Whose Ethics Guides Science?

No problem, I know you mean well and are just wanting to keep people/institutions honest.

I was at a talk this summer by Francis Collins at the ASA meeting. He talked for quite a while about CRISPR Cas9 and the opportunities there. He also shared some concerns he had about the boundaries of gene editing. We certainly see the usefulness of editing out the “bad” stuff in somatic cells, but for instance, is it ethical to edit germline cells without the permission or consent of the potential future person who could result from those cells? I think there is value in having people of all faith traditions (including secular humanists) carefully consider these issues. Dr. Collins talked about how having ethical constraints may slow us down (compared to countries that didn’t have such constraints) but that it was still important for society to ask those ethical questions.

I totally agree that quite often the “origins debate” has distracted people from more pressing issues. However, I do think in order to get more good done in the word as you have rightly pointed out, I would like to see as many Christian young people as have the aptitude and desire feel comfortable pursuing careers in science and medicine instead of thinking they must always choose between science and their faith. The more heads working together on the very real problems the better. My postdoc office-mate was socialist-leaning atheist, I was a Republican Christian. We had wonderful conversations, we learned a lot from each other and respected each other, and got some science done along the way :slight_smile: .

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I have heard this talk by Dr. Collins. I mostly agree. We do need to consider ethics in what science does. But it must be human ethics not religious ethics that must be considered.

I agree that everyone needs a science based education. While everyone doesn’t need to be scientists, everyone in the modern world we live in such understand rudimentary biology, chemistry and physics. And basically how things work. It really doesn’t matter what religion they belong to or don’t bellow to. But they need to realize that there is a real reason why there are more intense hurricanes now (and the reason isn’t SSM)

Dream on. It is the secular world that has the money and power now. Just watch the backlash in the mid-term elections. Secular humanism will defeat white older male Christian Fundamentalism. It is going to be fun to watch.