Theological Concerns about Biotechnology

1
Theological Concerns about Biotechnology

• Core 218
• Spring 2007

2
Religion Biotechnology Main Topics

• Why be concerned about science and religion?
• Religious and secular reasoning
• The nature of religious belief and practice
• The practical and ritual dimension
• The experiential and emotional dimension
• The narrative or mythic dimension
• The doctrinal and philosophical dimensions
• The ethical and legal dimension
• The social and institutional dimension
• The material dimension

3
What Does Religion Have to do With Biotechnology?

• Secular and religious approaches to deciding what
  is right
• What distinctive claims do religions make to
  knowing what is right and wrong?
• Natural law
• Religious understanding of the creation
• Leave well enough alone
• Exploitation for human ends
• Stewardship/mutuality
• Co-creation

4
How Does Religion Deal With Biotechnology?

• Religious approaches to genetic engineering
• Rejection
• Caution
• Acceptance with caveats

5
Does Religion Have a Role?

• Two main answers
• Surveys show that majority of people believe in
  God, and such beliefs influence what people think
  about biotechnology
• All of the worlds religions have teachings about
  creation and human nature (intelligent selection
  vs natural selection?)

6
Religious and Secular Ethical Reasoning Is
there a connection?

• Must one be religious to be ethical?
• A lesson from Platos Euthyphro
• Do the gods love holiness because it is holy or
  is it holy because they love it?
• Do your parents approve of this action because it
  is right (independent agency)?
• Is it right because your parents approve of it
  (parents whim)?

7
What is the nature of religious belief and
practice?

• Seven dimensions
• Ritual and practice
• Experience and emotion
• Narrative and myth
• Doctrine, orthodoxy, theology, philosophy
• Ethics and law
• Social and institutional structure
• Materialplaces of worship

8
How do we know what is right? Secular and
religious approaches

• Traits
• The right thing to do cannot depend on ones own
  point of view
• The right thing to do cannot depend on an
  arbitrary choice, decision, or prejudice
• Most theories of ethics subscribe to equality as
  a principle
• Moral rules must be universal (apply to everyone
  the same)
• People have duties that are obligatory even if
  their own interests are not served by performing
  them
• Do not harm others

9
What distinctive claims does religion make about
ethics?

• Religions refer to sacred scriptures for guidance
• Religions have teachings and traditions assembled
  over many years
• Religions usually claim that the conscience has
  some divine justification

10
Divine Law and Natural Law

• Divine Law is said to be revealed in scripture
  and writings
• Natural Law is said to be revealed in what God
  has created, that is, in nature
• Nature is created by God, and God is wholly good
  therefore, his creation is wholly good
  therefore, look to nature to understand the good
• Objection Naturalistic fallacy

11
Divine Law and Natural Law

• Natural Law is said to be revealed in what God
  has created, that is, in nature
• The original creation was wholly good, but is now
  corrupted or fallen therefore, we can still gain
  insights into how things ought to be
• Objection What independent means do we have to
  discern the pure from the corrupt?

12
Divine Law and Natural Law

• What independent means do we have to discern the
  pure from the corrupt?
• Rational thought and the independence of human
  consciencea Christian interpretation
• God made human beings in His image
• God does not have a human body
• Humans must resemble God in spirit and
  understanding
• The resemblance in spirit and understanding
  permits us to understand Gods laws
• God made the world in an ordered way
• God gave all of us (religious or not) the power
  to understand it using our reason and
  intelligence
• Therefore, all people are required to think
  carefully about what it is right to do
• So, one need not be religious to be ethical

13
Religion and Creation

• What should be the human role in creation?
• Leave well enough alonedont play God
• Objection What is so special about
  biotechnology? Isnt it playing God to practice
  any kind of medicine or to create any new
  technology or to make new breeds of plants?

14
Religion and Creation

• Is nature created for humans to use and exploit?
• Christianity It is Gods will that humans
  exploit nature for proper ends
• Hinduism All life is sacred humans have a
  great responsibility to the Earth
• Judaism No one has unconditional rights to
  land all land belongs to the Lord man is Gods
  steward
• Buddhism Teaches the interdependence of all
  nature

15
Religion and Creation

• Should we think of ourselves as co-creators of
  the natural world?
• Our scientific understanding of the universe
  shows that creation is an ongoing process
• Humans are creations of God
• Humans have been given the power to intervene and
  have changed the course of nature for the past
  several thousand years
• Therefore, we are co-creators with God
• Objection This overstates the human role

16
Religious Approaches to Biotechnology

• Rejection
• Caution
• Acceptance with limitations

17
Religious Approaches to Biotechnology

• Why do some religious people reject
  biotechnology?
• It gives humans too much power over animals,
  causing more cruelty, ignoring their rights to
  live a good life
• It involves too much exploitation of naturea
  violence against ecology
• It clashes with their understanding of Gods plan

18
Religious Approaches to Biotechnology

• Why do many religious people respond with a
  warning to be cautious?
• Biotechnology increases our concerns about
  existing ethical issues
• Treating people as mere things (sum of genes)
  versus seeing them as unique living beings
• Tensions about accepting people as they are and
  making them better (cf. plastic surgery)
• Tensions about privacy of individuals and needs
  of society
• Tensions about wealth and poverty

19
Religious Approaches to Biotechnology

• What reasons do some religious people give for
  accepting biotechnology with limitations?
• Biotechnology can be seen as an attempt to
  restore the world to its original state of
  goodness
• It should be used to eliminate harmful genetic
  mutations and reduce suffering