trapped in amber. Amber is the hardened sap of a tree that the insect became stuck in after biting the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago. The dinosaurs included the T-Rex, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, a host of other less known dinosaurs, and the villain of the show, the Velociraptor. The owner of the park must get three experts to agree that the park is ready to go before they will approve the opening. Once the experts get to the park, everything starts to go wrong and chaos ensure. The dinosaurs get loose and the “raptors” start hunting down the humans. All through the film, Ian Malcolm expresses his doubts about the viability of the park. He becomes the self fulfilling prophet that watches everything he is thinking become reality. The rest of the cast is so amazed at the technology that they cannot see beyond the wonders of living dinosaurs. Dr. Malcolm says something like, “Just because you can do something does not mean that you should do something.” There in lies the crux of the biscuit.
The human race is at a cross roads where we are slowly gaining the technological know how to alter the course of our future. Test tube babies were the start of creating families for people that were not capable of making them the old fashion way. Nothing too out of the ordinary other than man is stepping in to assist in God’s miracle. It happens every day. Now we have cracked the genetic code and are producing plants with specific characteristics. Again, where is the harm in producing plants that are more weed resistant, drought resistant, grow quicker, have more nutrients, or any other characteristic that provides a positive for humanity. But what is to prevent man from tinkering with himself. Do we want a boy or a girl? What physical characteristics do we want? Intelligence? Athletic prowess? Musical ability? Where would it stop? The ability to manipulate genes holds great potential to cure disease and improve the lives of millions of people. Like Dr. Malcolm, I question the need to go full speed ahead into the unproven technology no matter how promising. I do not think that it should remain unexplored. I do not see the impending doom that Dr. Malcolm predicted. I just feel that when you deal with life, when you can play with the building blocks of life, you need to ensure that you consider the consequences of your actions before act. I don’t need to see the holes I the body to know that miracles are possible.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
6:26 AM
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