I tried to write a post about this before but it turned into a post about how we are gods.
When talking about GM food, cloning, stem cell research, etc some one will inevitably use a tired old cliché argument "your/they're playing god". They say these while they use computers made or metals that have been strip mined out of the earth with high explosives and large vehicles, plastics which are synthetic materials made from oil that was pumped out of the earth and made in large factories that use to be natural forests, grass lands and deserts wile eating food made from plants that have been so altered by selective breeding over many thousands of years can't even reproduce with out humans. Also: cars, roads, houses, apartments, mp3 players, televisions, video games, massive buildings, surgery and medicine.
If you can't tell, I 'm, calling those people hypocrites.
They will use the "playing god" against argument anything new, different or they just don't like. They will use it against abortion and contraception despite the long history of abortion and , they will use it against vaccines despite the fact that vaccination is biologically no different than catching a defective virus, etc.
Everything we are capable of doing from genetic engineering, to cloning, to dropping a seed in a hole we are capable of because of our brains and the tools we can build, if we were crated by a god, that god created us with th ability to make these tools and that god hasn't come down to complain about it.
Say we are playing god, is that wrong? The typical response would be "only God can play god". Why? Imagine if we could figure out how to grow meat in the laboratory in enough quantity to replace farming of animals, that is just as good s farmed meet and cheaper. Leg of lamb and lamb cops with out the dead lamb, veal with out a dead baby cow, pork chops, roast beef, filet mignon, barbecue ribs, even leather for your couch and jacket all produced in greater amounts, using less space and costs less. Imagine if we could grow replacement body parts. Lung cancer? We'll grow you new lungs. Liver failure? we'll grow you a new liver. Third degree burn? We'll grow you some new skin. Lost you arm in a traffic accident? We'll grow you a new arm. There are more examples of how "playing god" can make people's lives better and longer.
What if God doesn't care if we play god? What if it wants us too? What if it wants us to one day become gods? If a God exists it could want us you one day become gods equal to it. That could be it's ultimate plan for us.
"Playing God" is a stupid argument made by stupid people who have no logical reason to dislike what they use the argument against.
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I’ve always regarded “you are playing God” as another way of saying “you’re doing something that challenges our views on how things should be”.
Bet’s on that in a few decades no one will be talking about genetic engineering. By then people will probably be saying that engineers are playing God by creating self-aware, killer cyborgs. Oh wait. I don’t want that to happen either.